Warning - May Contain Traces Of Football

If that isn't the subtitle of this year's Aston Villa season DVD, then it should be.  For this has been soccer Jim, but not as we know it.

Yesterday saw the end of an error, with the great and the good of B6 finally seeing sense - or maybe just stringing out for good timing effect - and getting rid of Alex McLeish.  Sure, there have been mitigating circumstances.  The wage bill of the O'Neill era - which brought great football but no real success - was proving crippling, and wasn't helped by worthy but financially disastrous sideshows like charity shirt sponsorships and pub refurbs, all of which now smack of Lerner buying the fans' affections.  So, big names had to go.  Milner had already gone the season before, which appears to have been the impetus for MON to throw his dummy in the dirt when the promised transfer war chest was sunk - not for the first time either, eh Norwich fans. So it was inevitable that further big sales would go through, and so Ashley Young and Downing went, to be replaced by the relatively cut-price N'Zogbia who, despite impressing for Wigan in the previous season, was never going to be an adequate replacement for two wide midfielders.

And yes, we've had players unavailable for long periods.  Dunne, Bent, Petrov, not to mention Jenas whose loan spell didn't even get started, and McLeish can't be blamed for those.  Neither can he be blamed for his signings, with the notable exception of Hutton, probably the worst right-back to pull on a Villa shirt since Darius Kubicki, but again he was a cheaper option than keeping Luke Young on.  N'Zogbia has been solid if uninspiring, while Given must be wondering what he has to do to become the fans' player of the year.  It's certainly far more down to him than Stephen Ireland that we are still playing Premiership football next season.  And McLeish can take the credit for bringing in Robbie Keane for a couple of months in which we actually looked capable of scoring goals and winning games.

But the poor guy was onto a loser from the start.  Notwithstanding the fact that he came fresh from over the other side of town, which in the eyes of some of the Holte End meant he could have won every game until the Second Coming and still not curried any favour, the fact that the paint hadn't dried on his second relegation in three years in spite of winning a major trophy sent alarm bells ringing across Aston.  Arguably he may have felt he wasn't particularly wanted anyway - he was seventh on Lerner's list, even lower than Steve MacLaren who had been shooed away when the fans rumbled discontent at the prospect.  But equally, he may have felt it was his best opportunity of employment, and in principle it was a three-year deal, better then his successor at St Andrews got.  No compunction to overstretch in the first year in order to convince the top brass to keep him on, drop in words like 'transitional' in post-match interviews, Rab's Yer Uncle.

Much as Villa fans listen to anything that the blue half of the city says, they got the message from the start that Eck was a purveyor of negative football.  Yes they won the Carling Cup, but mostly as a result of a strong rearguard action - if we're honest, their Wembley win owed a lot to stout defending and a couple of lucky breaks.  Good luck to them, that's how we won it against Man United in 1994.  This should have been the season where, depleted by big-name sales and relatively few newcomers, pereviously promising players like Bannan, Delfouneso and Albrighton should have been given an extended run in the side and the opportunity to express themselves, gain regular big-game experience and learn how to pace themselves - Albrighton in particular, who showed patches of brilliance but didn't always sustain through 90 minutes.  I remember similar accusations being levelled at a young Dwight Yorke.

But those three in particular have been, in the main, sidelined.  Some of the young players such as Herd and Clarke have grabbed the opportunity and increased their stock, but Bannan and Albrighton have been reduced mainly to the sub's bench, while Fons was pointlessly loaned out to Leicester.  This left us with pretty limited attacking options, with Ireland and N'Zogbia filling in the wide roles.  In fact, the number of times players have been played out of position this season has left us wondering whether McLeish actually knew where half of his squad were supposed to play.

No wonder the football has been turgid.  No shape, no structure, no game plan.  The stats speak for themselves: worst home record ever, no goals scored from corners, only two games won after going 1-0 down.  Three away wins, two of which were against relegated clubs.  Okay, the third was a stunningly incongruous 3-1 win at Chelsea, but that's not enough to outweigh the negatives.  A pretty indefensible record for a club that three years ago was knocking on the Champions League door.

We've been here before of course - back in 1994-5, two seasons after - for my money - the best season I've ever seen (typified by Dalian Atkinson's wonder goal away to Wimbledon) and one season after besting Man U in the Coca-Cola Cup, we went to Norwich City for the last game needing a point to stay up.  Sounds horribly familiar.  However, that time Brian Little had taken over and the next season brought about changes that led to further good times.  Ironically the front runner to take up Lerner's poisoned chalice is the boss of the renovated Norwich, who we condemned to second tier football on that day.  We can only hope that a change at the helm can herald a new era, though whoever comes in will have an uphill battle and may need to do some canny shopping around.

There were times this season when you wondered if we would ever score again.  Even in the dark days of Josef Venglos and David O'Dreary there was hope.  By the end of this season everybody just seemed to want it over, done with and forgotten about, and the manager got shot of.  I don't expect the DVD to be a big seller.