Premiership Betting Preview – Aston Villa
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Aston Villa: Proud History – Bright Future
After a year in charge of Aston Villa the jury is still out on whether Martin O’Neill can resurrect the fortunes of a club that were Champions of Europe in 1982. The club have celebrated the 25 year anniversary of that glorious victory using the tag-line “Proud History – Bright Future” and linked to a big push for season-ticket sales. Twenty-year old Gabriel Agbonlahor is the poster-boy of the campaign, and though he enjoyed a break-through season, Villa finished mid-table and were eliminated early in both domestic Cups, while PinnacleSports.com rate Villa 102.52 to become shock winners in their Premiership betting market.
O’Neill was cautious about the scale of the task, but Villa fans were expectant given the excellent track record of their new manager and the promise of a large transfer budget courtesy of US tycoon, Randy Lerner, who took over the club in September 2006. Lerner has so far taken a back-seat with the club, concentrating on business issues such as new kit deal with Nike and sealing a new shirt sponsorship deal which would release transfer funds. However, fans are restless for some signs of ambition to justify the ‘bright future.’
The Villans started and finished last season well, but experienced a worrying slump in between. The club enjoyed its longest unbeaten run to a Premiership season, lasting until 28th October, while O’Neill picked up the Manager of the Month award for April, with Villa ending the season with a nine-game unbeaten run. Lerner did bankroll the mid-season signings of forwards John Carew from Lyon, and Ashley Young from Watford, providing extra strength to attack, but clearly the pair needed time to adjust as Villa went a dozen games in all competitions without a win from Mid-November until Mid-January, thereby ending all aspirations for the season.
Aston Villa may have finished 11th in the Premiership but they still harboured an outside chance of making into Europe, via the Fair Play award, but unfortunately the ballot admitted clubs from Finland and Norway. So far they have yet to capture any of the big names that the tabloids have linked them with while off-loading several players with a number of years of service at the club – Juan Pablo Angel, Lee Hendrie, J Lloyd Samuel and Gavin McCann.
Martin O’Neill is widely respected by his peers, and currently enjoys the support of Aston Villa fans, but they will want to see transfer action and enough improvement on the field to challenge for Europe. Despite his reputation, in the absence of solid signings, O’Neill may struggle in such a competitive league, to give the club the success its fans crave with his current squad.
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