What future for Villa? – Football Economy

Aston Villa effectively secured Premiership survival with their win over Hull City yesterday. But what is the future for the club? Do they have a strategy that will enable them to tap into the potential to be the leading club in the Midlands?

Of course, Midlands football is in a sorry state, notwithstanding Wolves winning League 1. Birmingham City survived by the skin of their teeth yesterday. West Bromwich Albion will end up not far above the relegation zone.

The Times suggested yesterday that Villa have a long-term structural crisis. It commented, ‘This is a club in the grip of chronic drift. A kindly observer might suggest Villa are standing still as all around them move forward … without a change in policy, gravity is going to catch up with them. Villa have been sleepwalking for four years. They are heading for the abyss.’

Randy Lerner brought to an end the years of Doug Ellis. But Lerner seems to have lost his enthusiasm and appears to be seeking a way out, if one can be found. However, he has sanctioned a £40m net spend in Lambert’s two years at the club.

During the O’Neill years, £80m was spent on transfer fees in four years and at one point the wage bill reached the £80m mark. The objective was to get into the Champions League, but what O’Neill delivered were three consecutive sixth place finishes.

Villa lost £51.8m in their most recent publicly available accounts, a figure Robin Russell, the club’s chief financial officer, described as ‘closing a chapter on a period of heavy losses.’ The wage bill is down to £72m. Agents know that anyone wanting more than £40ka week need not look at Villa.

So the project appears to be cut the wage bill, reduce the losses, stay in the Premier League. It looks like a recipe for a continuing relegation struggle. It is certainly not a strategy for success.