Another season of failure will not wash
VILLA were hoping May 7 would be their date with destiny – but, instead, it is Brighton, Sunday’s opponents at Villa Park, who have made it into the Premier League.
Steve Bruce’s side effectively waved goodbye to an immediate return to the promised land during their winter wobble.
Despite their second coming in spring, the damage had already been done by the time a 1-1 draw at Burton mathematically ended their play-off hopes.
Another season of failure will not wash at Villa Park. Owner Dr Tony Xia, chief executive Keith Wyness and Bruce have all got designs on reaching the top flight next season.
But before they can put the wheels in motion to becoming 2018’s Brighton or Newcastle, questions need to be answered during the close season. Ivory Coast international, his future needs to be resolved quickly. Derby and Sheffield Wednesday, both of whom like to play possession football from the back.
Bruce will be relishing getting his players back for pre-season so he can work with them for six weeks and develop a plan for every eventuality that might crop up during next season’s Championship marathon.
The manager revealed on Friday he would like to get as many as 13 players off the books this summer. The bulk of those outgoings are expected to come in the form of players out on loan.
Carles Gil, Jordan Veretout, Carlos Sanchez, Pierluigi Gollini, Aly Cissokho, Ross McCormack and Aaron Tshibola cost the club a combined £40 million but are all playing their football away from Villa Park.
The difficulty Villa face is recouping the money spent on them, particularly McCormack, who cost £12 million last summer and has only scored four goals since.