Villa have gone from a fantastic muddle to a brilliant middle

THE criticism I gave Dean Smith and John Terry last season was justified.

Aston Villa ended the campaign with 35 points and a goal difference of -26.

A rotten return which would have seen them relegated in 13 of the 23 seasons since the Premier League was cut to 20 teams.

The points total was on Smith, while the fact they could not defend for toffee was on JT.

Credit to the two of them, th en , th at Vi l l a , h av i n g survived the drop by the skin of their teeth in July, have made such a fine start to this season. Four wins from four is not to be sniffed at, and the fact they could go top on Friday with a victory over Leeds is remarkable.

But the man who deserves the most praise right now is the new sporting director, Johan Lange.

Getting rid of Suso, the previous incumbent, was the right thing to do by Villa. He was rubbish and if you ou have a rubbish sporting director he will make e rubbish signings.

Lange (right) has recruited very, very well and Matty Cash, h,

O l li e Watkins, R oss o ss Barkley and Emiliano Martinez are all 9/10 signings.

Barkley and Martinez, in particular – and I’m happy to say my reservations about the

latter have gone already. I wasn’t sure why someone who wasn’t good enough to be Arsenal’s No.1 at a time when they didn’t have a brilliant goalkeeping roster would be good enough for the job at Villa. But h e has b een exceptional and all those Gooners who told me he was just unlucky look to have been right. As for Barkley, he just needed to find a home, somewhere he’d play regularly.

As I ’ve said before, his relationship with Jack Grealish looks like it could even be fruitful for England, too.

I look at Villa’s midfield now – Barkley, Grealish,

John Mcginn and Douglas Luiz – and genuinely think it’s as good as any outside the top six.

So things are boding well for my club and I wasn’t too surprised when people started to draw comparisons with Leicester’s Miracle Men, who won the league in 2015-16 just 12 months after narrowly avoiding the drop themselves.

I ’m not thinking along those lines, even though anything could happen in what looks li ke being a crazy season, but instead setting 40 points as the first target.

Perhaps then, Villa should look to emulate Sheffield United’s achievement of last season , or what our neighbours, Wolves, have done in the last few years since coming up – playing some nice football and building a squad capable of qualifying for Europe.

Villa’s start has proved they can do it in one-off games, or over three and four games.

But now they need to show us that at least eight players can be 8/10 or 9/10 week in, week out through to January at least, maybe March.

Not just the three I can say with any certainty will do that – in Greali sh , Mcginn and Tyrone Mings.

If they do, then maybe I can start to get excited that Villa under Smith and Terry (left) might just go on to reclaim their historical position as the kings of the Midlands.

But, for now, being top of the Premier League in October would do just nicely.

THE GREAL DEAL Barkley is a great addition and he is already gelling well with Grealish