Villa’s troubles prove McLeish was no villain
ALEX McLEISH is almost as popular in the stands at Aston Villa as he is in the manager’s office at the Lennoxtown training ground of Celtic. Yet after another burst of upheaval at an ailing giant of English football staring down at the Championship, with every passing month the McLeish reign at Villa can be viewed more kindly.
It was Ronny Deila’s new pal who steered Villa clear of relegation in 2011/12 to finish 16th in a campaign of financial cuts and fire fighting. That effort cost him his job.
Paul Lambert hoisted Villa all the way up to 15th in both of his full seasons under similar restrictions before Tim Sherwood’s emergency appointment and safety in 17th.
Sherwood’s failure to adequately follow up meant he was dismissed after all of 10 Barclays Premier League matches last week, with Villa two points adrift at the bottom.
For McLeish, there is no surprise at this plight when there is the dangerous combination of downsizing and differing voices in player recruitment.
But what does leave him confused is the issue of where Villa believe they should be in the league when comparing the investment and transfer policy with those of their top-flight rivals.
Villa’s proportion of the payroll in the league has dropped every year for the past four seasons. The decline at the club is likely to have less to do with the performance of whoever the manager is than other reasons.
‘I got the biggest volume of vitriol there ever,’ said McLeish. ‘And I didn’t deserve that. When I look at what’s happened since, I deserve it even less.’
This summer after an FA Cup Final appearance, funds banked from selling Christian Benteke and Fabian Delph were spent on 13 signings.
Yet with Sherwood admitting not all of the acquisitions were his idea, the spotlight turned on head of recruitment Paddy Riley and sporting director Hendrik Almstadt.
McLeish believes a flawed procedure driving the flood of new arrivals, so many without previous Premier League experience, then expecting them to click so quickly contrived to catapult Sherwood from his post.
‘You can get a wee surprise now and again from those signings but when you get six or seven guys who few really know, to try and blend them into the team at the same time is very difficult,’ he said.
‘For Villa’s recruitment to get them where fans want them, they have to bring in bigger-status players.’
A strong French connection among the summer captures who have not made an impact under Sherwood may be part of the reason why Remi Garde has been targeted for the job.
Reflecting on his own time in charge, McLeish said: ‘The Villa gig was a hard one and I think people realise now how hard it was. It’s been well said in football that sometimes it costs you a fortune just to stand still.
‘So to go the other way meant it was going to be a painful period. I had to summon every piece of managerial experience to get them over the line.
‘But what I got was: “Nah, you’re Birmingham, we hate you, you’re ginger and you nearly got us relegated”. No, I didn’t. I kept you up.’