Frozen out towards the end of Martin O’Neill’s reign at Aston Villa one man who would have been delighted to see Gerard Houllier return to the Premier League is former England international Emile Heskey.

The Frenchman took Heskey to Merseyside back in 2000 for £11 million where the powerful striker enjoyed some of the best times of his career forging a good partnership with Michael Owen and breaking into the national side. While at Anfield his goalscoring wasn’t prolific but he played a big part in a successful Liverpool side and Houllier certainly appreciated that.

Since arriving at Villa the Frenchman has stuck with what he knows and brought Heskey straight back into the side in place of Norwegian John Carew. Heskey repaid this faith with the winner away at Wolves last week with a fantastic header. He will not go on and score fifteen goals this season but his game is about more than that. He will hold the ball up, win headers and prove an outlet for Villa when they have been under pressure. Houllier got the best out of Heskey at Anfield and if he manages to do so again at Villa he could just prove a very shrewd appointment. Even if the Villa fans still need to be convinced about both of the men in question it could prove to be a match made in heaven.

So after a somewhat belated start to his managerial career at Villa Park, Gerard Houllier will need little time to assimilate himself back in to the rigours of English football. His six year stint at Liverpool is still fresh in the memory for many, especially for landing us with El Hadj Diouf for the last six years. Despite that, Houllier has managed to keep himself involved in football in France but it was still something of a left field appointment for Villa to turn to the Frenchman.

His time at Anfield was something of a continual failure to turn potential in to real league success, culminating in his final season, 2003-2004, seeing them finish in 4th but 30 points behind Premiership winners Arsenal. 6 trophies in his time there perhaps gave something of rose tinted view to his tenure at the helm, but trophies are trophies. Similarly to Benitez, Houllier managed to get Liverpool to finish as runners up but failed to build on that good work with some unusual and ultimately unsuccessful transfers.

He inherits a side that have continually challenged for European places over the last 3 seasons but a fractious relationship between the previous manager and owner has left a side in a state of limbo. Aston Villa have so far been a Jekyll and Hyde side in this campaign, the 6-0 hammering at Newcastle clearly a low point in the clubs start to the season. Yet the transfer kitty was boosted by the sale of James Milner, so at least there is the option of strengthening in January but the loss of European revenue is a bitter pill to swallow for the Villa faithful.

It’s the lack of options up front for me that holds Villa back from pushing on from where O’Neill kept them. With 3 main strikers, the lack of a 4th option of proven quality has been there undoing in the last couple of seasons. Heskey’s work rate is unquestionable, but his dreadful goal return well documented. Carew is still so widely inconsistent, a trait he has never been able to shift from bursting on to the scene with Rosenburg and then Valencia 10 years ago. Of course, Houllier signed and then sold the striker during his spell at Lyon. How that relationship starts could be crucial for both sides.

Gabriel Agbonlahor is another one who’s potential has yet to be completely tapped into and Houllier often likes to build his sides around pacey strikers. The striker certainly falls in to that category but seems to still snatch at chances when it seems easier to score. Villa also have the option of using Ashley Young in a striking role, but he often drifts out of games, a frustrating side of his game with his quality of passing and blistering pace.

Villa have not had the worst start to the season, the hammering at Newcastle aside and against Stoke City were the better side for almost an hour but still contrived to lose the game to an injury time Robert Huth winner. What is crucial that Houllier can try and move on from the defensive counter attacking tactics that began to unravel his relationship with the Liverpool faithful. Perhaps somewhat, his spell at Lyon is sometimes overlooked, due to the squad he inherited and the financial strength the club had when he joined them.

As is often the case with these things, Houllier may be viewing the fixture list through gritted teeth, with derbies against Birmingham City and Wolves, trips to Tottenham and Sunderland and the chance to try and stifle free scoring Chelsea in October too making up his first 5 league fixtures. A tough Carling Cup tie at home to Blackburn Rovers on Wednesday is not the easiest game to make your managerial bow at your new club either. At least he’s been through it all before and forewarned is forearmed.

Articulate, funny and an enthusiastic celebrator of his team’s goals, Martin O’Neill is one of the most popular men in football. Having done a superb job at Leicester City, and a very good one at Celtic (despite quite heavy spending) he was linked with the Manchester United job in 2002 (before Ferguson stayed on) and was interviewed for the England Managership in 2006. Many think he would be the perfect candidate for the latter, while others think he and David Moyes would be good ‘home-grown’ choices if and when the former becomes available. He inherited David O’Leary’s position at Aston Villa in 2006, as he was hired by Randy Lerner – who had recently succeeded ‘Deadly’ Doug Ellis as owner of Aston Villa – and according to many pundits did a fantastic job, leading Villa to three consecutive 6th place finishes after a modest 11th place in his first season.

This conclusion has been drawn understandably, but it relies upon a red herring of a statistic. O’Neill’s many acolytes often state that he single-handedly turned a club that finished 16th in 2005-06 consistently into a top 6 club. This understates the level of investment given to O’Neill compared to his predecessor. Whereas O’Leary was able to spend roughly £5m net per season at Villa, O’Neill spent £83m in his four seasons – four times more per season than the Irishman.

During his first season, having spent £16m net, the improvement from 16th to 11th, whilst not being bad, is nothing exceptional with the extra resources available. He insitgated a much-needed overhaul of O’Leary’s squad, buying success stories John Carew and Ashley Young at considerable expense while selling white elephants such as Milan Baros.

The next season, O’Neill spent just £1m net. The improvement from 11th to 6th perhaps came residually from the previous January’s signings (including Carew and Young) being allowed to ‘bed in’ at the club in the previous ‘transition’ season. The signings made in the summer ranged from the moderate (£3.5m for Zat Knight) to the ridiculous (£5m for Marlon Harewood), with only Nigel Reo-Coker and Knight (£11m combined) contributing in any way to the team’s improvement. O’Neill did extremely well to lead this squad to sixth place, but it was in his sales where his success is tempered. Players such as Gary Cahill, Liam Ridgewell, Steven Davis and Aaron Hughes, sold for modest prices by O’Neill, could have acted as the back-up expensively assembled later on in their positions.

The next season, 2008-09, O’Neill splurged £45m net, looking to break into the Champions League. Brad Friedel, James Milner and Carlos Cuellar contributed greatly to this quest, whereas Steve Sidwell, Luke Young and Curtis Davies figured intermittently. Nicky Shorey’s purchase for £5m was comparable in wastage only to that of Marlon Harewood. For this expenditure, Villa attained the same 6th place position after threatening Arsenal’s position in the top four for much of the season. From a very strong position with 15 games to go, Villa collapsed. They struggled for goals as Young, Milner and Agbonlahor tired late in the season, scoring only 16 in 14 games after March 1st.

One major flaw with O’Neill’s transfer policy at this time was his exaggerated belief in the 2007-08 players. A strong sixth placed finish was an overachievement with the players at his disposal – the ‘next level’ of Champions League football required players of greater quality. 1 win in 9 home games against the rest of the top 10 that season suggests that the side lacked the technical quality and imagination to win the tough games needed to finish fourth. Away this was less of a problem, as they could counterattack the more attacking home sides, but at home the level of creativity needed to break solid ‘playing for a point’ teams down was not there.

Moreover, spending £16m on Sidwell, Shorey and Luke Young when players such as Maynor Figueroa, John Paintsil and Dickson Etuhu came into Fulham and Wigan respectively for much less, was indicative of O’Neill’s unimaginative transfer policy. The latter three signings would surely have left greater scope for a striker or creative midfielder of immediate quality, exactly what was needed in his first choice XI. Perhaps O’Neill’s lack of foreign transfer acumen, or a seeming taste for dealing with a largely British dressing room was his biggest flaw. Again he hadn’t done badly by maintaining the team’s position in the European positions, but stagnation would surely not cost £45m under a manager doing an ‘exceptional job’.

Last season saw another sixth place finished after spending £22m net more. With the increasing power of Tottenham and Manchester City, sixth again was by no means a failure but O’Neill’s selection, style and transfer policy was once again Anglo-centric. Stewart Downing came in to help relieve the pressure upon his creative midfielders, but at £10m he was by no means a bargain. Richard Dunne’s age, lack of re-sale value and his wages make his £6m transfer fee from Man City again look no better than good, despite his very impressive performances. That he was signed on deadline day along with James Collins indicates a distinct lack of planning from O’Neill, even if they turned out to be very good on the pitch. Stephen Warnock was a good addition to the first team but was not cheap at £8m. The signing of Fabian Delph has not provided immediate dividends, but he surely is for the future.

Once again Villa defended well for large parts of the season – Carlos Cuellar impressing especially – but the lack of depth up front meant again the strain fell upon Agbonlahor and Carew. They were often magnificent away to Big Four clubs but couldn’t breach top drawer defences at home. If O’Neill had spent some of his budget on a creative schemer rather than on Habib Beye and James Collins, perhaps they would have been able to crack the top four, especially with Liverpool’s capitulation.

In cup competitions O’Neill showed that he is an astute tactician, reaching an FA Cup Semi and a Carling Cup Final, but the major failing in both defeats was Villa’s inability to create and finish chances. In one-off games, against Chelsea and Manchester United, teams who struggle to create and finish their chances are generally punished. O’Neill’s whingeing about Nemanja Vidic’s ‘definite sending off’ in the Carling Cup final masked another disappointing attacking display, despite the early boon of Milner’s penalty.

Again O’Neill was unable to take his side to a higher level than he had in 2008,  due in part to paying over the odds for players who were Premier League quality but not Champions League quality.

Thus while he did by no means a poor job at Aston Villa his net outlay when compared to Everton in 2008-09 (under a manager proving himself to be vastly superior) and to a lesser extent Spurs last season is indicative of a manager doing a solid, unspectacular job. Ultimately, that’s all he did, no more, less.

When you’re a football club and you have to come up with ideas of how to promote the sale of season tickets during the summer months, what do you do?

If you’re Aston Villa, you release three very creative videos and hope that they go viral.

James Milner, Carlos Cuellar and John Carew star in three separate videos. Without a doubt, they’re well shot and are pretty well produced. I’m not so sure they’ll help sell season tickets to Villa Park, but if the club’s object is to get people talking about the topic, it’s working.

What do you think of the videos? Share your feedback in the comments section below.

Tip of the hat: 101 Great Goals.

It was early in the second half against Arsenal when all seemed lost for Aston Villa. The team looked shell-shocked after Abou Diaby scored a wonderful team-effort goal that seemingly took both Aston Villa and their fans out of the game. After that second goal went in, I thought to myself that the remainder of the second half would be a perfect test to see whether Villa were Big Four material or not.

That answer was a resounding yes.

Gareth Barry’s superbly taken penalty kick and then Zat Knight’s injury time equalizer were just the tonic that neutral football fans needed for a Boxing Day classic. Just as Aston Villa pulled out an incredible triumph away at Everton several weeks ago, Villa showed their never-say-die attitude once again.

And that was the second half. Their first half performance was even more awe-inspiring except they couldn’t get the find the back of the net. The creativity and speed that Aston Villa demonstrated were incredible. Gabriel Agbonlahor continues to improve. Ashley Young is always dependable down the left wing. And James Milnar, although he lacks the pace and confidence he once had, can still deliver a dangerous cross from the right wing.

Out of all of the attributes that Aston Villa possess, their biggest differentiator compared to other Premier League teams is their team spirit. This is a team with no egos. Their fitness levels are tremendous. And they’re led by a manager who, as you can clearly see, cares for his players. Martin O’Neill is the type of manager who resembles a headmaster. A man who is proud of his pupils. A man who is commited to success.

To me, right now, there’s no other team in the Premier League who embodies the team spirit as well as Aston Villa. As long as they can keep that together and get the results they need against lesser opposition when they might let their guard down, they have a tremendous opportunity to not only break the top four but to, good gracious, make a push for the Premier League title.

The only concern I have about Aston Villa is their lack of strength on their bench. But, as shown against Arsenal and in several other games this season, Villa played the entire 90 minutes without making a single substitution. Villa has already been hurt by the injury to striker John Carew. More injuries should be anticipated but if Villa can sign a player or two in the January transfer window, they should have the safety cushion they need to make a serious pursuit for the top four and even the title. Call me daft, but I can see it happening.

If you have a few minutes to spare, be sure to read these excellent articles:

• A rare one-on-one interview with Alex Ferguson (The Times). Lots of pearls of wisdom in this interview including the story about how Fergie now stops praying for his club to win as well as one of the two footballers Ferguson was scared of.
• The decline in attendances of non-league team Leyton FC (Two Hundred Percent). Very interesting article about a non-league club in London living in the shadows of Leyton Orient, West Ham United and other clubs, and how they’re having a tough time staying alive. The article makes me want to go support the club and I live thousands of miles away.
• Aston Villa fans produce the chant of the season (The Spoiler). ‘Enuff said.