Are Aston Villa already doomed to relegation this season?

Whilst it may well make difficult reading for all the honest Villa fans out there, the 2015/16 campaign has certainly been one to forget for the Villa Park faithful so far this term. Quite frankly, this is possibly one of the worst Aston Villa sides the Premier League has EVER paid witness to…

 

Losing both Fabian Delph and Christian Benteke across the summer transfer window hardly helped the Midlands-based club in their upcoming league duties – yet as very few of the new additions signed by Tim Sherwood have ultimately made much of a meaningful impact thus far – the excuses are beginning to run dry for the struggling top-flight outfit.

 

So then, with everything duly taken into account for Remi Garde’s new team throughout the rest of the 2015/16 season – can the Villans somehow fight back from their current relegation-fuelled plight, or are Aston Villa already doomed to the Championship as we speak?

 

Well, in the newly installed Remi Garde in the dug-out, Aston Villa seemingly stand alongside a manager who does in-fact carry a fair degree of potential under his belt in the modern era. Although his spell with Olympique Lyonnais was certainly brief in Ligue 1, Garde became admired for his relationship with the younger players, as well as his relatively fresh approach to dealing with his match-day duties.

 

As there are indeed several potentially impressive youngsters currently operating at Villa Park this season – who let’s face it, haven’t really taken the Premier League by storm just yet it must be said – at least Aston Villa have something promising going for them at this stage in the proceedings.

 

If Garde can somehow install a stronger mentality down at Villa Park this term, as well as raise some much needed positivity in and around the Aston Villa fan-base for a change, then maybe it’s only a matter of time before Lady Luck shines her light on the determined Midlanders once more…

 

Going on current form however, the future really doesn’t look too promising for the struggling Villans out on the pitch. Their defence has been incredibly leaky to say the very least, Garde’s midfield options have failed to win most of their individual battles on a week-to-week basis, and the Aston Villa striking line-up just doesn’t scream ‘goals’ even at the best of times. Perhaps with one or two adjustments to the starting XI however, such a worrying trend can soon be seen to.

 

The new Aston Villa manager will simply have to get the best out of Jack Grealish for one thing – for he alone possesses a level of technical ability that is rarely matched throughout the rest of his teammates – and maybe cast one eye towards the January transfer window for a little back up this season. Although such names remain somewhat unlikely to join Villa in their current predicament, the likes of QPR’s Charlie Austin, Loreint’s Lamine Kone and Anderlecht’s Samuel Bastien have all nonetheless been linked with a move to the Premier League club throughout the course of the current campaign.

 

However, because Aston Villa distinctly failed to cover themselves in much glory across the entirety of last season as well, it remains difficult to imagine this club picking itself up and dusting itself off any time soon. The writing already seems to be written on the wall for Villa, as there simply isn’t enough top-flight quality among their ranks to continuously make it season after season.

 

When all is said and done, the Villans certainly aren’t doomed at this stage by any stretch of the imagination, and will there be three worse teams than them come the end of term? Quite possibly…

 

Yet because the Midlands-based club have seemingly been on a downward slide for quite some time now, perhaps there is no longer ample opportunity for Aston Villa to prolong the inevitable. Some teams simply need to be relegated in order to grow and avoid stagnation – and although Remi Garde seems like a very capable manager at this stage in the game – the current task on his hands ultimately looks too demanding with all things considered…