Villa blog: Season review

So there it is, a rollercoaster season is over, and we can reflect on the progress made, and perhaps what could have been, writes Villa blogger Gregg Williams.

I’d have taken 6th at the start of the season, although back then I couldn’t have imagined that would not be good enough for a Uefa place.

The players deserve a lot of credit and i’d be the first to thank Martin and the lads for all the effort they’ve put in.

It’s hard to be critical when we have rejoined the top 6, but in many ways the greatest challenge will be to stay there and a lot of hard work needs to be done in the summer.

First of all, we have to hold onto our best players, which means Gareth Barry has to stay.

I really hope that when he takes all things into consideration that he decides that Villa are still the club for him, we have a great chairman and grat manager, both full of integrity and desperate to bring success to our club. We are a team full of bright young English talent, and its clear that Fabio Capello will be happy to pick Villa players for his England team.

Gareth doesn’t need to leave to further his international career, and instead has an opportunity to be thought of as one of our greatest players and the captain ofone of our best ever teams.

Liverpool are a great club, but their league status, turmoil at board level and occasionally bizarre team selection policy leaves them as far from being a club you can’t turn down. If Barcelona, Real Madrid or Man United come in for him, I couldn’t deny him the chance to leave, but Liverpool? I’m not so sure he’d be better off there.

The other factor will be improving the squad, and at the same time fighting off competition from other teams around us for the better players that are out there.

I’m sure that Spurs, Newcastle, West Ham, Portsmouth, Blackburn and Everton will be looking to bring players in as well, and it’s up to us to make sure we attract the players we need to Villa Park.

We might well be in the Uefa Cup next season, and we’ll need to have a set of players available who can do a job for us in all competitions. Randy and Martin, it’s over to you.