Swain's take on Martinez's Villa snub

If there was any doubt about the scale and pace of Aston Villa's alarming decline, it has been banished by Roberto Martinez's rejection.

Who would have thought the day would ever come when Villa could not put together a package alluring enough to persuade the manager of Wigan Athletic to switch jobs?

Villa fans will ruefully acknowledge that football's food chain decrees Ashley Young will sign for Manchester United, just as Dwight Yorke did 13 years ago and just as Gareth Barry and James Milner were poached by Manchester City's enormous pay cheques.

The claret and blue faithful will equally accept that, ever since missing out on the boom of the Premier League 15 years ago, they are destined to always be pushing their noses against the window separating the club from the Champions League's VIP lounge.

But they will be left bemused and bewildered by the news that a 37-year-old rookie boss from one of the smallest clubs in the top two divisions – never mind the top flight – has said 'thanks but no thanks' to an offer to take the reins.

Martinez is a rare animal in today's scandal-drenched, money-obsessed game – a principled figure who believes he still owes something to his current employers after being given both opportunity and then backing during a trying Premier League baptism.

But, undoubtedly, he found it a darn sight easier to reject Villa's overtures now then he would have done 10 months ago.

Just 10 months ago. That's all. When Villa were fresh out of the Carling Cup final and FA Cup semi-finals, finishing sixth having spent a large proportion of the season pushing for fourth and even beyond, packed with top-class players and run by an owner who stayed out of the way but backed his manager in the transfer market when needed.

What's changed? Villa have slithered down to scraping a finish in the top half of the table but with what looks like the last of the family silver – Young and possibly Stewart Downing – being flogged in the summer.

They have a disaffected squad unsettled by a season of discontent over the faltering reign of boss Gerard Houllier.

The 'big boys' they were chasing – United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester City and Spurs – are disappearing over the horizon.

Now it's all Villa can manage to finish top dogs in their own West Midlands back yard.

There is no single person who can be blamed for this sudden collapse from four, five years of steady growth and mounting excitement under Lerner, rather a chain of events which sees just about everyone culpable.

The timing of Martin O'Neill's resignation as manager has forever stained his standing within the Villa community. The Irishman would, of course, dispute the charge vehemently, but Villa fans believe it to have been unnecessarily vindictive.

The selection of Houllier, long out of touch with the Premier League and compromised by his health record, seemed to confirm what many feared in the wake of the American regime's decision to expunge the club of all its experienced operators.

Once O'Neill had gone and taken his 'team' with him, the club were left bereft of personnel who knew the ways of head-hunting through the Premier League jungle.

Houllier's performance itself was sadly underwhelming and riddled with gaffes which displayed an ego running disproportionate to his achievements.

While he was upsetting supporters by waving affectionately to the Kop while showing an absence of knowledge of, and regard for, Villa's history, he wasn't getting on much better with key figures in his dressing room.

It was dangerous, some might say foolhardy, to make enemies of so many senior players when a season of transition beckoned.

But, even allowing for their resistance to the new boss, they cannot escape blame for some of the wretched performances delivered in the name of Aston Villa last season less than a year after they were threatening to dislodge the old order at the top of the table.

No one person, no single cause. Put it all together, however, and you've got an episode of When Football Goes Bad. VThe Villa of 2010-11 became a template for how not to run a club.

The Martinez episode is just one more depressing link in that chain of mis-management and now casts a shadow over the man who will step into the role.

That manager will be a second choice and he and the players will know it. And all this still waiting to be concluded 50 days or more since Villa knew they would need someone to replace the stricken Houllier.

Lerner's regime has brought some major advances from the fumbling last years of the Doug Ellis era.

But, right now, they are going backwards at an alarming rate.

By Martin Swain