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Villa blog: Continuity is the key for club revival

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Ahead of a trip to Wales, Aston Villa will be looking to finally seal their place in the top flight for next season. Matt Turvey reflects on how a once proud club is a mere shadow of its former self.

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After Aston Villa managed to snatch an unexpected point against Southampton, such a result may well be the necessary step to free the players from fear.

Which isn't to suggest that Villa are safe - they aren't just yet - but there's an increasing belief that the teams below them have a challenging enough run in for the Villans to be dragged into trouble.

Looking at the above, the picture painted of Villa at present is stark - here is a club that has gone from being perennial contenders for Europe to hoping for survival, often needing other teams to be poor just to stay in the top flight.

With that in mind, it is far from hard to understand why there's anger. Whether the fall guy is pointed to as the owner, the chief executive, the manager, or the players, few people are happy with where Villa are at present. In addition, being tarred as "the new Wigan" is hardly a moniker many would appreciate, largely because the tag points more to Villa's position than it does the club under former manager Roberto Martinez.

So what exactly can Villa do going forwards? Change is the most vaunted option amongst fans, but change alone isn't going to bring about an increase in success - we've seen with the many changes over the past four years that change can actually be destructive.

Instead, it makes sense for the club to have a strategy going forwards that goes further than penny pinching and financial management. No, Villa aren't in a position to be spending fortunes to overhaul the club, but adopting a longer term view to football doesn't cost anything at all - could continuity go a long way to helping Villa?

Personally, I believe that having that level of continuity - something that has been largely absent in the post Martin O'Neill era - would have saved Villa fortunes. Why? Could a club adopting a long term strategy seriously consider buying Darren Bent for £24m, only to switch policy and find the same player likely to leave on a free?

It is precisely these sort of choices that make the club's financial management seem something akin to holding up a house of cards. Yes, things needed to be tidied up after years of overstretching the club's finances, but how many of those expenditures have been viable? How many of them have been well considered?

Sure, Christian Benteke may well prove to be a player who can be traded to make more money than he cost originally, but are Villa really in a position where they could do without him in the team? Look back just a few years ago at the impact of selling Stewart Downing and Ashley Young, and you'll see that selling key players - especially when the returns aren't re-invested - is a one way ticket down to the wrong end of the table.

So, as Villa face another underwhelming season, change may well be coming. The concern for fans may well be whether that change is going to be a positive one or not - whilst Lerner has made many mistakes during his tenure at the club, the remainder of this season will illustrate just how close margins are and how the club are fortunate to still be in the top flight.

You can follow Matt Turvey's regular opinions at his own site, Aston Villa Life at http://www.astonvillalife.com, via the site's Twitter account @astonvillalife, or via his own Twitter account @mturvey_star.