Blog: United are still united for Aston Villa

At the start of the season, many people were pointing and laughing at United as Louis van Gaal's team started off with a struggle.

Villa, on the other hand, were flying high, with manager Paul Lambert rewarded with a new contract. All that said, things have changed.

Villa aren't as close to the bottom now as they were to the top back then but - as with most things over the long term - a clear reality has set appeared for both teams.

The truth is that, compared to many teams, Villa aren't terrible. Sure, their style has been patchy, and the league has - arguably - been rammed full of pretty poor quality teams, but we are still keeping afloat.

For many, 'keeping afloat' is simply not good enough and, in the third season of Lambert's time at the club, quite a number of the fans were expecting better.

Do those fans deserve better? Answering that question is far from easy.

Certainly nobody can argue that the ride Villa have been on in recent has been a combination of frustrating and upsetting, but this is a club reeling from massively miscalculated financial risk.

Remedying those problems - in the context of Financial Fair Play - is not a quick or easy fix. In that sense, fans may well be hoping for - and wanting - better.

Nobody, in a system that has such a penalty for relegation, wants to lose their place in the top flight.

For Villa, this has sometimes meant following function over flair, though critics of the existing management regime may well argue that the team has not always been functional.

The main problem is that Villa are - sadly - left behind in financial terms.

Their revenues, whilst dwarfing the likes of Birmingham City - are not exactly indicative of a team competing for the best players.

Due to the forced equilibrium that TV money tries to offer makes a difference - whilst fundamentally failing due to other innate differences in teams - Villa are massively reliant on survival.

If Villa went down, things would arguably be catastrophic - a primary possibility why no new owners have come forwards given a Championship club would be far cheaper than a Premier League one.

Coming up against Manchester United, there will be a palpable sense of the unfair.

United, while in their own slump, are unlikely to be suffering relegation and their worldwide brand - built up to a peak under Sir Alex Ferguson - offers far more return financially compared to Villa.

That doesn't mean Villa should give up - anything can happen on the day - but it certainly reinforces how Financial Fair Play has little chance of balancing the game on its own.

With all that, is it any wonder the fans are frustrated? Sure, Villa may well be better off than the clubs in the lower leagues but, like with general life, that doesn't stop people being upset.

What matters for Villa now is stability. Some will argue this is hard to achieve with the club up for sale, but it explains some form of sentiment around the reason why Lambert was given a longer contract.

Will that turn out to be the right choice? For now, it is too early to say, but many fans will be hoping that things will get better soon.

You can follow Matt Turvey's regular opinions at his own site, astonvillalife.com, via the site's Twitter account @astonvillalife, or via his own Twitter account @mturvey_star.