Aitkin Not Impressed With Villa

Roy Aitkin is unimpressed that Villa have conceded 50 goals this season. Bearing in mind that our current (for how long?) manager David O’Leary was a top defender at Arsenal, I’m sure he’s not too pleased either! Villa have suffered with a long list of long term injuries to key defenders and have a lack of strength and depth in the squad.

‘We’ve conceded 50 goals over the course of the season, and the statistics sum it up because we’ve conceded far too many and not scored enough. We are a team that does play on the front foot and creates chances and I would expect us to score more than the 39 we have so far. We have to be more ruthless at both ends.’

Again, I have to say he is watching a different team to me this season, how can he possibly claim Villa play ‘on the front foot’?

He adds: ‘We are now looking to win as many points as we can get. Everybody has tried to drag us into the relegation battle over the course of the last month or so, and the win against Blues helped us. But with relegation still being possible, we know we have to get as many points as we can, and we’ve nine points to play for.’

Villa are 15th with 39 points, 7 points clear of the last relegation place with Manchester City (h), Liverpool (a) and Sunderland (h) to play.

Aitkin continued: ‘The disappointing thing is we had a chance to catch the teams above us. That’s our aim, to catch the likes of Manchester City and Fulham and finish above them.’

He also claims Villa will be able to attract players in the summer – not sure if anyone has told Doug that?! ‘As far as attracting players, we will be looking at similar players to the others, and we feel we have as much to attract them as those other clubs. Ultimately, it will come down to finances but as far as players coming to the club is concerned, I don’t see it being a really big problem.’