QPR boss Ian Holloway tipped Aston Villa to struggle this season – and he’s been absolutely right.
Ian Holloway brazenly predicting Aston Villa to finish all the way down in 16th place in their first season in the Championship didn’t go down too well with new owner Tony Xia, as reported by the Daily Mail.
“They could easily get relegated again. With the lack of investment and the lack of unity within the playing squad,” Holloway said at the start of the campaign, in a Sky Sport article.
“They’ve got Roberto Di Matteo, who is a wonderful man, but it’s a huge job to carry that expectation. It’s going to take something special to turn it around.
“Teams as big as Villa have suffered back-to-back relegations.”
Xia, as is well established, didn’t exactly share Holloway’s pessimism. What did he know? He’s just a “a failed player, failed manager and now f***ed pundit”, as the businessman claimed so eloquently on Twitter.
And, six months later, Villa are showing signs of proving the current QPR boss wrong, though not in the way they were perhaps expecting. They are now 17th, four points behind city rivals Birmingham who lie just a place ahead.
There has been investment. Lots of it in fact, close to £70 million. And Di Matteo lost his job just a few weeks into the start of the season.
Yet, the premise of Holloway’s predictions has proven to be absolutely spot on.
Xia may be ambitious, he may be willing to throw money at his project to set the wheels in motion but he, and Aston Villa as a whole, have discovered that you cannot simply buy your way out of the Championship or rely on the size and stature of your reputation.
Holloway knows first-hand just how unpredictable this league can be. Although, as the 53-year-old pointed out, there was something quite predictable indeed about Aston Villa’s continued toil.
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