Unlike Newcastle United, Aston Villa have failed to bounce back to the Premier League at the first time of asking.
Newcastle United manager Rafael Benitez with Jonjo Shelvey
The Magpies managed to hang on to a number of their best players and added to it as Rafa Benitez guided them to automatic promotion.
Meanwhile, despite being under ambitious new Chinese ownership, Villa have struggled for consistency and look set to finish bang in the middle of the table come the end of the season.
The difference between the two teams looks to have been that extra bit of quality when needed to turn Villa’s 13 draws into the wins which would have sealed a return to the Premier League.
So should the club have done more to hold on to unexpected world beater Idrissa Gueye, who was sold to Everton for just £7 million.
Everton’s Idrissa Gueye is popular at Everton
It emerged this week that Gueye was better in several areas than Player of the Season N’Golo Kante who joined Chelsea from Leicester City for a whopping £30 million around the same time, as reported by the Liverpool Echo.
Gueye has more blocks, a better tackling success and more tackles won than Kante while he also matched the France midfielder for interceptions and key passes.
The 27-year-old Senegal international has been a revelation for the Toffees and in hindsight would have been just the kind of player Villa needed to dominate games.
New Villa owner Dr Tony Xia
Newcastle managed to keep hold of the likes of Jonjo Shelvey in their engine room and it proved crucial.
And given the huge financial gains to be made from being back in the top flight, Villa must seriously question whether they did enough to retain Gueye and give themselves every chance of bouncing back at the first time of asking.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
