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Aston Villa are an English Premier league club, who are based in England's second city of Birmingham. As the largest football club in the country's second largest city, Villa really should be one of the super-weights but they have consistently punched below their weight over the past couple of decades. Things weren't always this way, though. If we go back to 1981, Aston Villa won a thrilling title race (with Ipswich Town) to win the English First Division (i.e. what is now marketed as the Premier league). In doing so, they had interrupted the iron grip that Liverpool had on that trophy and Villa were intent on copying another of Liverpool's successes with entry to the prestigious Champions Cup. The following season saw Villa surprise Europe by reaching the Champions Cup final where they found themselves facing mighty German team, Bayern Munich. Against the odds, and with a rookie goalkeeper between the sticks from the tenth minute, Villa secured a one-nil win to become Champions of Europe.

That was in 1982 and should have ushered in the start of a glorious era in the club's history. This is a club, after all, who have won England's top division seven times and have won the FA Cup seven times as well. It was not to be and, in the intervening years, Villa have spent their time in the mid reaches of the top division and have even had to deal with the ignominy of relegation. During this barren period, a lot of managers have come and gone but something has happened in the last few years that gives Villa's fans a real sense of hope for the future. Firstly, they have been bought by American billionaire Randy Lerner (who also owns the Cleveland Browns American football team) and secondly, and equally importantly, he then hired Martin O'Neill as manager. Most pundits regard O'Neill as being one of the very finest managers in Europe and he has slowly gone about the process of bringing more quality into the club. The improvement has been a gradual one, rather than an overnight revolution, but it does seem to have real substance to it. As I write this article, Villa are fourth in the Premier League, above Arsenal, and have aspirations of securing a Champions League spot. It's yet to be seen whether they have the strength of depth an strength of belief to pull off such a feat but, with O'Neill at the helm, I wouldn't bet against it.

O'Neill has built an interesting team. He's always had a penchant for a big centre forward and Norwegian John Carew fits the bill nicely. On

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