Aston Villa - Kings of the Jungle

Villa flirted with relegation for the majority of last season, only securing safety in the final few games thanks to a good run of form.

But had it not been for summer deadline day signing Christian Benteke, the Villains might have suffered a fate similar to QPR or Reading. The Belgian was the club's leading goalscorer, netting 18 times in the league - 11 more than the second highest. The influential striker was also the club's top provider, tied on assists with Ashley Westwood, showing exactly how key he was to Villa's survival last term.


But at the start of the season the chairman and board were expecting more than just staving off relegation, and have obviously been disappointed with the final season position.

Lambert was given full control of the squad and alienated several senior members of the first team squad - including Shay Given, Steven Ireland and record signing Darren Bent, forcing them to train with the youngsters and barring them from first-team action.


With these players taking home a large combined salary, Lambert was unable to shift them and bring in quality reinforcements, and in the end had to resort to signing players from the lower leagues.

And although he was praised by a few for leading such a young and inexperienced side to survival, Randy Lerner was clearly not impressed and pulled the trigger last night, opening the door for a possible return of Martin O'Neill, under whom the Birmingham based club qualified for the Europa League and challenged for the top four spots - a far cry from their current situation.


But the real return the fans want to see at Villa Park is that of former captain Stiliyan 'Stan' Petrov following his recovery from cancer - but this time in the role of the manager.

Please, please, please, please, please, please, please be Petrov!! Pwetty pwease?

What a great start, keep it up and this could be a really good story.

I think he should be Louis Tomlinson... but nice start

Dwight Yorke, Steve Staunton or Salvo Milosevic

Sell Benteke! Great start and im looking forward to the revealing of the manager

Would love a Petrov story, got this feeling it might be him as well

Got a feeling this is gunna be good, gotta feeling it'll be petrov, gotta feeling this'll be long and successful. goodluck.

In order to reduce space occupied by replies, I'm going to avoid individually quoting so readers do not have to scroll through two pages to find an update.

@AlexTHFC: Maybe

@Jozef: Thanks for the compliment!

@LFC: Who?

@Mervmeister: Let's see, hehe

@sedsosedso: Benteke is probably my best player, I'm using a LFCMarshall transfer pack and he looks a right beast. It would take stupid money in order for me to consider selling him.

@Jack: We'll have to see if your feelings are correct then

@AaronHJFT96: Nice to know you feel that way I hope it turns out into a good story as well.

We've had two amazing Villa stories and these would defo would add another one if you keep it that way!

It is going to be really interesting to see if you can live up to the other two Villa stories. It has been a great start so keep it up.

I only just remembered what the other Villa story was that JasonConnolly person or something I hope that you stick with this story & don't complain about not being able to win on chat

The amount of comment and support I've gotten so far is unreal, so I'm going to restart my save and do something different in hopes of getting better results. Thanks guys. Story is back on.

The Return of the Leader

Former manager Martin O'Neill was the one linked to a return to Birmingham, and the deal was 99% done as of last week and most bookies stopped taking bets on his return.

But when Republic of Ireland came to the 60-year-old with a last minute approach, he turned down the Villains and opted to succeed Giovanni Trapattoni as the boss of the Ireland national team.


Chairman Randy Lerner then turned to the fans' choice - former captain Stiliyan 'Stan' Petrov.


The Bulgarian was diagnosed with cancer two seasons ago, which was caused by nuclear radiation from the Chernobyl disaster which occurred when Petrov was just six years old.

And after lengthy treatments, the 32-year-old has finally overcome the disease and was expected to join as a coach under O'Neill this summer, but the rejection from the Irishman has prompted Lerner to fast track Petrov to the manager's job.

Petrov remains an icon to the Villa faithful, with fans applauding their former skipper in the 19th minute(19 was his shirt number) of every game.


Petrov has said that he is "delighted to be back" and is "very thankful for the amazing support" during his recovery from leukemia.

"I was shocked when Mr Lerner came to me and offered me the job - it was the best surprise I've had in my life. Villa are a very special club to me, and I hope that we can have some special times again."

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

That is all.