Aston Villa’s relegation was confirmed at Manchester United in circumstances typical of their shambolic season. Eric Black promised the rebuild has to start right away before revealing the caretaker manager did not know if he would be around to oversee it. Tellingly, his request for the Villa players to acknowledge their fans at the end of the 1-0 defeat resulted in only a handful of them bothering to do so.
Perhaps the players were unsure what reception they would get from supporters who, a few minutes earlier, had been chanting they were not fit to wear the shirt, though Black attempted to build bridges by stressing the club’s followers deserved better following Villa’s ninth successive defeat.
“I am humbled by our support,” he said. “We have not had the best season and relegation has not happened overnight, but we had 32,000 at our last game even though they have seen us win at home about 18 times in the last four years.
“ All I have tried to do in the short time I have been at the club is take small steps forward to offer the supporters some encouragement, because they have been magnificent.
“I understand that there is a disconnect between the team and the fans at the moment and that’s what we need to work on, because supporters don’t want to be attacking their team, they want to be supporting it.”
Black experienced relegation with Birmingham and knows the next few months will not be easy for a team that has just seen 28 seasons of top-flight football come to an end. “It is a massive transformation you have to make,” he said.
“You will need to move some players on and find you are unable to, and you will lose some of the players you want to keep as well. The rebuild has to start right now. We have to dust ourselves down and begin taking steps now that it is official. We all knew what was likely to happen, but the realisation still hits you hard and at the moment we have a sad, sad dressing room.”
Villa were beaten by a single goal, the impressive Marcus Rashford taking his tally for the season to seven, though Louis van Gaal, like most of the home supporters, was underwhelmed by another pallid United display. “I was surprised we could not lift ourselves, we played at too slow a tempo again,” the United manager said. “I understand we have to provide more entertainment for the fans, but the most important thing today was to win. We are still hoping for slips from the team around us.”
At least Van Gaal was pleased by the goal, which he described as marvellous and credited it to Wayne Rooney. His captain returned after two months out with a knee injury and provided the alert pass from halfway that set up the chance. When Rooney was withdrawn after an hour Van Gaal revealed he was angry with the decision, even though it was to prevent him overdoing things.
“Wayne wanted to play the whole 90 minutes, but the Premier League is harder than that when you only have a few training sessions behind you,” Van Gaal said. “Wayne played very well in the first half but you could see he was losing balls as he tired in the second.”
