By Andrew McCarten
For many, the exit of Martin O'Neill as Aston Villa manager at the beginning of the previous
season was the prime reason for their decline. When O'Neill took over for the 2006/07 campaign,
Villa had finished a lowly 16th the year before under David O'Leary, managing only 42 points.
Curtis Davies joined Birmingham City in a deal likely to be worth £3.5m after being on the cusp
of rejoining what he called "Sven's revolution" at Leicester on loan. Sebastian Larsson will not be
coming as a make-weight, which is just as well as I've been racking my brains trying to think of a
player making the same switch directly and have drawn a blank.
