Sign up NOW for our daily Villa newsletter direct to your inbox Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Aston Villa's sorry situation was among the topics on Monday Night Football on Sky Sports last night.

Here's what pundits Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville had to say.

Jamie Carragher

ON THE NEXT RUN OF GAMES

I say this about every team near the bottom that aren't doing well, whatever fixtures you've got are difficult because you've got no confidence, you're struggling, every game looks tough.

Swansea at home looks tough, for those away games you think where are they going to get many points?

PRESSURE ON SHERWOOD

In terms of Tim Sherwood being under pressure. If you look at his whole time at Aston Villa he's done a very, very good job. Kept them up, got to a cup final and he's having a difficult time now at the start of the season.

It hasn't been a great start for them. In terms of him losing his job, I don't think it's about Tim Sherwood, I think it's about the whole club and the structure of the club above him.

PREVIOUS MANAGERS

But is it Tim Sherwood or is it Aston Villa? We're not talking about a team who have had a manager for a long time then Sherwood's come in and all of a sudden it's fell away.

Gerard Houllier, Alex McLeish, Paul Lambert and now Tim Sherwood. Everyone's having big problems at Aston Villa.

PEOPLE UPSTAIRS

It's more to do with the people upstairs. Aston Villa finished 17th last season, so three teams got relegated and they were the worst other team in the league and they've lost their three best players in Benteke, Cleverley and Delph.

So you think about top teams like Liverpool and the effect Suarez had on them with him going and Gareth Bale on Tottenham ... the effect that's going to have on Aston Villa.

RELEGATION CANDIDATES

Now I think Sherwood has come out and said he's 100 per cent certain that they're going to stay up. He may have to say that, but he can't be the way they're performing.

For the last two or three years, similar to Sunderland, they are a team you've looked at and thought 'these are going'. You can't see anything else.

NO BENTEKE

And then Benteke would get them out of trouble, do a bit of magic.

They haven't got that player at the moment to do those things, to get them out of trouble, so I think he'll have done a great job if he keeps them up.

GARY NEVILLE

Every Villa manager has had a tough task. Obviously they spent some money in the summer, brought in a few players and it will take time for them to bed in.

But you think about the money that's at stake now and what's going to be at stake next season in terms of the Premier League - and chairman are getting more and more twitchy.

PAST GLORIES

The likes of Sunderland, and Aston Villa, these clubs are living off past glories really that they should be great clubs, they should be challenging for top six.

But they've been in steady decline now for a good few years whereby they're not reaching anything like they should be.

BIG CLUB?

I've got enormous like and fondness for Aston Villa as a football club, in terms of the size of them.

The games that you used to play there, when you were playing you thought 'oh we're going to a big ground today, Aston Villa'.

But they don't perform like a big club any more, they don't spend like a big club any more, they don't attract players.

(Image: Credit: Dave Evitts)

OFFLOADING BEST PLAYERS

When did Martin O'Neill leave? Five or six years ago. You think he saw what was coming in respect they were starting to offload what was quite a good team at the time.

They had Young and Milner and Barry and Downing, obviously Agbonlahor up front and Petrov was in the team as well. You thought, it's a really good side, that.

And then they offloaded all of them within 18 months, two years. From that point on, you lose that quality of player and don't replace them, don't invest in it...

DECLINE

The owner wants to sell, it's been openly on the market for I don't know how long. There's a lot of good things about Aston Villa but they really are in decline.

It is Tim Sherwood's problem because he's part of what's going on there, but it's only such a short period when you think of the players he's had to settle into the squad.

The fact of the matter is chairmen are just getting more jumpy and twitchy. He should be given more time.