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Former Aston Villa chairman Sir Doug Ellis has admitted he is “heartbroken” by the demise of his beloved club.

Cut adrift at the bottom of the Premiership, without a home win before New Year's Eve and nine points from safety, Sir Doug says the club now faces almost certain relegation – and will find it difficult to climb out of the Championship again.

Villa have only kept two clean sheets all season and no club has ever survived after falling so far behind the pack.

“To be down where we are at Christmas is fatal,” said Sir Doug, who chaired Villa from 1968-1975 and 1982-2006.

“I doubt we are going to survive.

“The club’s position is very sad. Heartbreaking.

“For 35 years I worked my guts out for Aston Villa and suffered for it.

“When I passed it over, there was not a penny of debt whatsoever, and there was a good team.”

Was Remi Garde the right man to save the club – a French man with no Premier League managerial experience?

“I don’t know,” said Sir Doug, who had hired half of the then 24 managers in Villa’s history when he made his final appointment of Martin O’Neill in August 2006.

Looking at how Leicester City were bottom with 10 points after 16 games last season and yet are now top of the league this Christmas, would he have appointed the Fox’s former manager Nigel Pearson after Tim Sherwood left?

“I would,” said Sir Doug. “I think he’s a good man, although Ranieri has taken the Leicester job on and done so well.”

Sir Doug will turn 92 on January 3 but still sees nearly every match, home and away. Can he still enjoy matches, given the club’s plight?

“I don’t necessarily watch the ball, so I can still enjoy it if I see players in certain situations and the work they do,” he said.

“If I saw more of that, it would be encouraging.

“At the start of last season I thought Villa could finish in the top ten under Paul Lambert and I was very confident at the time.

“I have lost that enthusiasm, although not in a way that I don’t want to watch the team.

“I can’t say too much because when I sold the club to Randy Lerner I promised I would not interfere and I haven’t.

“I said if he wanted advice I would be available for him at any time, but he doesn’t bother to call me, which I understand.

“By and large, whatever I say could be interpreted that I am interfering and I don’t want anyone to think that I am.

“In many ways, we couldn’t have a better chairman than Randy.

"He has put the money in that he promised and he doesn’t interfere – he leaves the job to the manager and his staff and calls them over to New York three or four times a year.

“But whether he is prepared to put big, big, big money in, I doubt.”

What price a Big Ron Atkinson in his pomp?

“Yes,” said Sir Doug of the former Manchester United boss he sacked in November 1994 just six months after he’d won the League Cup.

Villa had just lost to Wimbledon in the league, but his win ratio of 43.26 per cent from 178 matches has not been bettered by ANY of Villa’s ten managers since.

Tim Sherwood was fourth best with 39.29 per cent, but Remi Garde is stuck on zero per cent after seven matches.

“Ron knew how to manoeuvre the media in general,” said Sir Doug. “That is a big asset for any manager.”

If Villa go down, can they get back up?

“There is always a way back,” said Sir Doug, who believes Andy Gray was Villa’s best British player and Gordon ‘Sid’ Cowans his best signing.

“But the Championship is such a hard league to get out of as so many clubs have found out. It could be a long haul.”