Perhaps the most important ingredient in all of this though, was Martin O’Neill himself.
A real character; outspoken and lively, but a diligent and effective coach, O’Neill transformed Aston Villa from perennial underachievers, scrapping between mid-table and relegation, to a team mixing it with the big boys, and occasionally even beating them.
Across those three seasons, O’Neill’s squad twice took three points from Chelsea at home, beat Spurs home and away, and won at Arsenal, Liverpool and Man United — no mean feats.
O’Neill has always relished the underdog status. Whether during his playing career at Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest, as manager of his twice-league cup-winning Leicester side, or now, with the Irish national team, being the team with less to lose suits O’Neill perfectly.
But with Villa, for perhaps the first time in his managerial career, O’Neill had the opportunity to combine underdog status with real talent — a potent mix.
This Villa side was packed with talent, the longevity of Young, Milner and Barry alone is testament to this, but prior to O’Neill’s arrival, that talent was looking very much wasted.
It’s O’Neill who deserves credit for getting the best out of them, turning them into the players they are now.
In spite of this, many say, even today, that O’Neill lacks a coherent philosophy or tactical blueprint. Admittedly, his time at Villa was never defined by a specific style of play.
Instead, it was defined by a certain mentality, an attitude, a desire.
In a way, that is O’Neill’s philosophy. He brings the underdog spirit, the never-say-die, don’t-know-when-we’re-beat feeling to a club, and for a team like Villa operating just outside the upper echelons of the league, this mentality proved invaluable.
It too, was a style in stark contrast to that of his predecessor, David O’Leary.
Where O’Leary focused on detail, O’Neill saw bigger picture. Where O’Leary rightly saw an inconsistent, sometimes brilliant, sometimes awful side, his three seasons resulting in 6th, 10th and 16th place finishes, O’Neill dared to think this team could overachieve, and give out some bloody noses at the same time. And that’s exactly what they did.
The Moments: