Jack Grealish embarrassing himself is just the latest manic episode in Aston Villa’s chaotic year

Life as an Aston Villa fan tests the patience like few others but nobody could ever say it was dull. Jack Grealish’s public apology and fine in excess of £100,000 for ignoring government coronavirus guidelines is just the latest twist in a season that – however it ends – will be long remembered at Villa Park.

For many clubs, an incident like the one involving Grealish would be the single moment in a campaign to make rival fans sit up and take notice. For Villa, it is just one of many in a rollercoaster 2019-20.

To recap: in the last 12 months, Villa have played at Wembley twice, won promotion, spent more than £140million on transfers, had a player – Tyrone Mings – named as a ‘visionary leader’ by the Forbes magazine, lost three key players to injury (two in the same game), used four goalkeepers and signed Danny Drinkwater.

Before the weekend, Grealish was the shining light in their season, a player who looked destined to break into the England squad and earn Villa a huge transfer fee by joining an elite club in the summer. Now even he has played a part of the chaos he was trying his best to resolve with his performances.

For years, Villa have been crying out for stability yet the more they chase it, the more elusive it seems.

The summer spending spree that followed the play-off final victory over Derby was supposed to banish any threat of immediate relegation, but it has had the opposite effect. Ten players who had never played in the Premier League were asked to find their stride immediately and, not surprisingly, they have struggled.

Bad luck and bad decisions have hampered Villa, on and off the pitch. Key midfielder John McGinn, goalkeeper Tom Heaton and centre-forward Wesley suffered significant injuries within the space of a fortnight in December and January – the kind of ill fortune that will hurt any team, whatever they are competing for.

Then more than ever, Villa needed clear thinking in finding replacements, but they did not show it. Bringing in Drinkwater, who had played just three times in the previous 18 months, on loan from Chelsea for the rest of the season looked a huge risk at the time, and so it proved.

The former Leicester midfielder looked well off the pace in his four appearances and then – in the week after Villa’s 4-0 defeat at the King Power Stadium – was involved in a training ground bust-up with team-mate Jota.

The loan move for Pepe Reina was similarly questionable. With Orjan Nyland performing so capably in Heaton’s absence, why was the Spaniard needed? Nyland was quickly shunted aside and yet when he did play, he was outstanding – helping Villa reach the Carabao Cup final with excellent performances in the semi-final against Leicester, and then delivering a heroic display against Manchester City at Wembley as Villa lost 2-1.

Sporting director Jesus Garcia Pitarch – known as Suso – calls the shots in the transfer market and at the moment, few of his plans look to have paid off.

Even though this season has threatened to slip out of control on many occasions, it can still end happily for Villa – assuming 2019-20 eventually resumes. 

Their thrashing at Leicester was a dire effort that left question marks over the future of manager Dean Smith, yet all was not lost: when coronavirus brought a halt to the season, Villa were only two points adrift of safety. If they were to win their game in hand, they would move out of the bottom three.

So all is not lost. Yet if this football season does start again, Villa need to show far more discipline and control both on and off the field if they are to rescue theirs.