Aston Villa Football Club are having a mixed season in the Premier League which is the top tier of the English football league. The club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham. The club established in 1874 has played at their home ground Villa Park since 1897.
The Villians were one of the founder members of the Football League in 1888 and of the Premier League in 1992. Villa are one of only five English clubs to have won the European Cup, in 1981/82. They are champions of the Football League First Division seven times and also won the FA Cup seven times. Aston Villa have also lifted the League Cup five times, and the UEFA Super Cup once.
The club has a fierce local rivalry with Birmingham City and the Second City derby between the teams has been played since 1879. The club players wear claret shirts and sky blue sleeves with white shorts, and sky blue socks and the club badge is of a rampant lion.
It’s been the start of a new era at Aston Villa this season after they spent their first year in the Championship for a very long time. However, they had a terrible 2015/16 season in the Premier League and finished bottom of the league.
Last season, they brought in ex-Chelsea manager, Roberto Di Matteo to try and earn them promotion back to the Premier League. However, by October, it wasn’t working. Di Matteo had a win percentage of just 8% after 12 games and was sacked.
They hired ex-Birmingham manager Steve Bruce as his replacement, and he helped restore the form to a higher level. The Villains went on to have a mediocre season in England’s 2nd division in 2016/17, finishing 13th with 62 points. But in 2017/18, Bruce helped restore Aston Villa near the top of the Championship but they lost out in the final of the playoffs for promotion.
However, Bruce has been sacked earlier in the 2018/19 season and has been replaced by Dean Smith and John Terry taking over the assistant manager position at the Villa Park.
Tom Heaton is the current Aston Villa F.C highest-paid player with a weekly wage of £42,000 per-week. Heaton signed for newly promoted Premier League club Aston Villa on 1 August 2019 for an undisclosed fee, believed to be £8 million.
Aston Villa are set to be without two of their key players in the months to come. Villa will be without striker Wesley and Heaton for the rest of the season after both suffered knee ligament damage in Wednesday’s 2-1 win at Burnley.
Brazil international Wesley scored the opener but was hurt in a tackle with Clarets’ defender Ben Mee. Former Burnley keeper Heaton was hurt as he attempted to stop Chris Wood’s 80th-minute consolation. Both players had scans on Thursday and are set for six to nine months out.
Villa are 17th in the Premier League table, one place and one point above the relegation places.
Aston Villa F.C. 2019-20 Payroll
| Player | Gross Weekly Wages |
| Tom Heaton | £43,000 |
| Henri Lansbury | £40,000 |
| Jack Grealish | £35,000 |
| Jonathan Kodjia | £35,000 |
| Matt Targett | £35,000 |
| Neil Taylor | £33,000 |
| Anwar El Ghazi | £33,000 |
| James Chester | £30,000 |
| Conor Hourihane | £30,000 |
| Ahmed Elmohamady | £25,000 |
| John McGinn | £25,000 |
| Tyrone Mings | £25,000 |
| Jota Peleteiro | £25,000 |
| Orjan Nyland | £20,000 |
| Lovre Kalinic | £18,000 |
