Villa lose the final two games of the season to make it 🟥 seven defeats and 🟩 nine wins in their 🕒 20 League games in 1985, but even that is a much improved performance from the initial four months of the campaign under Graham Turner 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿.

Overall Villa make it 🟩 fourteen wins in 🕒 forty two League games, whilst 🟥 losing sixteen as they finish 10th having finished 8th= under the popular Tony Barton 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 the previous season underlining the folly of Ellis' unnecessary managerial change. 

Villa, though, achieved a second successive 10th placed finish that had looked simply impossible pre Christmas 1984. Yet Ellis and Turner have even more to prove in 1985-86. 

In truth, Herbert Douglas Ellis’ outrageous sacking of Tony Barton 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 placed a cloud over the 1984-85 season before it even started. Few believed that the dignified Barton was really sacked for not delivering European football but even so that is a valuable measure with which to test Graham Turner’s 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 success against. 

Had Graham Turner 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 achieved European football? No. 

Had Graham Turner 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🟩 won more games than Tony Barton 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿? No. 15 vs. 17 

Had Graham Turner 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🟥 lost less games than Tony Barton 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿? No. 

Had Graham Turner 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 delivered more points than Tony Barton 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿? No. 56 vs. 60 

Beyond the statistics however there was, as there often is, a fervent hope, a belief, if not an expectation that it could come good under Turner. Indeed in perhaps a handful of games in 1984-85 there was a suggestion that something better was possible, the vast majority of performances however suggested more struggles ahead. 

Combined with the continued unnecessary and wilfully damaging loss of senior, influential and talented players. The fact was that Turner’s management style and aura was not for every player. It was perhaps inevitable therefore that Villa were now immeasurably weaker under Ellis and Turner than in 1983-84. 

It’s probably difficult for a modern day fan to understand the influence the old, provincial football Chairman had over a club in the 1970s and 1980s but it was akin to a personal fiefdom. 

The enmity to the likes of Ellis wasn’t Villa’s alone but none of these self proclaimed Lords of the Manor had wreaked as much havoc as him, taking the Champions of Europe to rank poor mediocrity in two seasons. 

First appearing in the 60’s, Ellis was immediately a de-stabilising and unlikable influence on Aston Villa, the 80’s however were where his real harm was done. Those of us who lived it could, and would never, forgive Ellis as he held the club back throughout the 80’s, 90’s and early 2000’s.

The high-points experienced by Villa over that period were despite, not because of, Ellis, as greater talents, always for a short period of time, were able to inspire Villa to better things before Ellis stepped in to take the club backwards. 

What was, and remains, unifying however was the concern at the Herbert Douglas Ellis policy of selling the club’s stars being extended to the most promising of youth players. 

Ellis brought in one ageing foreign 'star' who lasted all of 6 months whilst overseeing the sale of seven first-teamers, including four who had won both the League and European Cup in the previous three seasons. 

Also gone was 1984-85’s top goalscorer and Tony Barton 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 signing Paul Rideout 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿. A transfer that laid bare that Ellis destructive tendencies had nothing to do with an ageing squad but rather a thirst for money. For good measure Ellis and Turner also deemed it necessary to jettison Villa's other striker of renown, Peter Withe 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿. 

Centre forward Paul Rideout 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 20 make his 🕒 63rd and final appearance in a Villa before being sold to Bari for a fee of £400,000 in June 1985 as the opportunity proved too tempting for Ellis to not cash in. Rideout left with a record of 🟩 W26 🟨 D12 🟥 L25, ⚽ 22 Goals and 🔥 7 Assists.

Centre forward Peter Withe 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 33 makes his 🕒 233rd and final appearance in a Villa shirt before moving on to Sheffield United in July 1985. Withe 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 was the tenth member of the fourteen man League title winning squad that had now left the club.

As a result, just three years after Villa lifted the European Cup and four years since winning the League title there are now just four players left on Villa’s books who had been the backbone of that all-conquering side.

Withe who like everybody struggled under Turner's 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 reign had scored just ⚽ 12 goals in 🕒 43 appearances under Villa's latest boss including ⚽ three in his 🕒 final 4 appearances. Prior to Turner's 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 unwelcome arrival Withe 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 had hit ⚽ 78 goals in 🕒 190 games and contributed 🔥 32 assists. A better manager would have continued to extract those results from an always committed player.

Withe left with a record of 🟩 W111 🟨 D48 🟥 L74, ⚽ 90 Goals and 🔥 44 Assists.