Villa end a season littered with turmoil with successive wins to lift them to a scarcely believable ninth placed finish nine points above the relegation places.

Caretaker Gary McAllister confounds all expectations and ends the season on a high with a second successive win against a top 6 side to rise to 9th in the table nine points clear of the relegation places. 

Although the final placing flattered a Villa side that under Gérard Houllier looked to be free falling towards relegation, the final five games with a galvanising focus on tight and consistent team selection, suggested the capability had been there all along and that a better managerial appointment would have extracted the optimum out of a set of players who often seemed distracted and below par. 

Sadly the mess that the Villa hierarchy had made of the appointment and the struggles the club faced left a number of players of the mindset that they were better off out of the club they had served so well. 

Gérard Houllier had already shipped out John Carew, Steve Sidwell and Curtis Davies during his short, disastrous tenure; he had also ostracised Stephen Warnock for no apparent reason. Now, the exodus would continue.

The loanee Kyle Walker would of course leave, but so would the excellent Brad Friedel, Stewart Downing and most critically Ashley Young. 

Few sides could survive that number of squad losses, let alone players of the quality of Carew, Friedel, Downing, Young and Warnock. But Lerner, Houllier and Faulkner had set the rot in progress and few could have any complaints that a player of the talent and commitment of Ashley Young - who had arguably wasted a season - looked elsewhere to take his career to the level it had once seemed possible with Villa. 

It would be almost a decade before Villa saw players of a similar quality return to the club as one of the most challenging periods in Villa’s history that had begun with Houllier accelerated in earnest over the following few seasons. 

Winger Ashley Young makes the 190th and final appearance of his first spell with Villa (186 Starts) aged 25 before moving on to Manchester United for a fee of £16,200,000 in July 2011. Young leaves with a record of W82 D57 L51, 38 Goals, 62 Assists, 35 Bookings and 2 Red Cards. Young would return to Villa a decade later under Dean Smith to take his total appearances in a Villa shirt to 247.

Goalkeeper Brad Friedel, 40, makes his 131st and final appearance for Villa before moving on to Tottenham Hotspur on a free transfer in July 2011. Friedel would leave with a record of W56 D39 L36, 160 Goals Conceded at a rate of 1.29 goals per game, 36 Clean Sheets (27%) 2 Bookings and 1 Red Card across his 3 seasons with Villa. That would, however, only tell half the story. Friedel’s first two seasons under Martin O’Neill would deliver 88 Appearances, W41 D27 L20, 104 Goals Conceded at a rate of 1.18 goals per game and 29 Clean Sheets (33%). In stark contrast, under the post O’Neill management Friedel’s record was 43 Appearances, W15 D12 L16, 65 Goals Conceded at a rate of 1.51 goals per game and 6 Clean Sheets (14%).

Midfielder Nigel Reo-Coker, 27, makes his 124th and final appearance in a Villa shirt before moving on to Bolton Wanderers in July 2011. Villa had paid £11,250,000 for Reo-Coker’s services in the Summer of 2007 and despite a record of W56 D33 L35, 3 Goals, 5 Assists, 24 Bookings and 1 Red Card across his 4 seasons with Villa was released on a free transfer.

Winger Stewart Downing, 26, makes his 79th and final appearance in a Villa shirt (73 Starts) before a surprise move to Liverpool for a fee of £20,520,000 in July 2011. Downing had arrived for £11,700,000 in July 2009 and delivered W33 D23 L23, 11 Goals, 13 Assists and 1 Booking at a goal involvement rate of one every 3.29 games played over his 2 seasons with Villa. 

Right back Kyle Walker, 21, makes his 18th and final appearance for Villa before returning to Tottenham Hotspur at the end of his loan spell. Walker was the sole transfer success under Houllier and his loss to the team was keenly felt as it was clear that Villa were no longer a destination for such top talent. Walker would predictably go on to have a stellar career as arguably the best right back in the World collecting a trophy cabinet bursting at the seams - needless to say none of that happened at his parent club Tottenham. Over his 5 months with Villa, Walker’s record in a struggling team was a healthy W7 D6 L5, 2 Goals, 3 Assists and 3 Bookings.

From the sublime to the ridiculous, midfielder Michael Bradley, 23, makes his 4th and final appearance in a Villa shirt before returning to Borussia Mönchengladbach at the end of his loan spell having made just 4 appearances, 3 as a substitute, over his 4 months with Villa. Bradley left with a record of W2 D1 L1, 0 Goals, 0 Assists and 0 Bookings.

James Collins secures his 30th win in a Villa shirt on his 74th appearance (69 Starts) to make it W30 D25 L19, 5 Goals and 12 Bookings so far in his Villa career.