Two seasons earlier, Aston Villa narrowly missed out on the league title. The season after that, they dipped to 10th place in the league but still had success as League Cup winners. But the decline continued into 1994-95 and Ron Atkinson paid for this with his job in November. Within days, former Villa favourite Brian Little was back at the club as Atkinson's successor, and managed to keep Villa clear of the drop.

Before the season was over, a new era was already in the making at Villa Park. A number of players now past their best were off-loaded to new clubs; these included Ray Houghton, Garry Parker, Kevin Richardson and Earl Barrett. The close season saw more players from the Atkinson era pass through the Villa Park exit door: Shaun Teale, Dalian Atkinson, Dean Saunders and John Fashanu. Little brought in younger players like Mark Draper, Ian Taylor, Savo Milosevic, Nii Lamptey, Carl Tiler, Gary Charles and Alan Wright to give some much-needed strength to a side of fading stars, as well as giving such much-needed hope to fans of a club which had been rescued from the threat of a rapid decline.

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