Aston Villa

The club was founded in 1874 and has played at Villa Park since 1897. George Ramsay was considered the first football manager in the world when he was hired to run the team in June 1886.

Aston Villa won the FA Cup in 1887 behind captain Archie Hunter who scored in every round. They were a founding member of the Football League in 1888. 

Aston Villa’s First League Title

Aston Villa won their first League title in 1893-94 with a second FA Cup the following year. They took back-to-back League titles in 1895-96 and 1896-97 before adding another FA Cup and two more League titles before 1901.

A fourth FA Cup followed in 1904-05 and they finished the first decade of the century with another League title in 1909-10. 

The years right after World War I were kind to Villa as they won a sixth FA Cup in 1920 behind Billy Walker, who went on to become the club’s all-time leading goal scorer.

Ramsay retired as manager in 1926 and Billy Smith took over. Aston Villa betting would have been great as the 1930-31 team finished as runners-up with a still-league record 128 goals, 49 from Tom Waring. 

First Division

Five years later they allowed 110 goals and were relegated for the first time ever. Two years later they were back in the First Division under manager Jimmy Hogan.

They struggled to recover from World War II and didn’t win another trophy until taking the FA Cup in 1957 over Manchester United. Another relegation followed before Aston Villa won the first-ever Football League Cup in 1961. 

Joe Mercer retired in 1964 after a stroke and Villa was relegated again in 1967. Instead of a quick bounceback this time, the team finished 16th in the Second Division.

An ownership change didn’t help as Villa was relegated to the Third Division for the first time ever in 1970.

They fell in the League Cup Final in 1971 and won the division in 1972 to move back to the Second Division. 

Ron Saunders not only got Aston Villa back into the First Division but also won a League Cup and qualified the team for European competition.

They won the League title in 1981 to complete the comeback and beat Bayern Munich in 1982 to win the European Cup on a goal by Peter Withe. They followed with a Super Cup win over Barcelona in the summer. 

Things took a nose-dive from there and by 1987 Villa were back in the Second Division. Graham Taylor came to the rescue to get Villa back in the First League and they finished as runners-up in 1990.

Charter Member of the Premier League

In 1992 they were a charter member of the Premier League, joining Everton and Blackburn Rovers as the only teams to be founding members in 1888 in the Premier League.

Manager Ron Atkinson led Aston Villa to a second-place finish in the first Premier League season and a League Cup title in 1994 and 1996.

They were able to tread water over the next few years, bouncing around the Premier League standings and they were sold twice between 2005 and 2016. 

Aston Villa were relegated in 2015 after a club-record 19-game winless run. They cycled through a handful of managers before Steve Bruce got a fourth-place finish in 2018.

The team sold again in 2018 and Dean Smith took over as manager. This time they won in the playoffs and went back to the Premier League.

The 2019-20 season ended with a 17th place finish that improved to an 11th place finish in 2020-21. Steven Gerrard took over as manager in November 2021 and kept Aston Villa out of a relegation battle.