Aston Villa will have plenty of regrets following this season, it's been far from the promotion push they were hoping for.

After relegation from the Premier League last season, Villa fans will have been hoping for a charge to the Premier League this year, but the club has failed miserably and must rebuild heavily this summer.

The appointment of Steve Bruce as manager of the club has made little difference to their fortunes and has made public admissions, that his squad simply isn't up to the task.

After spending millions on their squad over the summer, appointing a new manager, adopting a new ownership model, there was certainly change in the ensuing summer post relegation.

Perhaps before they overhaul the squad they should take a look at the mistakes they made this year, so that they don't repeat any, and make a return to the Premier League at the second attempt.

 

Keeping too many of last season's squad

One of the worries I had for Villa at the beginning of the season was that there were too many of last season's players still knocking about, and after such an appalling year in the Premier League, that was not a good thing.

Seven players from last year's relegation nightmare still remain and are probably amongst the club's worst performers this year.

They should've cleared everyone out.

I think this is something Villa will have learnt from and Steve Bruce will be ruthless in making cuts this summer.

Appointing Di Matteo

I think Villa regretted this decision fairly quickly as Di Matteo was axed in early October, and was replaced with Steve Bruce, but this was really an uneducated appointment.

Di Matteo didn't seem to have a coherent plan when addressing the dire Villa squad he inherited, and a clear plan was what they needed to take them back up.

Steve Bruce looks to be a better fit for the club, he knows the division and he knows what it takes to go up.

Randomly splurging money in January

Talking about a lack of a plan, Villa seemed to do a Manchester United in that they splurged a load of money on the division's top performers like Scott Hogan and Conor Hourihane.

What's weirder is that they did it in January, where they brought in a number of players, which is never a good idea and never a way into the play-offs.

Perhaps they can be part of the squad put together in the summer, but spending loads on players in January was an extremely poor decision.

Villa fans... What do you make of this? What else do you regret this season? Let us know in the comments below!