Dean Smith has been appointed as Aston Villa manager but the lifelong fan has a big job on his hands if he is to take the club back to the Premier League.

It has been a very tough few years for all connected to the West Midlands club, with a string of bad decisions and poor owners leaving them languishing in the second tier.

Whilst there's no one single reason for their demise, Villa have been extremely wasteful in the transfer market.

Poor signings left the side without any real quality as they were relegated from the Premier League and the first season in the Championship under Roberto Di Matteo saw them waste so much money.

Therefore, when we come to look at FOUR of the worst signings from Villa's last five years, there really is a lot of competition.

Here are the players we went with...

The experienced defender signed from local rivals West Brom and was seen as a positive addition at the time.

However, he had a very poor season, with the former England international way past his best.

The side were relegated from the Premier League for the first time and picked up a disgraceful 17 points, whilst Lescott didn't endear himself to fans with his 'accidental' tweet.

The former Manchester City man joined at the same time as Lescott and had a similarly tough time in that relegation campaign.

To make matters worse for Villa, Richards signed a big-money contract and is incredibly still on their books.

Obviously, that's not his fault but the club are still paying hefty wages to a player that hasn't featured for the past few seasons now.

The youngster was a £5m signing from Reading as Villa looked to freshen up their squad back in the Championship.

However, that now seems a ridiculous fee for someone who hasn't made an impact in the West Midlands.

Tshibola played eight league games for the club and has been sent on loan in the past few windows, with the 23-year-old now with Kilmarnock.

Probably the worst of the lot, McCormack was the proven goalscorer signed to fire Villa back to the Premier League for a £12m fee.

But, his time in the West Midlands has been a disaster.

The Scotland international has managed three goals in 20 games and is now out on loan in Australia for the second time, highlighting how much his reputation has dropped.

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