2009/10 to 2017/18

Aston Villa spent seven of the nine seasons from 2009/10 to 2017/18 in the Premier League and two in the Championship. Their best finish was 6th, in 2009/10. They didn’t win a major trophy. Over those nine summers they paid £154m in transfer fees and took in £117.3m, a net spend of £36.6m. In 115.football they get City’s £900m instead.

Sixth in 2009/10, with James Milner, Ashley Young and a young Fabian Delph on the books, Aston Villa looked like a club on the way up. It did not last. Gareth Barry had already gone to Manchester City that summer, Milner followed him in 2010 and Young left for Manchester United in 2011. The finishes slid: 16th, 15th, 15th, 17th. Christian Benteke's £32.5m move to Liverpool in 2015 took the goals away, and 2015/16 ended bottom with 17 points.

Two seasons in the Championship followed. Ross McCormack and Jonathan Kodjia were bought for £12m and £11m to get them back up, and 2017/18 ended in fourth.

The 115.football premise fits Villa almost too neatly. Their best players kept being bought by the rich. With City's money of your own, Barry, Milner and Young stay, Benteke gets a proper supporting cast, and the decline never starts.