The writing was on the wall for Tim Sherwood, even prior to Aston Villa's Saturday, October 24th home fixture against Swansea City. The 46-year-old manager had only been in charge at Villa Park for eight short months. But the Lions had been in dire straits throughout the 2015 2016 Premier League campaign, having fallen into the red zone at the end of September. Everyone in the soccer world knew that Sherwood's job was on the rocks. The question was whether or not he would prolong his stint with a win against Swansea City, or put the final nail in his own coffin with a loss. Ultimately the news came - Tim Sherwood sacked as Aston Villa manager, but his team didn't let him go easily.

For a few minutes in Saturday's game, it looked like Sherwood might be able to salvage his job-for another week, at least. The Lions managed to stay pretty equal with the Swans in terms of possession and shots on goal. At the 62-minute mark, they even scored the first point of the match, with Jordan Ayew netting a goal off an assist from Gabriel Agbonlahor. But Swansea equalized six minutes later, and just minutes before the end of the match, the visitors took the lead. Aston Villa lost the match 1-2, and Sherwood's fate was all but sealed.

Sure enough, on Sunday morning, the Aston Villa board officially sacked Tim Sherwood. Assistant manager Kevin MacDonald will serve as interim manager while the football club looks for a more permanent replacement. Former Lyon manager Remi Garde is the top candidate at this point in time.

Was Sherwood to Blame for Aston Villa's Woes?

The big question at this juncture is this: how much was Tim Sherwood to blame for his soccer team's failures this season? On one hand, since taking over for Paul Lambert in February, Sherwood has only managed a 35.7% win percentage. That figure is lower than the 50% average he had in his brief stint at Tottenham Hotspur, and he was sacked from that position as well.

Then again, Sherwood had a few flashes of promise while working with the Lions. When he took over at the football club around Valentine's Day, Aston Villa hadn't won a league fixture since December 7th. Sherwood won his third and fourth games in charge and orchestrated five victories during the latter part of the season. He helped Aston Villa win matches against respectable football clubs like Everton, West Ham United, and even Sherwood's former team, Tottenham Hotspur. Sherwood is the top reason that Aston Villa weren't relegated from the Premier League at the end of the 2014 2015 season. They finished 17th.

A Young Soccer Squad

Over the summer, though, Tim Sherwood had to deal with blow after blow as Aston Villa lost all of their best players. Christian Benteke and Fabian Delph were the biggest losses, but the Lions also said goodbye to Andreas Weimann, Tom Cleverley, Ron Vlaar, and Shay Given since Sherwood arrived at the football club.

Sherwood has complained repeatedly that he wasn't in charge of many of the signings or transfers during the summer 2015 window. Whoever was in charge of the signings, their philosophy was clearly to rebuild Aston Villa's lineup with young or low-cost players. Jordan Ayew, Jordan Amavi, Idrissa Gueye, Rudy Gestede, Jordan Veretout, and Adama Traore were just a few of the soccer club's new signings this season.

There's plenty of talent on the pitch at Aston Villa. The problem is, the disparate talents that the club put together Aston Villa Away Shirt 2015 - 2016over the summer don't necessarily mesh well together. The club's summer transfer window built a patchwork squad for low cost, but failed to bring any vision or cohesion to the team, and also failed to replace dynamic stars like Benteke and Delph. Following his final game in charge, Sherwood said possibly the truest thing that can be said about Villa's 2015 2016 squad: "They can only give us what they can give us. We can't turn them into superstars."

Do you think Sherwood deserved to be sacked? Will his departure and replacement help the wearers of the Aston Villa shirt 2015 2016 find their feet? Or was Sherwood just another case of a manager being blamed for a shoddily assembled football team? Link up with Soccer Box on social media to share your views! You can find us on multiple platforms including Twitter, Pinterest, and Google +.