Eh, Villa have spent a lot of money on transfers and wages to try and reach that next level. They never really did it, though and if Damon's right and that phase is over and they're going to be spending less from now on then and if that means they're going to lose their best players and not replace them then you'll have to say they've gambled and lost (as they didn't win anything during their 'good times').
We never gambled at all, because we didn't have the money to splash about, though I would say our team needed far less investment to reach that level.
The result might be that we had a better season than Villa did this year but we also had a a better season than Villa did two and three years ago. VIlla were never the team we really needed to overtake.
Two/three years ago, we were the fifth best team in England, not really good enough to catch the top 4 that often (though we came close twice and were damned unlucky the year we did finish fourth) but better than the rest of the league. Now City and Spurs have joined the elite and we're probably the seventh best team in England, not really good enough to catch the top 6 but better than the rest of the league.
It's all very well comparing us with Villa, Newcastle, Sunderland, Bolton, Stoke, Fulham et all. Those are teams we're currently doing better than despite spending less money. And good for us, you know. But I don't want to be the best of the rest, I don''t want to be 7th, I want to do what Spurs and City have done and catch the elite. It's the gap between us and the big boys that's worrying me, not the gap between us and the Sunderlands of the world.
I think if you're looking over your shoulder you're doing something wrong.