Remi Garde was put out of his misery this evening as Villa opted to start life as a Championship team under a different manager.
He walked into a chronically depressed club and left it in an even grimmer mood than he found it.
There is only one question to ask now.
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How does his record stack up against the legendarily bad managers in English Premier League football - we're talking names like Steve Kean, Les Reed, Chris Hutchings, Sammy Lee and John Carver.
All of these men were unlucky enough to inherit bad teams but ones whose badness was to reach full expression under their stewardship.
A large proportion were natural assistants unwisely promoted beyond their station by panicky chairman.
In other roles, they may have flourished - Les Reed, for instance, is a very well-regarded head of youth development at Southampton - but it for their sorry managerial stints that they are remembered by most casual fans.
In all competitions, Garde took charge of Villa for 23 matches. He won three of those games, a tally which included a narrow FA Cup win over Wycombe, drew seven, and lost thirteen.
In 20 Premier League games, they won two.
With six more draws, he amassed a total of 12 points, giving him a points per game ratio of 0.6%.
Breaking news: Remi Garde leaves @avfcofficial after just four months. This is his Premier League record #football … pic.twitter.com/RbD9RWKjnr
— AVTV (@avtv) March 29, 2016
Where does this place Garde among the scions of the bad manager list. In terms of ratio, nowhere near the worst.
In fact, his time at Villa sees him no higher than 15th on the list.
His Premier League record is worse than the likes of Tony Adams and Paul Ince, men who might be expected to be formidable contenders in such a list. Adams reached the tally of two wins in 16 games, as opposed to Garde's 20, giving him a better ratio. Ince achieved three wins in 17 matches during his unhappy spell in charge at Blackburn.
It will take a reign of almost deliberate badness to knock Terry Connor off the summit in this decade. He managed Wolves for the final thirteen games of the 2011-12 season, without winning a single one. They amassed four points from a possible 39. His win ratio of 0% will take some beating.
Other historically unfortunate managerial choices include Steve Wigley, whose previous spell at Aldershot convinced Rupert Lowe, in late 2004, that he was the ready to take on the top job at Southampton.
Unlike Terry Connor, Wigley did achieve that elusive win, beating hated rivals Portsmouth no less. However, it's also true that he was in charge for fourteen games. Had Terry been afforded the opportunity of another match, he might attained those shimmering three-points.
Last year, Sky Sports looked at the worst fifteen managerial stints in Premier League history.
We have to go back to the turn of 1993-94 to find the statistically poorest record ever. In a traumatic season for Everton, caretaker and ex-player Jimmy Gabriel achieved one point from seven matches.
He was swiftly replaced by Norwich manager Mike Walker. Everton managed to escape the drop in dramatic circumstances with a 3-2 win over Wimbledon on the final day of the season.
