 He revitalised the team, and Villa finished seventh in the Premiership and qualified for the UEFA Cup.Usually, only the top six teams qualified for European competition, but due to the progress of other teams in the top seven it was the first time that a seventh placed club had automatically qualified for the UEFA Cup.Despite the £12.6 million sale of Dwight Yorke, a player who had scored 97 goals in 287 appearances for the club, to Manchester United in August 1998, John Gregory had guided Aston Villa to the top of the Premiership by the middle of the 1998–99 season.