BFR - Great football in that first year, a team that looked like it could win every match it played. The second season saw Townsend in (good) but Whittingham? And the promising youth players were not pushed on in perhaps the right way. A League Cup win that felt so good - beating Man U and stopping their treble. Third season saw both wingers sold, the promising youth sold or sidelined and money was spent bringing in players that weren't ever going to be good enough - Fashanu anyone?
BL - Looked to have saved us before a run of poor results saw us saved on the last few days of the season. His buys were, initially, solid players - Taylor, Wright, Johnsen and then Draper, Southgate and Milosevic. Great first season - 4th, FA semi final and winning the league cup. Again, spent poor money in the following years and slowly lost his way before a terrible third season - especially with the money spent on Curcic and Collymore.
For that one season, he made us a genuine force - arguably the second best side in the country that year.
JG - Not suiting everyone's tastes, Gregory's time in Villa could be seen as 9 months on, 9 months off, repeat until crowd fall asleep. For all his good work, his spell saw us become 'Just Another premiership Club' - something that ignores the consistent finishes and the spells where we looked unstoppable. Winning the FA Cup would make it easier to argue his position. His alleged poor man-management got the best out of most players - the exceptions, all four of them, have such mitigating factors that you cannot simply blame Gregory and walk on. If he was so bad at motivating, how were we so consistent?
When he left, I genuinely feared for the club - he was onto a winner in 2001-2. Certainly a UEFA Cup spot and possibly a CL place for 2002-3. Seems so odd now, doesn't it? He also did win something, something that is a bit forgotten. OK, its the most minor first team trophy you can get, but it did put a buzz around that last season.
GT - Where will history put this spell? The signs weren't promising - 3 wins from February in a pretty fruitless run in to the end of the season - something JG would have bettered. Money spent on Crouch that looked increasingly like a bad buy. A few key players sidelined with various rumours about why.
In hindsight, its obvious that Taylor started what O'Leary is finishing - but was it necessary? Players like Merson and Stone could have helped us that year while their replacements in Kinsella, Leonhardsen were of a worse standard. Poor tactics, poor performances, poor results. A bitter end to a fruitful spell at the club.
And O'Leary? I think we should wait until he's been here more than 18 months. However, he appears to be taking us back to where we were under Little and Gregory, if not aiming higher. So far his spell has been good, with a few blips.