NIVillan

That, though I never liked the kit to wear because of the medieval larping. But probably remembered fondly it will be associated with one of the Best Villa Teams over past 30 years when they were runners up under Big Ron. I liked the previous season Umbro white away that had a black and blue boxes on the sleeves.

Not a chance. I have already stated on here I can not see the love in with Luke. Luke didnt design or manufacturer the kit, just stuck a bloody ugly looking badge on it that looked cheap. I disliked the home kit and the white away was okay but as some said a bit boring. Gold Standard for me is 74-81 But you state last 30 years hence the reply and not a chance. The Umbro kits for example from the first part of that period out do luke easily. Includes the round neck with strings. We have had some disgusting kits in that time, mainly anything involving thick stripes. Last years 3rd kit is really nice when you see it in real life , just I dont see it as a Villa kit due to the colours.

I signed up for the Athletic last year when they had their 60% off offer. I did it even though I do not like Gregg Evans writing. Didnt like it when he wrote for the Brum Mail but I thought new day and all that. Been very disapointed wit the Athletic. The articles you think are going to be great just filter out to nothing. One of the best was about two boys who were adopted by Cloughie but on the Villa side articles that had the potential to be like that just skimmed the surface of issues. I dont think I will be renewing as I just ignore most of the Villa articles now.

I missed Savo's moment at Wmebley for same reason

Only because of how well Angel did for 1.5 seasons. Angel was written off in exactly the same way. I saw enough in little flashes against Leicester which I think was his debut to think we had signed a decent player. Samatta before the restart had shown a few flashes such as his header in the Cup Final, no I dont think he is the same level as Angel BUT If Samatta can give the same return as Angel for one season and propel us to 5th in the Table, we are in Europe again and can attract better players. For what he cost is peanuts for a decent striker so we might as well see if it works out.

I havent been too impressed with Samatta but I hold out hope that like Angel before him who came in half way through a season he is a slow starter that needs to settle.

Just as the players , our manager was on a big learning curve this year. There were promising signs early on and then some low points but since restart we can see an improvement and signs that Dean Smith is also learning his trade. I think he will come good but it might be a bit more slowly than some people want or desire. When he joined we were what 15th in the Championship, against the odds he got us up. This season we looked dead and buried. I think with 4 games to go it was 93% chance we were going to be relegated. In my old mind this is up there with GT MK1 achievements. In a way it is better as just like GT , DS kept Villa up by one point. GT had the luxury of the top goal scorer playing for Villa in Rambo with Platt and Cowans behind him.

Just a thought, wasnt Salah just as bad when he first came in at Chelsea and why they sold him?

Targett has talent but as mentioned on here so many times is soft and lacks bottle. You realy need your backs to be able to dig in and even if being given a run around hang in there,

Yes Im the same never really liked those shirts especially the black,red and green thing. This years version has grown on me as bought it the boys when it went cheap but not as a Villa kit. I had that striped home kit as well but that was because I nearly died in hospital and was bought it as a way of cheering me up. Wore it for that season but not much after. Good Job we didnt win the Cup in 2000 because the kits that year were disgusting as well.

This reminds me of selling Platty. We had a shit poor season where we just beat relegation by a whisker. Big Ron was brought in to much fanfare and we all felt that He and platty as captain was the future of the Villa Team. Instead we recieved a massive at the time offer for Platty, and Big Ron decided to sell him but then used that money to rebuild the team. What was it 13 odd players in that summer? Some worked (Regis, Staunton, Atkinson), some didnt (Mortimer) but it took us back up to 6th. Following season added Saunders and we had one of the best seasons we have had for standard of football. Maybe selling Grealish might be the best thing for Villa and allow other players to shine. Everything goes through him at the moment, just like COwans pass for platty to run on was a standard move back then.

I guess I didn't buy into the hype about the Luke Kits cause as you said I had seen them before in 83/84 (Not sure what exactly we were celebrating about that period of time though. Withe scoring a hattrick in the UEFA Cup? I still cant understand the glorification of the Luke Kits. Feel like I am the only one looking at the Emperor with new clothes. Luke Roper did not design the kits, he paid for his emblem to be on the kits, sort of a shirt sponsorship. Probably best money he paid seeing all the glory he gets. The ones who designed the kits and produced the kits were the same people who run our club shop and they take a battering off our fans (rightly so for stock levels). I might not be right but I think it was going to be the same sort of deal with this years kits but Kappa said they wanted more of a say in the design. I also think this years kits are far better than the Luke ones. Even Macron some of their designs were not too bad (and they tried to be different as was requested) but the quality fell short. Umbro has always been the peak for me when it comes to Villa Kits, though nowadays they are not the same company after being gutted by Nike.

Yes hated the third kit at first (Stilkl do the 90s kit that inspired it) but when it became cheap I bought it for my boys. As a football kit it is pretty nice and tsands out when they are football training. As a Villa kit Im not so sure. As a purist the kits from 74-81 are my ideal templates of kits.

I was comparing it to Filbert Street, not a patch on Villa Park of course

I studied and lived for a while in Leicester and yes their expectations and how the view themselves has gone to their heads but there are a couple of buts. Firstly they are still paranoid about Villa. Have to put Villa down anytime they can. They mention 1982 to me more than any Villa fan saying we are always going on about it. Pretty funny. Secondly they are not the club they were before winning the League. Look at their signings. Our record signing is around 24/25 million, they ar elooking this summer at a 50 million striker to partner Vardy. Signed other 30/40 million players. Fairly New Stadium which they are rightly proud of (Had a dinner function their once with friends never seen a match their though). A brand new state of art Training facility is being built or has just been finished. They are setup for success and are setup really how Villa should have kicked on mid 90s with Little/Gregory bringing top 6/7 stability. With the money being spent etc they rightly expect Rodgers to back up all his guff on how wonderful he is and take them into the top 4. Wolves are moving in the same direction. I think we have the owners and admin in place to move back up and challenge but there might be setbacks like this season on the way.

If his Dive had not been so over the top he might have got the penalty. At first I thought it was a pen but when you watch especially in slow motion it looks a dramatic dive. Also something should have been done about the Palace captain who firstly rushed over and just shoved Grealish, then tried to stamp on his knackers.

Nope he flatters to deceive as I told my Leicester mates at the beginning of the season. Always fades out. Liverpool got worse each season after a season fuelled by Suarez. Celtic dominate and win everything while Rangers were not on. the scene. Celtic also got worse as Rodgers signings replaced older team players. He would have been perfect to bring in at the beginning of the restart though to give us a quick boost.

Sean Dyche makes a lot more sense than those calling Eddie Howe. Dyche has done a much better job results wise than Howe despite having less resources to work with. Howe has been heavily backed by the owner where Dyche is being undermined and kept on a short financial leash. Would Dyche be the man to take us further not sure. Might be a bit like ONeill whose ceiling was 6th despite spenmding huge amounts of money. Depends if he could grow himself to cope with the higher status of player you would need to break through.

This, my 13 year old nagged me to watch the match on the Anniversary, missed the online showing so I dug out the DVD. I warned him it was one way traffic and that we managed to get a shot in, though I was trying to remember as I had not really watch the game since that night in 82. First half it was pretty even and we applied ourselves very well. They didnt really create a clear cut chance and Withe was causing them problems without creating a chance for ourselves. I wandered off and missed the start of second half where my son shouted through I think you remember the second half. We were heavily under the cosh for the first 20 odd minutes but again we worked our way back into it where we contained them pretty much and of course created the goal. Even at the end when they created chances and the offside goal we wasnt too stretched, you only got nervous in hindsight cause it was a 1-0 lead and you were worried the Dream was going to end. That team though was built to play exactly like that. Soak up large amounts of pressure and then fast rapier attacks. Very underestimated and under valued. An old boss who was a Spurs fan said to me that he saw Spurs vs Villa at EHL in 1981. He said that Villa were a great team and deserved to be champions. The other thing I blanked out of my mind was that we wore all white, as a Kid I have the away kit with the claret shorts so when I thought back to that night my mind skipped that we wore white shorts as well.

It was a crime that more of that team wasn't taken to the 1982 World Cup, especially Shaw and Morley.

I would say Paul McGrath was also a bit of a hardman. Not much got past him and he played on dodgy knees most of his career.

The League and European Cup winning team didnt have what is considered a hard man as such in the Midfield. McKnaught and Evans were often quoted as being the hardest pair of center backs and Withe up front could throw himself around. The Midfield were grafters, skilful grafters at that, Bremenr never stopped and tackled the shit out of the other side, Mortimer organised and helped turn defense to attack quickly and then you had the sublime skill of Cowans. All could tackle and hold their own but were not hard men as such. Even Cowans tackled like a demon. Not sure if Morley or Shaw tackled anyone . But of course they had other skills

Embarrassment??? Yeah an old fart like myself was very embarrassed as they won the League in 1981 wearing white home shorts and that I think the majority of our history has been with white shorts. Pure Villa to myself who started supporting Villa in the 1970s is Claret Body, Blue Arms and white Shorts. To me the love in for the Luke kit last season was embarrassing as it wasn't a Villa kit and I didnt like the Original Le Coq kit it copied from the 80s.

ITSOTP! Will not jump for joy that we have been saved until officially confirmed.

Lol I was typing as reading the sky report and that is what they called it