Sliding door moments

[AvfcRigo82]

21 minutes ago, KentVillan said:

Ellis failing to back Gregory is another one

Yes, Benito Carbone stands out to me.

Ellis wouldn't cough up the extra few quid for his wages.

 

Also, as others have mentioned Luc Nilis.

We had managed to get his partner from their PSV days in Giles de Bilde to the club to try reunite the force they were. Sadly, Nilis never recovered.  

[HKP90]

33 minutes ago, KentVillan said:

Gabby bulking up in the off season. A completely unforced error that probably ruined his unique superpower of destroying defences on the counter as a wide forward

Gabby was very limited, but it was a good superpower.

I also remember him being the most frustrating player.

But running really fast in a straight line, forget about it.

[mjmooney]

53 minutes ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

We had managed to get his partner from their PSV days in Giles de Bilde to the club to try reunite the force they were. Sadly, Nilis never recovered. 

And Bob de Bilde was awful. Genuinely one of the worst players I've ever seen at Villa. 

[bannedfromHandV]

1993 is the big one for me. If we’d won the first premier league title instead of United who knows where we’d be. It would have been Villa and Villa players being out front and centre by Sky, not United, Cantona and Ferguson.

[The_Rev]

12 hours ago, Mantis said:

June 2020 - the infamous goal-line technology blunder. Of course we could well have fought back and got something from the game, although at the time it's worth remembering how fragile we were. If we'd lost that game, it does seem unlikely that we would've stayed up that season due to how close it ended up being. Relegation would've meant Grealish leaving a year earlier, and the project being set back years. No Martinez, no Emery etc.

 

I'm not sure I accept this one.   It's been talked about to death, mostly because it was the first game back after a hundred days without any football and the entire country was watching but it's importance has been overstated.  People like to talk about it as if it were another Aguerooooo! moment when the fact of the matter is that it was in the first half of our 29th game of the season.   It had as much of an impact on our points tally than the ref in the Palace game earlier that season having a meltdown and disallowing Henri Lansbury's 90th minute equaliser against Palace because he wanted to book Jack Grealish for diving even though Grealish had passed the ball and assisted the goal. 

 

But that wasn't on TV so it got forgotten about. 

[sne]

Goal line technology not working.

[bobzy]

I don't really remember what games have lead to, generally, so don't have much contribution to what is a great thread.

 

The main one I remember is losing 3-2 at Leicester.  Just turned into such a pivotal game for both teams that season.  That said, I doubt we've had particularly kicked on - it would've more likely meant Leicester stumbled in their title attempt.  Thinking about it, maybe it's for the best that we lost!

[KentVillan]

7 minutes ago, The_Rev said:

 

I'm not sure I accept this one.   It's been talked about to death, mostly because it was the first game back after a hundred days without any football and the entire country was watching but it's importance has been overstated.  People like to talk about it as if it were another Aguerooooo! moment when the fact of the matter is that it was in the first half of our 29th game of the season.   It had as much of an impact on our points tally than the ref in the Palace game earlier that season having a meltdown and disallowing Henri Lansbury's 90th minute equaliser against Palace because he wanted to book Jack Grealish for diving even though Grealish had passed the ball and assisted the goal. 

 

But that wasn't on TV so it got forgotten about. 

Fully agree with this. Was made out to be a much bigger incident than it was. Every team will have the odd refereeing howler here or there throughout the season that gains or costs points.

It wasn't against a relegation rival, it was mid season ... storm in a teacup. Bournemouth robbed us at Villa Park early that season too, no tears for them.

[AvfcRigo82]

39 minutes ago, mjmooney said:

And Bob de Bilde was awful. Genuinely one of the worst players I've ever seen at Villa. 

Yes, didn't quite work out for him really did it.

Another one for the 'worst players to play for Villa' hall of fame as you say.

[Delphinho123]

43 minutes ago, The_Rev said:

 

I'm not sure I accept this one.   It's been talked about to death, mostly because it was the first game back after a hundred days without any football and the entire country was watching but it's importance has been overstated.  People like to talk about it as if it were another Aguerooooo! moment when the fact of the matter is that it was in the first half of our 29th game of the season.   It had as much of an impact on our points tally than the ref in the Palace game earlier that season having a meltdown and disallowing Henri Lansbury's 90th minute equaliser against Palace because he wanted to book Jack Grealish for diving even though Grealish had passed the ball and assisted the goal. 

 

But that wasn't on TV so it got forgotten about. 

This was a truly, truly awful decision from the most arrogant bloke to referee the game. 

[Delphinho123]

The biggest for me in recent times was losing to Fulham in the play offs. It was absolutely the best thing that has happened to this club in the last 5-7 years simply because that Xia would have caused untold damage to the club had we been promoted. He was a fraudster and a con-man. 

Luckily, we lost, and we have two incredible owners who saved us, brought in a world class manager, and now we’re on the cusp of Europe. 

Lord only knows where we’d be had we gone up that year in the playoffs under Xia.

[rjw63]

24 minutes ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

Yes, didn't quite work out for him really did it.

Another one for the 'worst players to play for Villa' hall of fame as you say.

De Bilde only played 4 games for Villa,  hard to judge him as one of the worst ever, although I did see him play and he wasn't up to much.

[VBM]

I always think about 92/93. 

First premier league season, us and Man U fighting it out for the title. Their injury time comeback against Sheffield Wednesday which if memory serves saw them go above us in the table. I wonder how different the trajectory of the two clubs would have been over the last 30 years if we had won that year. 

 

[AvfcRigo82]

11 minutes ago, rjw63 said:

De Bilde only played 4 games for Villa,  hard to judge him as one of the worst ever, although I did see him play and he wasn't up to much.

It might have worked out better for him had Nilis not had his career ended.

Atleast it was only a loan from Sheff Wed IIRC? So it wasn't as bad as say Bosko Balaban.

 

[VillaChris]

10 hours ago, wishywashy said:

Heaton just ever so slightly landing awkwardly during a routine save and tearing his ACL led to Argentina winning the Copa America and World Cup

A few months later aswell Leno injured himself so that's how Emi played all the games in run in for Arsenal although perhaps he'd have started in FA cup regardless.

[VillaChris]

10 hours ago, HKP90 said:

It's the off season in 2000.

The year before we finished 6th in the league despite our strike force consisting of a tenacious but aging Dion Dublin, and a pacey, instinctive, but ultimately limited Julian Joachim.

It's time to step up and put the club where it should be. One of the top teams, forever and in perpetuity.

We turned to a player with international credibility. A player who scored 110 goals in 164 matches for PSV, who had played in the Champions League the previous season, and who had been capped 54 times for Belgium. A cultured technical player that you might see at Arsenal, or Liverpool.

I give you..Luc Nilis

He's the last piece in the puzzle. The offensive weapon to match the stubborn defence we already have.

We all know what happened next. He scored on his Villa debut in the intertoto Cup. He scored on his league debut against Chelsea. And then we knew we could compete against the big boys.

Two games later against Ipswich, after a quiet first half, Luc scored a brace, which was the catalyst for a run of 8 games unbeaten. He finishes with 19 league goals, firing Villa to 3rd, and Europe. The next few years Villa consolidated, using our European qualification to attract talent from France and Spain, which led in 2007 to Villa's first league title since 1981. And the rest, as they say is history.

(Dion Dublin was our top scorer in 2000-2001 with 9 goals in 35 games. Despite that, because of our stubborn defence we finish 8th, but never quite capitalise on our opportunity)

Nilis looked class and his goal against Chelsea was brilliant but he was about 33 when he turned up and back then it was pretty much end of career so not someone the next manager after Gregory would've got much out of.

I think go back 12 months and not signing Robbie Keane was a massive mistake as he'd have worked very well with Dublin and then potentially a year later JPA.

Add in Juninho and we could've had a really exciting strikeforce but we didn't sign them and then got in Bosko Balaban for similar price!

[bielesibub]

1 hour ago, mjmooney said:

And Bob de Bilde was awful. Genuinely one of the worst players I've ever seen at Villa. 

Bob de Bilde can he kick it? Bob de Bilde no he can't! 

[KentVillan]

11 minutes ago, VBM said:

I always think about 92/93. 

First premier league season, us and Man U fighting it out for the title. Their injury time comeback against Sheffield Wednesday which if memory serves saw them go above us in the table. I wonder how different the trajectory of the two clubs would have been over the last 30 years if we had won that year. 

 

I think it's a bit of a myth that Ferguson just surfed the Sky money wave. He was already one of the best managers in British football on paper, with the Aberdeen record + a couple of English cups under his belt.

A team containing Schmeichel, Bruce, Pallister, Irwin, Ince, Cantona, Giggs was always going to win trophies, then throw Beckham, Scholes, Butt, etc. in from the youth setup... I don't think we would have competed in reality, even with more money and more marketing appeal from winning the inaugural title.

Most likely we would have just fallen back into being a top 4 or 5 side even if we'd won the league, and Man Utd would have still kicked on and dominated the 90s.

[VillaChris]

35 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

The biggest for me in recent times was losing to Fulham in the play offs. It was absolutely the best thing that has happened to this club in the last 5-7 years simply because that Xia would have caused untold damage to the club had we been promoted. He was a fraudster and a con-man. 

Luckily, we lost, and we have two incredible owners who saved us, brought in a world class manager, and now we’re on the cusp of Europe. 

Lord only knows where we’d be had we gone up that year in the playoffs under Xia.

Funnily enough 2018 play off final was probably the worst I'd felt about losing a game since 2010 league cup final (2015 FA cup was terrible but let's be honest we were never in that from basically the kick off).

To me it did genuinely feel the end for us for the next decade with talk of administration and selling pretty much every member of our squad who could move. That was a long summer and luckily  NSWE took over start of August. Pretty remarkable 5 years on we're on the brink of europe.

 

[jacketspuds]

Jan 2009 - Being heavily linked to Luiz Suarez but, in classic MON fashion, deciding to stick with PL experience and sign Heskey instead.

Oct 2022 - The 3-0 hammering at Fulham that led to Stevie G getting the boot and our owners appointing the best manager we've had in as long as I can remember.