VillaChris Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 On a general note Papillion given you're Norweigen I'd be interested to know why Norway has just declined so much as a football nation and are pretty similar to Scotland in that you just never get close to international tournaments anymore. I suppose the 90 early 00s was just a golden era for you even if the football wasn't pretty but still when I look at the squad you have then...good premeir league players like henning Berg and Heggem at the back, Leonardson in midfield and a great group of strikers in Flo, OGS, Carew and Iversen. Now what do you have nowadays. Hangeland and Riise in their 30s and about to retire and you're calling up Barnsley reserves like Pedersen. Certainly compared to Sweden and Denmark you're a fair bit off. In fairness i don't think Sweden have done well with youth development at all and Ibra has really kept them competitive so think they'll dip when he retires but Denmark still produce really good players like Christen Eriksen, Agger, Kjaer (way overrated though but would get in Norway's side) and hopefully okore. They're probably at the level Norway were in the 90s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 Ashley Young was quite brilliant when he was here, easily my favorite player in the last ten years. Sure Benteke has a higher level when he is playing at his best, but it's hard to appreciate anything when the rest of our team is so crap. Under MON and when we had Young et al we had a genuine belief of winning every single game at home. We didn't, of course, but we were even odds-on favorites to win against Arsenal at home one season. When did that happen lately? People wanted to see Villa, because we were both a good team and we played interesting football. Sure the current Everton-side is very appealing, but back then we even surpassed them in terms of interest for our team. Young was excellent at challenging the line and whipping in crosses for Carew, just imagine what could have happened if let's say we had signed Darren Bent back then instead of Emile Heskey. Lying nine points ahead of Arsenal at Christmas is no guarantee for a team like ours, but we really had a shot at that 4th spot back then. We did but for the money that was spent our football was one dimensional in those times. I actually think our best chance of 4th was in 09/10 but my memories of that campaign were the home games against Spurs and Man. City, both games we took early leads in but then sat back, let the opposition dominate and they eventually got ti back to 1-1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 On a general note Papillion given you're Norweigen I'd be interested to know why Norway has just declined so much as a football nation and are pretty similar to Scotland in that you just never get close to international tournaments anymore. I suppose the 90 early 00s was just a golden era for you even if the football wasn't pretty but still when I look at the squad you have then...good premeir league players like henning Berg and Heggem at the back, Leonardson in midfield and a great group of strikers in Flo, OGS, Carew and Iversen. Now what do you have nowadays. Hangeland and Riise in their 30s and about to retire and you're calling up Barnsley reserves like Pedersen. Certainly compared to Sweden and Denmark you're a fair bit off. In fairness i don't think Sweden have done well with youth development at all and Ibra has really kept them competitive so think they'll dip when he retires but Denmark still produce really good players like Christen Eriksen, Agger, Kjaer (way overrated though but would get in Norway's side) and hopefully okore. They're probably at the level Norway were in the 90s. not 100% sure but im sure the Norway manager build a style of football in 1994 that was effective but practically international Stoke minus the thuggery and also read after this was successful that a lot of domestic teams start playing the same way. Im sure he was also the same manager for the 2012 qualifiers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 Yes it was Egil Olsen. I'm just wondering why the quality of players has dramatically declined. As I put above in the 90s Norway could near enough field a premier league 11, now they have championship players in their squad. I suppose for small nations it's just all in cycles, Iceland and Wales have fantastic generation of players right now but that probably won't be the case in 10 years time when the squads hit their mid 30s as their populations are just too small to keep producing that level of quality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 yeah as you said Norway like Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, Denmark and up until very recently Belgium in that have had good periods in their recent football history and never really had the talent to sustain it like the major countries. Only Holland and Croatia of smaller size countries have been able to have a continual flow of talent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Rev Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 Croatia is an odd one, they have only had an independent football team for 20 years but the Slavic people have always been good at football. If they keep declaring independence from each other at the rate they have been since the 1990s it won't be long before all of the countries down there don't even have a population big enough to field a team. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post TRS-T Posted September 5, 2014 Popular Post Share Posted September 5, 2014 16 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrentVilla Posted September 5, 2014 Moderator Share Posted September 5, 2014 I miss the big guy. Just one of many reasons why I really don't like Houllier. When you look back to that time, we had a pretty decent side and some great times. What could have been. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArteSuave Posted September 5, 2014 Share Posted September 5, 2014 I'd not seen that high five fail with captain Jack before. Brilliant. There are some great highlights in that, particularly the goal against Stoke which is one of the most underrated goals in PL history IMO. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seat68 Posted September 5, 2014 Share Posted September 5, 2014 love that man, great memories. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted September 5, 2014 Share Posted September 5, 2014 Thought he was older Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post packoman Posted September 5, 2014 Popular Post Share Posted September 5, 2014 (edited) John Carew @JCarew10 · Aug 31 I salute my Villans , #TOP3 UTV! From Marbs Edited September 5, 2014 by packoman 17 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted September 5, 2014 Share Posted September 5, 2014 Legend, loved watching him, love that he still seems to love the club. Good on yer big man! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodders Posted September 5, 2014 Share Posted September 5, 2014 (edited) love him. such a great personality, and on form he was unstoppable. that stoke goal was one of the few matches I went to that season, sadly more memorable for the late collapse that helped us on our way to losing the lead over arsenal Edited September 5, 2014 by Rodders Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robbie09 Posted September 5, 2014 Share Posted September 5, 2014 I miss the big guy. Just one of many reasons why I really don't like Houllier. When you look back to that time, we had a pretty decent side and some great times. What could have been. Seconded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xela Posted September 5, 2014 Share Posted September 5, 2014 We had such a good team Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morley_crosses_to_Withe Posted September 5, 2014 Share Posted September 5, 2014 John Carew @JCarew10 · Aug 31 I salute my Villans , #TOP3 UTV! From Marbs Thank **** for that, some new material to belt over! I'm already bored of the fappening pics. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
choffer Posted September 5, 2014 VT Supporter Share Posted September 5, 2014 I miss the big guy. Just one of many reasons why I really don't like Houllier. When you look back to that time, we had a pretty decent side and some great times. What could have been. Aye. Got very nostalgic seeing Marlon, NRC, Craig G and big Emile in there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrentVilla Posted September 6, 2014 Moderator Share Posted September 6, 2014 I miss the big guy. Just one of many reasons why I really don't like Houllier. When you look back to that time, we had a pretty decent side and some great times. What could have been. Aye. Got very nostalgic seeing Marlon, NRC, Craig G and big Emile in there Ha Thing is in football like life you often focus on what you haven't got as opposed to what you have, this was certainly true during the years we were finishing 6th. We had so many good players, really good players and pro's it's only after the fact you fully appreciate that. When you compare those days to the last 4 years you'd be quite happy to go back even if it meant tolerating Heskey and co again. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Fun Factory Posted September 6, 2014 Share Posted September 6, 2014 I miss the big guy. Just one of many reasons why I really don't like Houllier. When you look back to that time, we had a pretty decent side and some great times. What could have been. You can't blame Houllier- big John was shot by then. His career after Villa certainly follows that theory. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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