John Gregory

[Wainy316]

Gotta say when you see a thread like this bumped your heart does sink for a split second.  I thought maybe Dwight had got a gun and shot him.

[villarule123]

Just listening to that podcast at work,a great listen and brings back so many memories. A great time for us but he wouldn't be able to manage as he did today. 

[rodders0223]

Youngest 69 year old I've seen. Glad to see he's knocked the boot polish in his hair on the head.

[TRO]

I think he was underrated, when he was with us as manager.

Him and Brian Little, over saw damn good spells.

Edited November 9, 2023 by TRO

[TRO]

On 09/11/2023 at 09:12, Wainy316 said:

Gotta say when you see a thread like this bumped your heart does sink for a split second.  I thought maybe Dwight had got a gun and shot him.

Nah!..............somebody would had to have paid him, to do it.

Edited November 10, 2023 by TRO

[Deano & Dalian's Umbrella]

John Gregory always seemed like a nice guy.

When I started at Villa, I didn't know about the accepted protocol of calling the manager "boss" or "gaffer" and so, trying to be polite and respectful, I called him "Mr. Gregory", to which he instantly said "call me John".

The next day, I'm in the treatment room with some of the players and Gregory walks in. They all go "morning gaffer" and I go "hi John".  

Alan Thompson nearly spat his tea out and said "what the f*** are you doing?" 

I said "what do you mean?"

"You are meant to call him boss or gaffer"

"He said to call me John" I said

"Yeah, but he didn't mean it!"

"Well he should have said so!" I said.

 

The funniest Gregory (or more accurately Doug) story I heard was told  to be by Gary Megson as told to him by John Gregory.

 

Gregory was having a meeting with Doug, at the end of which Doug decided they needed to book a followup and put the initials of everyone required in his diary.

 

"JG - John GORDON (apparently he kept calling him that), SS - Steve Stride and Me".

 

At the next meeting, Doug says "so let's see if we have everyone - JG, that's you, John Gordon, SS - that's you - Steve Stride but who is ME?"

Gregory says "that's me chairman".

Doug says "No, NO - you're JG - John Gordon".

 

[Mantis]

I feel like if a thread like this gets bumped after a long time and it's *not* a death announcement the title should automatically change to something like "don't worry, he's ok folks". Was very worried for a moment there.

Edited November 9, 2023 by Mantis

[bose]

Love Gregory when he was here, the first Villa manager I really remember.

[Justin]

2 hours ago, Deano & Dalian's Umbrella said:

John Gregory always seemed like a nice guy.

When I started at Villa, I didn't know about the accepted protocol of calling the manager "boss" or "gaffer" and so, trying to be polite and respectful, I called him "Mr. Gregory", to which he instantly said "call me John".

The next day, I'm in the treatment room with some of the players and Gregory walks in. They all go "morning gaffer" and I go "hi John".  

Alan Thompson nearly spat his tea out and said "what the f*** are you doing?" 

I said "what do you mean?"

"You are meant to call him boss or gaffer"

"He said to call me John" I said

"Yeah, but he didn't mean it!"

"Well he should have said so!" I said.

 

The funniest Gregory (or more accurately Doug) story I heard was told  to be by Gary Megson as told to him by John Gregory.

 

Gregory was having a meeting with Doug, at the end of which Doug decided they needed to book a followup and put the initials of everyone required in his diary.

 

"JG - John GORDON (apparently he kept calling him that), SS - Steve Stride and Me".

 

At the next meeting, Doug says "so let's see if we have everyone - JG, that's you, John Gordon, SS - that's you - Steve Stride but who is ME?"

Gregory says "that's me chairman".

Doug says "No, NO - you're JG - John Gordon".

 

I heard that second story in the voice of Monty Burns instead of Doug

[Captain_Townsend]

'When I started at villa', who is that referring to there?

[R.Bear]

Funnily enough, I've been watching a lot of Villa highlights in recent days of Gregory's era. Until Emery, I really believe him to be our best PL manager. I know he didnt win anything but we had some great times and he was always trying to take us to that next level. For the most part, his signings were good and he kept the players happy. Sadly, we kept going on horror runs of results during his management in any given season. They came out of nowhere and lasted a long time.

During the 1998-99 season we were absolutely screwed by injuries all through it. Had we had something close to a full lineup for the whole season then who knows what we could have achieved. This isn't pipe dream stuff either, we were top from August until Christmas. I also liked how he came across in interviews, always told it how it was and gave it to refs when they made errors that cost us, which they seemed to do a lot during that era. We played some really nice stuff at times too.

[R.Bear]

In regards to Collymore, from his point of view, joining Villa was a massive step down. Two years prior he one of the top strikers in the country having had a brilliant season with Forest. Fergie tried to sign him but instead went with Andy Cole. He had a good first season with Liverpool but his second he fell off a bit. I remember Liverpool fans used to criticise him for not performing as well away from home. Either way, when we signed him it must have been somewhat demoralising. In the sense that his stock had fallen from being sought after by the best team in the league to joining a good but not title contender Villa. It's kind of like when a young player starts in the Premier League but then drops down to the Championship in their 20s. They kind of know that whilst they're still very good, they're not top division quality. That can hit a player hard if they're not prepared for it.

I think that's what happened to Collymore. He knew his best days were probably behind him and that he wasn't going to have a glittering career at a top club when it looked like he was at Forest. He said in his autobiography that when joining Villa he "was going to have to work a lot harder for less goals". Then we started his first season with us with four losses and he wasn't scoring goals. It wasn't helped by Little shoehorning Colly, Yorke and Milosevic into a three pronged attack that failed miserably. If he was going to light it up, he needed to start well and boost his confidence. By the end of season it was an if as opposed to a when he was going to get back to the player he used to be. We would obviously find out it was a never. If a player is even slightly less than 100% mentally there then their form can nosedive. By the next season he was non entity of a striker in the grand scheme of things, yesterday's news. All of this no doubt sent him spiralling into the void of which he wasn't going to recover from. On the pitch at least. Such a shame, I didnt think for one second that Collymore would be a flop for us.

It was the first of many, many strikers we've signed in the PL era that were previously goal machines who immediately stopped scoring after we signed them.

Edited November 9, 2023 by R.Bear

[ChesterDad]

10 hours ago, TRO said:

I think he was underrated, when he was with us as manager.

Him and Brian Little, over saw damn good spells.

I thought he was dreadful TRO - his main objective was not to lose. Totally boring imo.

Brian was much better imo 

[Captain_Townsend]

Sorry two points:

 

1. Surely Ron Atkinson and Brian Little are our best PL era managers.

2. Collymore to Villa was not a massive step down. We were top5 two years in a row, only a few points short of being genuine top 3 challengers and he was seen as a player that could push us forward given that we already had Yorke, one of the best forwards in the league.

[AV82]

21 minutes ago, Captain_Townsend said:

Sorry two points:

 

1. Surely Ron Atkinson and Brian Little are our best PL era managers.

2. Collymore to Villa was not a massive step down. We were top5 two years in a row, only a few points short of being genuine top 3 challengers and he was seen as a player that could push us forward given that we already had Yorke, one of the best forwards in the league.

Correction. Big bad Lord Unai fooken Emery is our best PL era manager.

[R.Bear]

28 minutes ago, Captain_Townsend said:

Sorry two points:

 

1. Surely Ron Atkinson and Brian Little are our best PL era managers.

2. Collymore to Villa was not a massive step down. We were top5 two years in a row, only a few points short of being genuine top 3 challengers and he was seen as a player that could push us forward given that we already had Yorke, one of the best forwards in the league.

1. We had our best season league wise under Ron yes but you can't ignore what happened after. The second half of 1993-94 was a disaster. We went from top 3 to relegation form. Form which continued into the next season. We were going to get relegated. The League Cup win a total anomaly. We lost the three games before the final and were being dominated right up until we scored against the run of play. That result and performance was a massive diamond in the rough. I can't give our best PL manager award to a man who was taking an aging, ailing side to Division 1. Little was very good for a time but we peaked early and started to decline slowly. We finished 5th in 1996-97 yes but bombed out of all three cups early. The UEFA Cup exit was an aberration. The next season, we were firmly mid-table with only the European run a bright spot.

Under Gregory, we came so close to winning the FA Cup and mounted a serious title challenge. People are correct that it definitely changed after losing that final. It was almost like that was as good as it was going to get and we missed our chance, much like the title challenge the season before. Maybe Little does shade it but I much preferred the Gregory years in terms of enjoyment. As someone said, we were fearless under him for a couple of years.

2. I said from his point of view. He was the most touted striker in the country two years before and linked with the best team. Now he was joining 5th place for a lesser transfer fee with nowhere near as much hype. It was a step down, no two ways about it. He said himself he saw it as one.

Edited November 9, 2023 by R.Bear

[VillaChris]

I've listened to all his podcasts as Gregory is still the same as he was when managing us, always good value for a quote or funny story like when he was talking to Southgate and Townsend and they were talking about Paris/New York weekend trips and he was talking about visiting the mother in Law!

As ever stories we've heard before but I thought this podcast was good as the under the cosh lads pressed him a bit more on dealing with Collymore. For obvious reasons he's always run quickly having to manage Stan but this time he gave a really good answer especially about the mental health issues which were just brushed aside in those times.

Amazed they didn't ask him about Balaban though.

[VillaChris]

On 21/05/2012 at 23:34, Zatman said:

 

I remember we went top for about a day or 2 in 01/02 and he wanted Johan Micoud and we never bid and he went on to be brilliant for Werder in Bundesliga.

He was in love with Muzzy Izzet at the time. Basically resigned over us not signing him in late 2001. He went to SHA a year or two later and had to retire after a few months through injury so would've made similar impact for us as Kachoul or Hadji did.

[paul514]

I'd love to see him employed by the club in some role.

[maqroll]

For some reason whenever I think of John Gregory I think about him scowling at a cameraman at Giants Stadium during a Gotham Cup match. Just a totally random image in my mind.

I liked his spikey touch line persona and I liked that he bled claret and blue.

We were in good hands with him as gaffer, shame how it all fizzled out.