John Gregory

[Don_Simon]

7 hours ago, Captain_Townsend said:

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

I thought it referred to the person writing the post!

[ChesterDad]

10 hours 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.

Big Ron remains my favourite manager - the football we played under him was simply sublime imo.

This said - our present incumbent is doing his bloody best to get me to change my mind 

[TRO]

12 hours ago, ChesterDad said:

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

Brian was much better imo 

Edited November 10, 2023 by TRO

[RicRic]

On 08/11/2023 at 23:01, Zatman said:

Was a good interview with a majority about his Villa days. You can tell he massively regrets leaving us in 2002 as he said it many times

Collymore doesnt come across very well, apparently wasnt liked by the other players. 

Was a good watch, he was the manager in charge when i first started watching at a young age, one of my earliest memories was that game he mentioned when we came back to beat Arsenal 3-2 at villa park, Didnt realise he had that cool demeanour and jokey side to him, brought back some good memories.

[Captain_Townsend]

The 3-2 with Arsenal is a special memory from my youth. I was 12 and it was a day I spent with my dad. Remember hearing we were 2-0 down at halftime and the sheer jubilation when we realised we turned it around 2nd half. Genuinely thought we could win the title.

Worth linking: 

 

Edited November 10, 2023 by Captain_Townsend

[Demitri_C]

Not sure what happened but i think i read grealish called him a clown recently 

[RicRic]

4 minutes ago, Captain_Townsend said:

The 3-2 with Arsenal is a special memory from my youth. I was 12 and it was a day I spent with my dad. Remember hearing we were 2-0 down at halftime and the sheer jubilation when we realised we turned it around 2nd half. Genuinely thought we could win the title.

Worth linking: 

 

Yeah i was only 8 years old and listening to it on the radio , yes as a 8 year old its hard to think of these days doing such things at a young age, every muscle jumping to each attack , it was my brothers christening that day so left at half time and found out we won 3-2 i was ecstatic but also the famous incident where santa claus had a accident and fell from the stands at VP 

[Captain_Townsend]

7 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

Not sure what happened but i think i read grealish called him a clown recently 

Well, I know which of the two I have fondest memories of. Gregory every day of the week. 

[TRO]

5 hours ago, ChesterDad said:

Big Ron remains my favourite manager - the football we played under him was simply sublime imo.

This said - our present incumbent is doing his bloody best to get me to change my mind 

Rons tenure was contrasting his early time produced great results and performances, it was an impressive style of football....but sadly, it didn't end well.some say when Andy Gray as his assistant,left half way through Rons time, it tailed  off.

Rons league record was 7th- 2nd- 10th...and then in 1994-95 he lasted until 10 Nov where he won 2 games in 12 games...He won the League Cup in 1993-94

He did play some really entertaining football at times and the 1992-93 season was supported by great results, we won 21 games and the second best goals against record of 40..finishing 2nd to Man U

However, as much as John Gregory's style of football was not as endearing....He got some good results too , finishing 6-6-8....John admittedly was not as expansive as Ron, but never the less got respectable league placings.

In his final year 2002....he lost 6 games in 23 league games, so the wheels never fell off in the same fashion as with Ron.

Both decent managers in my book.

Edited November 10, 2023 by TRO

[John]

13 hours ago, VillaChris said:

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.

We will never know what Izzet might have done for us. He might not have picked up any injury with us either. JG wasn't backed by HDE when we were sitting on the top of the table and he wanted to increase our chances of staying there by adding a couple of players.  

[MaVilla]

6 minutes ago, John said:

We will never know what Izzet might have done for us. He might not have picked up any injury with us either. JG wasn't backed by HDE when we were sitting on the top of the table and he wanted to increase our chances of staying there by adding a couple of players.  

tid bit time, i live literally no more than a mile from Muzzy Izzet.

[Mark Albrighton]

I think overall Little was a better manager for us.* But somewhat contradictory to that I never thought we were in with a chance of winning the league under Little whereas I did think it was possible under Gregory.

I posted similar before but I think the real key was the pair of them together. The only full season with both of them and it was the most successful of that era (95/96). Things kinda stuttered once Gregory left. Not horrendously so, fifth place is pretty good. But it wasn’t quite the same and things went further south until JG returned.

My suspicion is their respective styles and personalities complimented each other. The kinda stoic and quietly determined Little and the more assertive heart on the sleeve, we’re Aston ****ing Villa exuberance of Gregory.

* edit - although it’s close between them.

Edited November 10, 2023 by Mark Albrighton

[Deano & Dalian's Umbrella]

22 hours ago, Captain_Townsend said:

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

Me! 

Interestingly your post asking this got more likes than the anecdotes I told!

Edited November 10, 2023 by Deano & Dalian's Umbrella

[Tom13]

1 minute ago, Deano & Dalian's Umbrella said:

Me! 

 

Who are ya?!

[Tom13]

9 hours ago, Demitri_C said:

Not sure what happened but i think i read grealish called him a clown recently 

Gregory told some story about when he was managing against Jack (at Notts) which Jack said is completely made up.

[Deano & Dalian's Umbrella]

Just now, Tom13 said:

Who are ya?!

I worked as a physio at Villa when John Gregory was manager. 

[VillaChris]

8 hours ago, John said:

We will never know what Izzet might have done for us. He might not have picked up any injury with us either. JG wasn't backed by HDE when we were sitting on the top of the table and he wanted to increase our chances of staying there by adding a couple of players.  

Izzet wouldn't have got us to the next level I'm pretty sure of that, would've probably had similar impact to Steve Stone. Honest pro giving 100% every game but sides around us signing much better quality back then.

For how we played Neil Lennon would've been a better pick up in those times but think we were briefly linked and he followed O'Neill to Celtic.

1999 we should've certainly signed more with Juninho and Robbie Keane. One Atletico didn't want to pay his bonus and we weren't interested jn paying it ourselves so it fell through and then Gregory for some reason didn't want to spend extra on Keane which was a massive error. Also then passed up the chance to sign Carbone full time and signed Ginola instead!

I think by late 2001 though Gregory had many years to shape the squad and it was a bit like MON time, 6th was about the best we were going to get under him rather than go full Leeds and plummet down the table. Ellis could also point to signing Angel for 9.5m and then Balaban six months late for 6m, those were massive fees at the time so I fully understand why he baulked at paying nearly 10m for Izzet. 

Edited November 10, 2023 by VillaChris

[catanzaro]

11 hours ago, Captain_Townsend said:

The 3-2 with Arsenal is a special memory from my youth. I was 12 and it was a day I spent with my dad. Remember hearing we were 2-0 down at halftime and the sheer jubilation when we realised we turned it around 2nd half. Genuinely thought we could win the title.

Worth linking: 

 

I was 27.. and i still look back at this as an epic day… at 12 years old your mind must have melted 

[villaajax]

2 hours ago, Tom13 said:

Gregory told some story about when he was managing against Jack (at Notts) which Jack said is completely made up.

It's not like Grealish to lie...

[Mark Albrighton]

30 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

Izzet wouldn't have got us to the next level I'm pretty sure of that, would've probably had similar impact to Steve Stone. Honest pro giving 100% every game but sides around us signing much better quality back then.

For how we played Neil Lennon would've been a better pick up in those times but think we were briefly linked and he followed O'Neill to Celtic.

1999 we should've certainly signed more with Juninho and Robbie Keane. One Atletico didn't want to pay his bonus and we weren't interested jn paying it ourselves so it fell through and then Gregory for some reason didn't want to spend extra on Keane which was a massive error. Also then passed up the chance to sign Carbone full time and signed Ginola instead!

I think by late 2001 though Gregory had many years to shape the squad and it was a bit like MON time, 6th was about the best we were going to get under him rather than go full Leeds and plummet down the table. Ellis could also point to signing Angel for 9.5m and then Balaban six months late for 6m, those were massive fees at the time so I fully understand why he baulked at paying nearly 10m for Izzet. 

I believe Ginola was largely down to Doug Ellis and Gregory kinda having to go with it. Certainly that’s how Gregory paints it. Fwiw I believe him.

Balaban it’s a bit more sketchy, there’s an article with quotes from the agent claiming he only ever spoke to Ellis. However Gregory says while he never saw him play, he was reassured by the scouting team he was worth a gamble and that he had final say on the transfer.

The price for Izzet Gregory claims was £5m. I don’t think he would have made much of a difference, certainly not the difference between finishing 6th or finishing 1st. Probably would have been better than the Steve Stone transfer, but it’s not an unreasonable comparison.

Juninho would have been incredibly exciting in theory but I am sceptical as to  how good it would have been in reality. Robbie Keane is the great what could have been of that time.