Deano & Dalian's Umbrella Posted November 10, 2023 Share Posted November 10, 2023 (edited) 19 minutes ago, catanzaro said: I was 27.. and i still look back at this as an epic day… at 12 years old your mind must have melted Unfortunately, I'll never forget the loud bang of Father Christmas hitting the roof directly above me in the Upper Trinity and then the sickening sight of seeing him smack onto the floor directly below me. I know it sounds funny but it wasn't. Edited November 10, 2023 by Deano & Dalian's Umbrella 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catanzaro Posted November 10, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted November 10, 2023 2 minutes ago, Deano & Dalian's Umbrella said: Unfortunately, I'll never forget the loud bang of Father Christmas hitting the roof directly above me in the Upper Trinity and then the sickening smacking sound and sight of seeing him hit the floor directly below me. I know it sounds funny but it wasn't. I’m with you.. epic was the wrong word.. but it is emblazoned on my mind.. as an adult.. the whole day… can you imagine being 12 years old and witnessing this.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted November 11, 2023 Share Posted November 11, 2023 1 hour ago, Mark Albrighton said: 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. Yeah I wasn't blaming JG for getting in Ginola as it was very much an Ellis signing. Was odd thinking at the time. We didn't want to pay Carbone 40k a week yet according to the podcast Ginola was on 60k! Ginola was also 33-34 when we signed him, Carbone was 28 or 29 so I'm sure we'd have got a couple of decent full seasons out of him. Nilis of course got the terrible injury and we knew had to go back to a marginalised Joachim who'd fallen out with Gregory the previous season. If you want evidence of why we couldn't challenge someone like Chelsea who'd just signed Hasselbaink for 25m or Leeds who'd got in Viduka for 7m then it would be botching up the striker recruitment like that. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveAV1 Posted November 11, 2023 Share Posted November 11, 2023 9 hours ago, Deano & Dalian's Umbrella said: Unfortunately, I'll never forget the loud bang of Father Christmas hitting the roof directly above me in the Upper Trinity and then the sickening sight of seeing him smack onto the floor directly below me. I know it sounds funny but it wasn't. I sat on the upper Holte at the time and had gone down stairs for a pint and so missed the actual tradegy at the time to be told by those that were witnesses and looked very distressed, “that not only were we loosing to Arsenal, which I obviously knew, but to make matters even worse we’d just killed Father Christmas too! I’ve since seen footage on TV and agree it was genuinely traumatic. Fair play to the bloke he’s since taken full responsibility and said he’d made a mistake on the day, despite being an experienced parachutist, he unfortunately lost a leg but came back to Villa Park and came on the pitch to thank everyone and the club for their support since the accident. Top bloke, I hope he’s doing ok now and got on well with his life too. The second half performance, particularly by Stan Collymore obviously helps to lessen the pain of the memory too. Stan was virtually unplayable after he came on, a tragedy in itself that he couldn’t ever really concor his deamons, which are viewed with more sympathy these days, bo matter what your situation is. I hope both him and the parachutist are doing ok I believe Stan could have been England and our no. 9 for years but sadly it wasn’t to be. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyClarke Posted November 11, 2023 Share Posted November 11, 2023 He married one of the Nurses who treated him and they've had twins, so he might see it as an overall positive in the end. Nigel Rogoff is his name. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted November 11, 2023 Share Posted November 11, 2023 16 hours ago, Tom13 said: Gregory told some story about when he was managing against Jack (at Notts) which Jack said is completely made up. Grealish was taken off in that game as Gregory said. I believe Gregory over the Grealish family 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveAV1 Posted November 14, 2023 Share Posted November 14, 2023 On 11/11/2023 at 10:18, AndyClarke said: He married one of the Nurses who treated him and they've had twins, so he might see it as an overall positive in the end. Nigel Rogoff is his name. That a great ending to the story. Thanks for telling it well done Nigel, you can’t keep a good man down. Good luck with the challenges of fatherhood, which are challenging but at the same time generally wonderful. Did they have boys or girls or both? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyClarke Posted November 14, 2023 Share Posted November 14, 2023 5 hours ago, DaveAV1 said: That a great ending to the story. Thanks for telling it well done Nigel, you can’t keep a good man down. Good luck with the challenges of fatherhood, which are challenging but at the same time generally wonderful. Did they have boys or girls or both? https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/aston-villa-arsenal-parachuting-santa-12313181.amp "After his accident in 1998, he married Sarah, the nurse who was caring for him at the rehabilitation centre at Headley Court in Epsom, Surrey, and the couple had twins Harry and Oliver." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talldarkandransome Posted November 14, 2023 Share Posted November 14, 2023 On 10/11/2023 at 23:12, Deano & Dalian's Umbrella said: Unfortunately, I'll never forget the loud bang of Father Christmas hitting the roof directly above me in the Upper Trinity and then the sickening sight of seeing him smack onto the floor directly below me. I know it sounds funny but it wasn't. Jesus I remember that, was in Upper North. That was truly horrific Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Jas10 Posted January 19 Popular Post Share Posted January 19 33 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRO Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 On 11/11/2023 at 00:15, VillaChris said: Yeah I wasn't blaming JG for getting in Ginola as it was very much an Ellis signing. Was odd thinking at the time. We didn't want to pay Carbone 40k a week yet according to the podcast Ginola was on 60k! Ginola was also 33-34 when we signed him, Carbone was 28 or 29 so I'm sure we'd have got a couple of decent full seasons out of him. Nilis of course got the terrible injury and we knew had to go back to a marginalised Joachim who'd fallen out with Gregory the previous season. If you want evidence of why we couldn't challenge someone like Chelsea who'd just signed Hasselbaink for 25m or Leeds who'd got in Viduka for 7m then it would be botching up the striker recruitment like that. The Nilis Injury, alongside the Cropley injury......still rankles with me. back to John....Good manager. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Fun Factory Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 1 hour ago, Jas10 said: He's looking well. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HKP90 Posted January 19 VT Supporter Share Posted January 19 Bump got me worried. Glad he's well. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deano & Dalian's Umbrella Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 35 minutes ago, TRO said: The Nilis Injury......still rankles with me. it was very avoidable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post rodders0223 Posted January 19 Popular Post Share Posted January 19 Stop bumping threads of 65 year old plus former managers you psychos 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRO Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 (edited) 16 minutes ago, rodders0223 said: Stop bumping threads of 65 year old plus former managers you psychos steady.....its my age group. you'll get there one day Edited January 19 by TRO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChesterDad Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 (edited) 1 hour ago, TRO said: The Nilis Injury, alongside the Cropley injury......still rankles with me. back to John....Good manager. I thought he was awful TRO - completely bored me to tears, his first thought was do not lose. I guess footie is all about opinions Alex’s injury was dreadful - truly great player, never shirked a challenge and could see a pass. I can’t recall which Sandwell towner did this, was it Cantello or that carthorse Brown? Edited January 19 by ChesterDad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don_Simon Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 9 minutes ago, ChesterDad said: I thought he was awful TRO - completely bored me to tears, his first thought was do not lose. I guess footie is all about opinions Alex’s injury was dreadful - truly great player, never shirked a challenge and could see a pass. I can’t recall which Sandwell towner did this, was it Cantello or that carthorse Brown? You must have hated the season where we went seven billion games undefeated. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChesterDad Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 10 minutes ago, Don_Simon said: You must have hated the season where we went seven billion games undefeated. I was just bored by his football tbh - which given his character is somewhat surprising. I believe Doug bought him back simply based upon the fact, that after he left for Wycombe - our fortunes dipped ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain_Townsend Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 (edited) Under Little we finished 4th, then 5th but were in a real slump in 97-98. Collymore didn't work out and we were about 14th or 15th come February 1998 when Little resigned. Gregory was doing well after going out on his own in November 1996. So you can understand why we went for him. Gregory was great when he first came in taking us to 7th in 1997-98 and he was great in 1998-99 with us top at Christmas before falling back to 6th. He got more defensive in 99-00 and that culminated in a very poor performance in the FA Cup final in May 2000 Chelsea were there for the taking that day. In hindsight that may have been the time for him to move on as things really went stale for the following season when we seemed to become a very rigid side. Edited January 20 by Captain_Townsend 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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