VillaChris Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 1 hour ago, turvontour said: I don't really associate Angels time at Villa with Gregory for some reason, which is odd because presumably he signed him? Maybe because I only picture the Dublin, Merson, Collymore, Hendrie etc team under Gregory and not what came after. Angel-Vassell was blossoming into a very promising partnership in early part of 01/02. Two strikers which complemented each other perfectly pretty much. I too have no idea why Taylor in his second spell decided to break that back so quickly and go with Crouch who wasn't quite ready for the prem at that point and also go back to Dublin the next season (even if he scored a decent amount up to his red v SHA). That's something O'Leary got right coming in, restoring that partnership and JPA had his best season for us scoring 23 goals. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChesterDad Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 58 minutes ago, TRO said: Ali Brown, did it, in the centre circle, arguably an unnecessary part of the pitch....I could hear the crack, from the upper trinity. I liked John, sure the spectacle was not great.....but I liked the resillience and durabilty of the team....as you say, its opinions. I think my first thought is do not lose.....based on the notion, that there is something to build on. I always feel gungho football, usually ends in tears, the goals dry up, and the defence opens up. I would respectfully say this.....any top team you think, is playing attactive football, take time out to study their defensive structure, you might be surprised to learn, how central it is to their success. Thanks TRO - I’m pretty sure Cantello did one of our players - possibly Ray Graydon at the Hawthorns? But back on thread - I am very much into entertainment along with results naturally - hence my attachment to Bertie. Like you - I have pretty much seen us win everything bar the FA Cup, and my favourite Villa team of all time is Big Rons, which some might think is surprising given I saw us win the title & European cup. I know that JG loved the club, I just couldn’t enjoy his football, which seemed to me was not to lose first and foremost and this soured my view of his overall tenure at the club. Things might well have been very different had he been allowed to sign Robbie Keane Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 1 hour ago, R.Bear said: 9.5m in 2001 was in insane amount of money for a completely unproven player in Europe. I'm not sure how River Plate got that fee for him. He was barely an established international player either. Mark Viduka and Robbie Keane were signed for 6m at the same time. Arsenal signed Henry for slightly more and Pires for slightly less. It was a huge gamble paying that for JPA. JPA wasn't a flop and he wasn't a success either but I do love the guy. He always tried his best despite the many problems he had off the field with his family settling here etc. Loads of teams in Italy wanted him back then. He said in an interview in FourFourTwo Magazine a few months back that Parma were very close to signing him as they had loads of South Americans at the time and Daniel Passerella managed them that season but it fell through and we came in and he was intrigued by English football which he didn't know much about. Terrible start with the lack of support from the club with his wife having complications from giving birth. He also didn't like Ellis taking him out onto the pitch to introduce him to the crowd! It was a lot at the time and we were never going to sign Saviola or Aimar, both went to Spain for 20m + IIRC. Mario Yepes is maybe one we should've pursued, he'd have done well in the prem I think but we might not have signed Mellberg a few months later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jas10 Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 4 hours ago, TRO said: Ellis didn't have the money, to allow the club to take risks. There are many things, he was bad for, but he did have his good elements too.....I wouldn't have said that in my earlier years following Villa...I was very anti, but I mellowed and saw the bigger picture. HDE was the topic of a very mixed bag of opinions, depending which bit, is in debate......There was no doubt for me, He was fond of Villa. He just didn't have the personal wealth, to make it work. He just had enough to cover his position, but he did run the administration side, quite well. He was never going to allow the club to slip in to Financial jeopardy, more than I can say for his successors. Any football manager was bound to discover frustration, with Doug and John did. Its only now, we come to realise, just how indispensible our current owners are......be interesting to see John Gregory, Brian Little and the likes, would operate under such overwhelming support. He kept the club safe and sustainable but… he had an inflated ego, was complacent and lacked the drive and ambition to take the club further… Quote He's stuck in a time warp, which does make things more difficult. He thinks our training ground is the best in the country and certainly when it was built 25 years ago it was super-duper. But since then other clubs have caught up with us, or gone past us, and ours is like a shanty town now compared to some. I'm kicking and screaming, trying to drag us forward but it's hard. If I'm not careful it becomes a personal attack on the chairman because of the way he is." Gregory unleashes his infamous 'time warp' blast at Doug Ellis is December 2000. I would always take John’s side because he clearly had greater aspirations and goals for the club and wasn’t content to stand still or be left behind… Ellis was not as bothered as long as we kept trundling along… and his image was preserved… it was obvious whose heart the club was dearest too… I don’t know enough about how he removed all signs of the 82 European Cup win and memories of it… please enlighten me, it clearly and justifiably upset the fans (before my time)… it seems inexplicable and cruel tbh… I am not completely anti either but rather just saying how I saw it, he did some good (mainly by not taking any real risks) but I think he played it “too safe” too and lacked any real ambition or lofty goals for the club… again, his response to John when he wanted to strengthen while we were top of the league was basically “why?” or “we have enough”… then look what happened… 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jas10 Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 5 hours ago, turvontour said: I don't really associate Angels time at Villa with Gregory for some reason, which is odd because presumably he signed him? Maybe because I only picture the Dublin, Merson, Collymore, Hendrie etc team under Gregory and not what came after. John and Doug… the best of friends 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jas10 Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 I was so excited when we signed Angel… to a CRAZY extent I used to watch Italian football like crazy and was obsessed with players like Batistuta, Ronaldo (the real one), Del Piero, Totti and so many more… I believed we’d finally signed a star striker of our own… and he was going to tear up the league Sadly… it took him a long while to get going… I remember going mad when he scored his first goal The talent was there… but the poor guy got no help in terms of settling and dealing with family issues… that was addressed a lot later… The Gregory era gave me some fond memories… I think Dublin and Merse were great signings and picked us up after the disappointing departures of Yorke and Bosnich (my hatred for cheating Manure has never subsided )… 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jas10 Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 5 hours ago, TRO said: That final, where James made a rick.....it was turgid, and I had the Mother of all Colds, that day.....The game made me feel worse.....One game, I find easy to forget......closely followed by the 4-0 Arsenal debacle, where our players, never turned up...won't forget that in a hurry either. It was quite depressing… after all the hope and anticipation. Sadly, it still haunts John today and he usually brings it up in interviews… the beginning of the end… A real disappointment… 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jas10 Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 4 hours ago, VillaChris said: Angel-Vassell was blossoming into a very promising partnership in early part of 01/02. Two strikers which complemented each other perfectly pretty much. I too have no idea why Taylor in his second spell decided to break that back so quickly and go with Crouch who wasn't quite ready for the prem at that point and also go back to Dublin the next season (even if he scored a decent amount up to his red v SHA). That's something O'Leary got right coming in, restoring that partnership and JPA had his best season for us scoring 23 goals. I enjoyed and was fully invested in the Gregory era, but could barely stomach the 2nd Taylor era… we became such a shite team with shite players… Yeah, that was the highlight of the O’Leary era (hope was rekindled)… seeing JPA shine. He scored some stunners including that super solo goal vs Chelsea and kissing the camera with his fingers afterwards 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jas10 Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 I genuinely thought Gregory made that time warp comment in December 2021, incredible he lasted over a year after that interview as you'd have thought Deadly would've got shot of him very quickly after having his authority questioned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R.Bear Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 1 hour ago, Jas10 said: The Gregory era gave me some fond memories… I think Dublin and Merse were great signings and picked us up after the disappointing departures of Yorke and Bosnich (my hatred for cheating Manure has never subsided )… Not to be that guy but Bosnich left the summer after we signed Merson and Dublin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain_Townsend Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 Bosnich spent a lot of 1998-99 injured which affected our title bid. That boxing day clash with Blackburn for example, Oakes got sent off for handling outside the box! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jas10 Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 5 minutes ago, R.Bear said: Not to be that guy but Bosnich left the summer after we signed Merson and Dublin. Thanks for the correction, memory is a little hazy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UpTheVilla26 Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 5 hours ago, Jas10 said: I was so excited when we signed Angel… to a CRAZY extent I used to watch Italian football like crazy and was obsessed with players like Batistuta, Ronaldo (the real one), Del Piero, Totti and so many more… I believed we’d finally signed a star striker of our own… and he was going to tear up the league Sadly… it took him a long while to get going… I remember going mad when he scored his first goal The talent was there… but the poor guy got no help in terms of settling and dealing with family issues… that was addressed a lot later… The Gregory era gave me some fond memories… I think Dublin and Merse were great signings and picked us up after the disappointing departures of Yorke and Bosnich (my hatred for cheating Manure has never subsided )… Angel was and will always be my favorite ever Villa player. I loved the bloke. I even grew my hair out and had a hair band 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 4 hours ago, Captain_Townsend said: Bosnich spent a lot of 1998-99 injured which affected our title bid. That boxing day clash with Blackburn for example, Oakes got sent off for handling outside the box! Ugo aswell getting that eye injury when Shearer kicked him. We started conceding 3s and 4s after that given our only real CB backup was Scimeca who was never better than average. Think Calderwood came in late on as an experienced head just to see us through the final weeks. A season that promised so much but ultimately we didn't strength with 2-3 at key points in the summer. However January window wasn't a thing at that time. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R.Bear Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 (edited) 23 minutes ago, VillaChris said: We started conceding 3s and 4s after that given our only real CB backup was Scimeca who was never better than average. Ricky Scimeca played up front a few times in 1998-99 when we short of strikers Edited January 20 by R.Bear 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jas10 Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 8 minutes ago, R.Bear said: Ricky Scimeca played up front a few times in 1998-99 when we short of strikers Wasn’t Scimeca our CF when/while we were top of the league? I was disappointed in Thompson… he scored so many crackers for Bolton but rarely, if ever, did the same for us… can only remember one free kick goal from him too… Always believed that Ehiogu and Southgate together was a really solid and underrated CB combo… What a find Barry was… Hendrie showed so much promise… Remember Joachim’s goal from practically level with the goal line? Impossible angle? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jas10 Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 45 minutes ago, UpTheVilla26 said: Angel was and will always be my favorite ever Villa player. I loved the bloke. I even grew my hair out and had a hair band When he finally scored… I did a cartwheel n ripped my top 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Follyfoot Posted January 21 VT Supporter Share Posted January 21 8 hours ago, Jas10 said: When he finally scored… I did a cartwheel n ripped my top Was it not against Coventry and he got another one quite soon after 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jas10 Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 (edited) 1 hour ago, Follyfoot said: Was it not against Coventry and he got another one quite soon after Yeah, Merse scored a cracking winner too. We sent them down… JG liked signing their players Chased Boateng for ages (was he more of an attacking player for them, to start with?) who became a rock solid DM for us… Great game… Edited January 21 by Jas10 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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