Hates

[villan from luton]

I would never compare Gregory with Collymore - I met Gregory when he was in charge of Wycombe and Collymore was making his first apperance and my then young lad needed a wee. Took us and was a gent. Do think he got a bit abovee himself though. As for Collymore, was in a nightclub when he was burning notes to show what a guy he was

[Toronto Villa]

One thing about Gregory - he always gave the impression that he regarded the Villa job as the best in football.

Is that not a good thing though?

there are some ex-Villa out there who will always refer to the club as if they are still part of us. I find that with Gregory all the time, same with McInally, God and Big Ron and to a slightly lesser extent Sir Graham. He still loves us, but he's a little more political with his words. Collymore is unashamedly biased.

The bitter cock Tony Cascarino, not so much.

[Greg N'Ash]

People like BFR and GT had, and still have an affinity with the club without the need to blow smoke up the fan's asses every  few weeks. Gregory just used it as a PR tool

[dave.woodhall]

One thing about Gregory - he always gave the impression that he regarded the Villa job as the best in football.

Is that not a good thing though?

there are some ex-Villa out there who will always refer to the club as if they are still part of us. I find that with Gregory all the time, same with McInally, God and Big Ron and to a slightly lesser extent Sir Graham. He still loves us, but he's a little more political with his words. Collymore is unashamedly biased.

The bitter cock Tony Cascarino, not so much.

Sir Graham's first love was Watford and that's understandable. But I always remember speaking to him during O'Leary's first season  - and don't forget this was not long after that disgraceful booing - and he asked how "we" were doing. Call me cynical, but McGrath took a fair bit of time before we were higher than third in his affections.

[Toronto Villa]

One thing about Gregory - he always gave the impression that he regarded the Villa job as the best in football.

Is that not a good thing though?

there are some ex-Villa out there who will always refer to the club as if they are still part of us. I find that with Gregory all the time, same with McInally, God and Big Ron and to a slightly lesser extent Sir Graham. He still loves us, but he's a little more political with his words. Collymore is unashamedly biased.

The bitter cock Tony Cascarino, not so much.

Sir Graham's first love was Watford and that's understandable. But I always remember speaking to him during O'Leary's first season  - and don't forget this was not long after that disgraceful booing - and he asked how "we" were doing. Call me cynical, but McGrath took a fair bit of time before we were higher than third in his affections.

fair enough Dave, you'll have been more close to the action than most of us. The booing of Sir Graham that day was really as low as this club's fans has gone in the last 20 years. I wish the internet was around back then like it is today. It would have been interesting to have seen if the same passion we've seen this week against McLeish would have been directed at a real injustice, at the morons that booed a man who resurrected our club from the depths of despair.

[KevinGage]

Never truly hated either.

Always doubted Stan's Villa supporting credentials though, dating back to an early 90's interview with 90 minutes or one of those similar magazines.  Paraphrasing but: "People keep on mentioning that (being a Villa fan) but I only watched them because I liked Gary Shaw. I probably went to more Wolves matches than Villa ones."

There's also a bit in his book where he talks about going to his first game in the Witton: "I fell asleep halfway through. Perhaps it was an omen."  and how maybe his relationship with Ulrika was his attempt to stay in the spotlight, because 'if Villa weren't doing well they'd generally be off the radar.'  He talks about getting bad vibes on his first day as a Villa player, at the press conference and looking around the ground and thinking it was nothing like he remembered as a kid. How Villa fans are generally fickle Range Rover drivers from Lichfield, unlike the passionate and knowledgeable  Redscouse, Wolves, Olbiyun and even B-lose fans.  Any of that sound like something a Villa fan would say?

He went on to describe the move to Villa as a step back and how he wished he'd stuck it out at Liverpool. All this was contained in a chapter called 'Villa: Going Nowhere' IIRC.  Which would have been pretty accurate at various periods since. But at that time he was joining a team that had finished 4th and 5th and were being tipped as outsiders for the league. He also upped his wages with us compared to Liverpool (and he wasn't exactly underpaid there) and left just as Michael Owen was breaking through. So it's not exactly as if he was doing us a favour by coming to VP, joining for the romance of it all.

Gregory made an arse of himself on a fair few occasions -in particular dealing with the Stan issue- and the football was largely dull. But stats wise he's one of the best managers we've had since the war.

[usav]

Gregory was good.

I have to stop you right there.   No he wasn't.

[David_Nab]

I didn't mind Gregory and when he is on TV you can see he does have effection for the club.The football was boring mostly but there was bright patches Angel and Hendrie linked well at times ,Carbone was a brief hi-light and Merson was special.Like Dave say's he treated the Villa job like it was the best in the world and he was lucky to have it ,where as other seemed like the club was lucky to have them

As I recall he walked out after we beat Charlton in a Monday night match.There was some issue on his part about Doug not funding at 8mil bid for Muzzy Izzet

Collymore was just a waste of time really and just never fitted into the team Little had built.

[IFWaters]

I miss the nineties.

Villa were 'respected'. We had consistent performances in and around 4th-5th, even 2nd. We had credibility. For the last couple of years under MON we regained that. I hope it hasnt gone.

[darren woolley]

I don't hate either of them Gregory was not that good and collymore had problems.

[Zhong Yi]

I H8 ....places in Shanghai like shopping malls, the metro and McDonalds that have no airconditioning on during the middle of summer, in order to save money.

[Phil from the upper holte]

I liked Gregory. Collymore just couldn't be arsed

[lordmcgrath5]

One thing about Gregory - he always gave the impression that he regarded the Villa job as the best in football.

Is that not a good thing though?

It was great, and by all accounts he still thinks the same.

Having read an interview with him last year, I'd agree with that.

[lordmcgrath5]

I thought this was a general hate thing, I was going to say people who put those big plastic butterfly things on the front of their houses. Anything Villa connected I would go Blake, Hopkins, Turner, Hodge, O'Leary and Gardner. John and Stan don't really wind me up that much. Even the memory of Nigel Callaghan doesn't get my blood pressure up. Maybe it's because I used to fancy myself as a winger and I was crap and lazy too.

This list is fun: no Christmas cards from me either for Blake, Hopkins, Hodge or Gardner. Booooooooooooooo!

[enigma]

I always liked Gregory but good God, the football was dull.  Considering the cup final is one of the biggest games since I've been a fan I remember very little about it. Barely even remember Chelsea's goal. I do remember being top of the league for what seemed like half the season though. I actually dared to dream we were actually going to go and win the bloody thing until we had our own special brand of collapse that we specialise in to this day. Anyone remember how long we were top for?

As for Stan, he could have been one of the best forwards in Europe. He had the talent, pace, physique, technique - the lot. It's just a shame he had those inner demons he couldn't ever get the better of.

He actually reminds me a lot of Dalian Atkinson. Very talented forward who could be devastating on his day, just didn't show it often enough. Atkinson doesn't get any of the vitriol aimed towards him these days, (did at the time though) People just remember the wonder goals. Although he did help us win a trophy to be fair.