If Francis Had Been a Villa Player...

[pauliewalnuts]

  From players i have seen

  Macca
  Yorkie
  Sid
  AGray
  BLittle
  Merse

  were all certainly better, with a few more, Atkinson, Mortimer, Evans etc might not be far off.

Francis was as good as every one of those players, with the possible exception of McGrath, and certainly way, way better than the likes of Dalian Atkinson.

Let's not be blind about this, he was a fantastic player.

[Chris Smith]

He'd have been rubbish for us due to all that shit rubbed in his face.

[The Laughing Policeman]

I know the question has been asked before, but never having seen the answer I'll ask again......
Has anybody ever seen Jasper Carrot and Trevor Francis together in the same room?

[steffo]

I do recall Leighton Phillips being given the runaround one or twice by B-bub. Anyone remember a the local derby at the sty when Phillips was sent off and gave the ref the V sign. Classic.

[KevinGage]

what made you start to consider this question and why ?

Partly what eammon has already mentioned, but also as an illustration maybe of the gulf between ourselves and the rabble down the road.

For them he seems to be without question their best of all time (not hard),  For us, I do genuinely wonder whether he'd make the top 5.  But that's when you open the thing out to players like McParland, Walker et.c - players who I've never actually seen in the flesh. Before the obvious one like McGrath, Little, Cowans et.c

Never particularly disliked the bloke in all honesty, even though he'd get the pantomime bad guy treatment. Probably not helped by the fact that he was partial to a dive or two.
As others have said, he always seems to speak positively about us too.

[john e]

the best player i ever saw play for blose was Frank Worthington

[dave.woodhall]

What always confuses them is when you say "We let your best-ever player go."

[SashasGrandad]

... hell would have frozen over.

[dave.woodhall]

... hell would have frozen over.

We did.

[nick harper]

I would say he was ever bit a good as Brian Little - probably not as much skill but he was quick and direct and could play wide or through the middle.

If he had had an edge to his game, he could have been great. Just lacked a bit of aggression which Cloughie found frustrating, I think.

[Mister E]

He'd have been rubbish for us due to all that shit rubbed in his face.

That is always what comes to my mind when the player is mentioned! Jeez, we used to belt that song out with some gusto!
I think he was a very, very good player ... but he played alot of his football for Blues in the 2nd Div (they kept going up and then going back down; hmmm, heard that somewhere before). His career at Forest did not show him at his best; I think he'd already peaked.
for England, he wasn't playing in the best ever England team and because he was a poacher he needed something a little more robust around him; which he didn't get.
As for comparisons with Brian Little - I think Little was every bit as good, although he lacked a little of the pace that his Blues counterpart had.

[Phil from the upper holte]

What a horrible thought, I couldn't handle him talking about Villa on TV with affection with that horrible nasal voice

[willywombat]

He was an awesome player in my opinion. I remember going to see him as a 16 year old in the days when I used to go to quite a few blues games with school mates. I cant remember who it was against now but he scored 4 goals and was utterly brilliant. I remember raving to my Dad about him and saying how much I wished he played for us.

[SashasGrandad]

I wish Sky wouldn't keep pointing him out in the crowd at the test match.

The dog barks at the TV and I have to wash her spittle off the screen.

[willywombat]

I wish Sky wouldn't keep pointing him out in the crowd at the test match.

The dog barks at the TV and I have to wash her spittle off the screen.

That's a fine dog!