McInally @ Grove Athletic Sportsmans Evening Last Night in Halesowen

[pestria]

Did a Q&A type stint and was pretty good value.  A few laughs and a bit of insight into the world of footie pre and post Sky.

As with most ex-players he cited Sid as one of the best players he'd ever played with (which included a few World Cup winners in Germany).  He reckoned it was probably the wrong decision to leave and we might have won the championship under SGT had he stayed.  He didn't seem too keen on SGT, rather damning him with faint praise saying he was well suited to working with the smaller clubs.  Finally he was clearly very chuffed he still gets in a mention alongside Spinksy and Birchy .....

Seemed a really decent sort - happy to chat and have photos taken and put a bit of memorabilia up for auction which raised about £600.

[TopDeck113]

...we might have won the championship under SGT had he stayed.

Why's that? Would he have managed to put in a shift for a whole season?   

Mind you, had he stayed we might have then been spared the dubious pleasure of seeing Tony Cascarino becoming our first £1m+ signing.

[Tokyo Sexwhale]

I've said before that McInally gets more praise than is due to him, especially when a genuine hero like David Platt seems to have become a "hate" figure because he doesn't wank over us on telly.

But having said that McInally would have been a much better option than Olney - he could do everything that Olney could and run a bit as well.  We might very well have won the league had we not flogged McInally.

[dave.woodhall]

I've said before that McInally gets more praise than is due to him, especially when a genuine hero like David Platt seems to have become a "hate" figure because he doesn't wank over us on telly.

But having said that McInally would have been a much better option than Olney - he could do everything that Olney could and run a bit as well.  We might very well have won the league had we not flogged McInally.

We might also not have had the money to buy McGrath.

[Zhong Yi]

re: Platt. Can anyone shed some light on why he is not liked and the fact he does not like Villa?

re: McInally...who else was at the (League Cup) Millwall game 1988/89, when AM did his own Maradona impression, running the length of the pitch (and scoring the goal of the season as voted on either ITV or BBC 1), knocking at least three of their guys over if i recall and then slotting home in the bottom corner?

Taylor said in the press the next day with words to this effect "if a South American had scored that goal we would be talking about it for a very long time".

I guess 2011 is a long time! and what a great Villa game that was. Platt was on target as well just for the record.

[pauliewalnuts]

Platt was easily one of the best players I ever saw play for us.

I don't mind ex Villa players not wanking over us on tv, but Platt never seemed to have a good word to say about us.

[The Man With A Stick]

Pumpkinhead Platt is one of the three genuinely world class players I've seen play for the Villa and you can hardly blame him for leaving in 1991, anyone worth their salt (bar McGrath) was playing in Serie A at the time.  Besides, BFR rebuilt the squad using the Platt money and that led to us having a reasonably successful decade by recent standards.

It's just a shame that he seems to have airbrushed us from his history.

[Tokyo Sexwhale]

I've said before that McInally gets more praise than is due to him, especially when a genuine hero like David Platt seems to have become a "hate" figure because he doesn't wank over us on telly.

But having said that McInally would have been a much better option than Olney - he could do everything that Olney could and run a bit as well.  We might very well have won the league had we not flogged McInally.

We might also not have had the money to buy McGrath.

We bought Cascarino a few months later for more than we got for McInally.

[Exeter 77]

Was McGrath not bought with money received for Keown? Or was that Neilsen or was it both?

[Olneythelonely]

I've said before that McInally gets more praise than is due to him, especially when a genuine hero like David Platt seems to have become a "hate" figure because he doesn't wank over us on telly.

But having said that McInally would have been a much better option than Olney - he could do everything that Olney could and run a bit as well.  We might very well have won the league had we not flogged McInally.

Oi!

[KevinGage]

Pumpkinhead Platt is one of the three genuinely world class players I've seen play for the Villa and you can hardly blame him for leaving in 1991, anyone worth their salt (bar McGrath) was playing in Serie A at the time.  Besides, BFR rebuilt the squad using the Platt money and that led to us having a reasonably successful decade by recent standards.

It's just a shame that he seems to have airbrushed us from his history.

That's pretty much it, yeah.

It's nice (and no doubt a bit of a sop to the fans) when the likes of McInally, Townsend, Deano and Dublin still refer to the Villa as 'we.'   But not every ex player will do so, this is natural.

But Platt had some of the best years of his career with us, yet whenever he used to co commentate on our games pre Citeh it sounded like a real chore for him. And when it looked like we were about to break through around the 2007/08 period, he was advising our best player at the time (Barry) that he'd have to ditch 'a club like Villa' if he really wanted to progress his career.

[The Left Side]

re: Platt. Can anyone shed some light on why he is not liked and the fact he does not like Villa?

re: McInally...who else was at the (League Cup) Millwall game 1988/89, when AM did his own Maradona impression, running the length of the pitch (and scoring the goal of the season as voted on either ITV or BBC 1), knocking at least three of their guys over if i recall and then slotting home in the bottom corner?

Taylor said in the press the next day with words to this effect "if a South American had scored that goal we would be talking about it for a very long time".

I guess 2011 is a long time! and what a great Villa game that was. Platt was on target as well just for the record.

I was there and it was a great game, a very thin Neil Ruddock scored a cracker then we came back with 3 great goals.

[willywombat]

re: Platt. Can anyone shed some light on why he is not liked and the fact he does not like Villa?

A mate of mine met him on holiday in Portugal some years ago. He never forgave us for booing him when he came back to VP with Arsenal.  Demonstrates what an egotist he is

[KevinGage]

I remember that- and I was disappointed that he was booed, If I'm honest (though he did get a round of applause from many too).

His wanky behaviour predates ours though.

Wasn't there that famous response when a Villa fan asked him if he missed the Villa?
Platt (in Italy at the time)  "No.   I live in one."

[saunders_heroes]

I remember that- and I was disappointed that he was booed, If I'm honest (though he did get a round of applause from many too).

His wanky behaviour predates ours though.

Wasn't there that famous response when a Villa fan asked him if he missed the Villa?
Platt (in Italy at the time)  "No.   I live in one."

That game against Arsenal (in which he scored at the Holte but didn't celebrate) he ran to the Holte End at the final whistle and applauded the fans, and the fans applauded him as well. I don't remember any bad feeling toward him, and why would there be? He was brilliant for us, and we rebuilt the club with the money we received for him.
It never bothered me that he didn't wank all over us on tv, as other ex players do. They're not fit to lace his boots anyway.