This summer feeling like summer of 95

[Des Little]

This actually feels like Proud History...Bright Future for the first time in many years

[LeeB]

Paul Lambert is Brad Pitt in Moneyball.

It's just me then, this is happening, isn't it?

Ace.

[danlanza]

This site is un recognisable from this time last year. Doom and gloom replaced by positive posts. UTV.

[eamonn]

What is so exciting about Liverpool?  Replacing Freddie Mercury with Aspa or Carragher with Toure (The old one)?  Gerrard a year older?  Sturridge injured?  Im hopeful we can finish close to them

Nothing particularly exciting, I just think they will improve this year. Coutinho looks a great signing. Rodgers, despite some of the s*** he comes out with is a good manager and I think they will spend big. Aspas is very highly rated and selling Suarez could be a blessing in disguise for them.
I'm not expecting a title challenge or anything near it, but I do expect them to take advantage of Moyes leaving Everton and also close the gap on the likes of Spurs.

I wasn't impressed by Rodgers' Liverpool at all last season.  Without Suarez's goals they would have been a lot further down the league, so it remains to be seen what they do without him, if he goes, which I expect he will.  No Carragher and Gerrard a year older.

They'll still be top half, but I'd be very surprised to see them finish any higher than they did last season.   

And yet when he was suspended, Coutinho and Sturridge looked class together at the end of the season. It's nice to accentutate our promise and how Liverpool are in terminal decline/bobbing around as best of the rest but they still have decent players and huge resources. After a transitional season they will be a better team next season possibly even if Suarez leaves. Weren't their stats showing better results in his absence? I think they'd cope better if he left than Everton would with Fellaini/Baines leaving and I'd expect Liverpool to finish ahead of their neighbours next season.

[Daholteend]

What happened Draper after a very good start to his  Villa career? Seem to remember him coming on to good effect in UEFA cup ties under Gregory but was it off pitch issues that caused the fall of grace in the first place?

Savo had great ability and was a huge signing for the club at the time. Remember being so excited when we signed him, young player with a phenomenal scoring record in Belgrade. Didn't work out though.

Out of the three, Southgate was the unheralded one but turned out to be a great player for us. Jagielka esque signing from Little at the time.

It could be that Bacuna may turn out to be the most successful of this lot.

Draper was loaned to Rayo Vallecan in 1999/2000, then sold to Southampton and played 24 games with them and left the game.

He made a comeback in non league football in 2009, did   some stints   of coaching with Arnold Town and before that Radford FC before leaving the game for other business. Draper's Villa appearances were his   Swan Song.

He  was a  tidy midfielder.

Gary Charles was brought in by Little  in 1995 as a right back along with Ian Taylor  and Savo.

If   you remember it was only that 1-1  draw with Norwich City on the last day that  kept us from relegation. Little had a number of  aging  stars that needed to be moved on so yes, this Summer does indeed have that Summer of  1995  feel   to it.

The difference though  is that Brian Little  had   Deadly to deal with on the money  front and would have been  somewhat limited in that way. Lambert on the other hand has earned the full backing of the  Board (so far) and  will be afforded the opportunity to implement his brand of entertaining quality football.

For a few of those reasons alone  and if Lambert does indeed   complete  the Luna and Helenius transfers this coming week I would have to say  that I  feel better about  Aston Villa's future after this  summer  than I  have in more years than I care to remember.

I was excited about the  Summer that Lerner  bought  the  club off   Deadly and there was a level of optimism  with MON as manager but it was different.

Lambert's coaching philosophy is not  dissimilar to Jurgen Klop. Klop tells us  that he loves his  club. There are signs that Paul Lambert loves Aston Villa. If that be so, then we have even more right to be  not  just happy  but ecstatic about  what Paul Lamber is  doing at B6.

How long is it  since we have had a manager  that loved  Aston Villa? Hmmmm  yes..  it could be since  Brian Little..now  what year was  that ?   

[jeowje]

John Gregory loved us i believe, maybe not as much as the sound of his own voice!

Sgt mark 2 also was since Brian Little...

[Matt Collins]

This site is un recognisable from this time last year. Doom and gloom replaced by positive posts. UTV.

We haven't started playing yet! Just wait till we're 1-0 down on the first day of the season. The R word will come out

[peter w]

Remember the summer of 95?

We signed relatively un known players .

We had a young manager on the way up

We had a tough season the year before

I am getting same excitement levels this summer , we had then and its looking really positive .

Not quite for me. Back then we had a half decent side and we signed some good players. We thought we were getting closer to good things as in winning trophies. I'm not sure how is that comparable to now.Excitement wise, maybe, but with lower expectation levels.

[dave.woodhall]

Remember the summer of 95?

We signed relatively un known players .

We had a young manager on the way up

We had a tough season the year before

I am getting same excitement levels this summer , we had then and its looking really positive .

Not quite for me. Back then we had a half decent side and we signed some good players. We thought we were getting closer to good things as in winning trophies. I'm not sure how is that comparable to now.Excitement wise, maybe, but with lower expectation levels.

Back then we'd escaped relegation on the last day and didn't expect to do much better.

[PeterWithesShin]

We were closer to relegation in '95 than we were last season. We were also strongly tipped to struggle the following season, and from what I remember us Villa fans weren't much more optimistic until after the first game.

[LeeB]

Remember the summer of 95?

We signed relatively un known players .

We had a young manager on the way up

We had a tough season the year before

I am getting same excitement levels this summer , we had then and its looking really positive .

Not quite for me. Back then we had a half decent side and we signed some good players. We thought we were getting closer to good things as in winning trophies. I'm not sure how is that comparable to now.Excitement wise, maybe, but with lower expectation levels.

Back then we'd escaped relegation on the last day and didn't expect to do much better.

I remember everyone being a bit underwhelmed after losing that friendly at the Stripeys, we looked really flat.
 

[rob_bridge]

Remember the summer of 95?

We signed relatively un known players .

We had a young manager on the way up

We had a tough season the year before

I am getting same excitement levels this summer , we had then and its looking really positive .

Not quite for me. Back then we had a half decent side and we signed some good players. We thought we were getting closer to good things as in winning trophies. I'm not sure how is that comparable to now.Excitement wise, maybe, but with lower expectation levels.

Back then we'd escaped relegation on the last day and didn't expect to do much better.

I remember everyone being a bit underwhelmed after losing that friendly at the Stripeys, we looked really flat.

And it all changed after the 1st game of the season. Very bright, sunny and hot day. The football was fucking great that day when we sent the Glorymonger's fans back to their hovels in Surrey, Cambridge and Cornwall tails between their legs.

[Ads]

I had forgot that friendly. We missed the first twenty minutes trying to get into the shit hole.

[The Man With A Stick]

Mardon and Raven spent the whole game kicking the crap out of Savo, pair of third division cloggers.

[olaftab]

I went over to wiki to refresh my memories on 94/95 and found the passage below to be particularly intersting:

Before the season was over, a new era was already in the making at Villa Park. A number of players now past their best were off-loaded to new clubs; these included Ray Houghton, Garry Parker, Kevin Richardson and Earl Barrett. The close season saw more players from the Atkinson era pass through the Villa Park exit door; Shaun Teale, Dalian Atkinson, Dean Saunders and John Fashanu. Little brought in younger players like Mark Draper, Ian Taylor, Savo Milosevic, Nii Lamptey, Carl Tiler, Gary Charles and Alan Wright, to give some much-needed strength to a side of fading stars as well as giving such much-needed hope to fans of a club which had been rescued from the threat of a rapid decline.

I had actually forgotten that we were that close to relegation but it was an unusual season.