Juan Pablo Addition

[Pete3206]

I never warmed to Angel and never understood the adulation he got from a lot of the fans, and I'll never forgive him for missing that sitter when Luke Moore squared to him against Small Heath at 2-1. Actually thinking about it that's why I dislike him.

He had a couple of unwelcome anomalies to his name. Missing two penalties in a match (Fulham, Loftus Road, Feb '04) and scoring both goals in a 1-1 (Spurs, VP, Oct '06). Didn't he also do something daft at a corner kick in that game?

Still, lovely fella, great hair and on his day top-class.

It was at Craven Cottage, not Loftus Road.

Wasn't that the night of Eric Djemba-Djemba's stunning debut as well?

[Pat McMahon]

I never warmed to Angel and never understood the adulation he got from a lot of the fans, and I'll never forgive him for missing that sitter when Luke Moore squared to him against Small Heath at 2-1. Actually thinking about it that's why I dislike him.

He had a couple of unwelcome anomalies to his name. Missing two penalties in a match (Fulham, Loftus Road, Feb '04) and scoring both goals in a 1-1 (Spurs, VP, Oct '06). Didn't he also do something daft at a corner kick in that game?

Still, lovely fella, great hair and on his day top-class.

It was at Craven Cottage, not Loftus Road.

It was. And in the Spurs game at Villa Park in October 2006 Barry scored our goal with a cracking right foot curler.

JPA was a competent player, but nothing special. He had a couple of good seasons whilst he was here but never justified the price tag. He seemed a decent bloke and had a good rapport with fans but was never good enough to be a legend.

Having lived abroad a couple of times it is a tough experience, even for a professional player on a big salary. I remember at the time thinking that we hadn't invested in an off field structure to help a player fit in as quickly as possible.

[dcdavecollett]

Interesting that in the recent long interview with Dazzler, he thought JPA was his best strike partner at Villa Park and that they were split up too early.

[eamonn]

I never warmed to Angel and never understood the adulation he got from a lot of the fans, and I'll never forgive him for missing that sitter when Luke Moore squared to him against Small Heath at 2-1. Actually thinking about it that's why I dislike him.

He had a couple of unwelcome anomalies to his name. Missing two penalties in a match (Fulham, Loftus Road, Feb '04) and scoring both goals in a 1-1 (Spurs, VP, Oct '06). Didn't he also do something daft at a corner kick in that game?

Still, lovely fella, great hair and on his day top-class.

It was at Craven Cottage, not Loftus Road.

It was. And in the Spurs game at Villa Park in October 2006 Barry scored our goal with a cracking right foot curler.

JPA was a competent player, but nothing special. He had a couple of good seasons whilst he was here but never justified the price tag. He seemed a decent bloke and had a good rapport with fans but was never good enough to be a legend.

Having lived abroad a couple of times it is a tough experience, even for a professional player on a big salary. I remember at the time thinking that we hadn't invested in an off field structure to help a player fit in as quickly as possible.

D'oh. Two erroneous statements, my bad.
When did we play Fulham at Loftus Road then?
I'd forgotten Barry's howitzer. Angel did do something else bad apart from score an own-goal against Spurs like miss a penalty or take a comedically bad corner. S'pose I could always look this up...

[AV82EC]

I never warmed to Angel and never understood the adulation he got from a lot of the fans, and I'll never forgive him for missing that sitter when Luke Moore squared to him against Small Heath at 2-1. Actually thinking about it that's why I dislike him.

He had a couple of unwelcome anomalies to his name. Missing two penalties in a match (Fulham, Loftus Road, Feb '04) and scoring both goals in a 1-1 (Spurs, VP, Oct '06). Didn't he also do something daft at a corner kick in that game?

Still, lovely fella, great hair and on his day top-class.

It was at Craven Cottage, not Loftus Road.

It was. And in the Spurs game at Villa Park in October 2006 Barry scored our goal with a cracking right foot curler.

JPA was a competent player, but nothing special. He had a couple of good seasons whilst he was here but never justified the price tag. He seemed a decent bloke and had a good rapport with fans but was never good enough to be a legend.

Having lived abroad a couple of times it is a tough experience, even for a professional player on a big salary. I remember at the time thinking that we hadn't invested in an off field structure to help a player fit in as quickly as possible.

D'oh. Two erroneous statements, my bad.
When did we play Fulham at Loftus Road then?
I'd forgotten Barry's howitzer. Angel did do something else bad apart from score an own-goal against Spurs like miss a penalty or take a comedically bad corner. S'pose I could always look this up...

From recollection eamonn in between his calamitous own goal and his goal he tried to take a quick short corner and kicked the corner flag in highly comedic fashion. Not his best day at the office!!

[Pat McMahon]

Eamonn, we played Fulham at Loftus rd in 2003 and 2004. We lost the first game 2-1 and won the second by the same score - it was the night Delaney had his leg broken by Bocanegra's awful tackle. And I think JPA scored that night, along with Vassell.

[supertom]

He scored 60 odd goals in his time here, in all comps, including some absolute crackers. I wouldn't put him in the expensive flop category by any means. I think in all he just about proved his worth.
I thought he started O Neills first season pretty well when we played 4-3-3. As soon as we switched to a 4-4-2, O Neill seemed to prefer playing Sutton up top as a target man with either Baros (who was useless that season) or Gabby.
O Neill actually rated Japes as a top player who's only lacking attribute was pace, which happened to be an attribute most prized by O Neill with his front men. With MON it's either a quick player or a brick shit house up top. Any other type and he was lost in how to play that player.
I was disappointed to see him go because I actually felt that Carew could have been an ideal partner for Pablo for a year or two. That said, he was 31 at the time and had lost virtually any pace he had at first, and a move to New York was a good opportunity for him too I suppose.

[PeterWithesShin]

I always felt he needed everything to be absolutely perfect to play well. A decent player on his day but a league record of 1 in 4 is a bit crap for a record signing striker in his prime years.

[Rigadon]

He always seemed to look a bit unfit to me.

[eamonn]

"Japes"? Supertom, you're some man for the inventive nicknames I have to say.

[JJ-AV]

There is something really endearing about him. All logic suggests he was an average Villa player at best, when looking back I can't  help but choose to remember him fondly.

That's in spite of all the comedy moments that make Heskey look assured.

The double penalty miss v Fulham
The penalty miss, own goal and attempt at taking a corner v Spurs
The burst through on goal from the halfway line at Stamford Bridge, only to be caught up by Terry
The shots from the half way line that he used to spanner out for a throw-in
Offside. Every.Fucking.Game.


Even his excellent season wasn't anything special on reflection. 23 goals sounds fantastic - but I remember him getting a fair few in the League Cup and a fair few penalties.

Still, he looked cool and seemed like a nice bloke.

[SoccerHQ]

have to admit I was a fanboy,
 I loved the guy thought he was pure class playing in average side, if he had gone to a European side I think he could have been one of the worlds best, I really thought he was that good

but he didn't, I don't think we ever got the very best out of him, but even so he left some good memories with a feeling of what might have been

He wasn't, decent enough strker but we've had better since, obviously Benteke and Carew who did play for the big European clubs.

What did for him really was after an excellent 03/04 he had an operation which made him even slower so in the pace obessed premier league that was a bit of a problem. That's another excuse anyway Dave has forgotten.

End of the day he got huge support from the Holte end for being the pound protest signing (remember that). Would've been comical if we'd signed Balaban 6 months earlier instead.

[SoccerHQ]

Really great player on his day. Generally when our sides tried to play good football he looked a good player. When we played hoofball and tried to use him as a target man, not so good. Fantastic header of the ball, great touch, could link up play well. He lacked a ruthless edge that you need in this league, but great guy, good relationship with us lot. Ive got a lot of time for JPA.

Yes he was pretty good at scoring from crosses, he'd have done well if we'd signed an Ashley Young type a bit earlier rather than right as he was leaving and passed it.

Still he did well when we had Solano and UDLC in the team aswell and also let's not forget right at the start of 06/07 when Luke Moore and Gabby were doing the running either side of him.

[SoccerHQ]

He scored 60 odd goals in his time here, in all comps, including some absolute crackers. I wouldn't put him in the expensive flop category by any means. I think in all he just about proved his worth.
I thought he started O Neills first season pretty well when we played 4-3-3. As soon as we switched to a 4-4-2, O Neill seemed to prefer playing Sutton up top as a target man with either Baros (who was useless that season) or Gabby.
O Neill actually rated Japes as a top player who's only lacking attribute was pace, which happened to be an attribute most prized by O Neill with his front men. With MON it's either a quick player or a brick shit house up top. Any other type and he was lost in how to play that player.
I was disappointed to see him go because I actually felt that Carew could have been an ideal partner for Pablo for a year or two. That said, he was 31 at the time and had lost virtually any pace he had at first, and a move to New York was a good opportunity for him too I suppose.

I remember turning up for MON's first home game against Reading five minutes late as there was mass queues outside as it was a midweek game.

My Dad was no fan of JPA at all and thought MON was the best thing since sliced bread (as most of us did at that point). As soon as we got in he saw JPA was playing, turned to me and said "fcuk me we've got one of the best managers around and he's still playing Angle (as he'd call him) upfront!"

As you say never really an O'Neill type striker but he did well at the start of that season.

[eamonn]

Why didn't we stick with that formation of Angel flanked by Gabby and Moore? I seem to remember we were unbeaten with that formation until the middle of October. Sutton came in and Baros got the odd opportunity but we had a really poor run that winter, 06/07. I can't remember if we had ditched the three up front by then.