Mistakes and missed opportunities

[Fergal]

What are or were the mistakes and missed opportunities that stopped us from being a real sustained power in the game. 
Not keeping Ron Saunders?  Getting rid of Tony Barton? The appointment of MoN?
What players should we have signed when we had the chance or not signed or players we should never have let go?
What were the real turning points in our history?

[OzVilla]

Ellis taking over from Bendall,
Allowing Saunders to leave,
Cowans and Shaw injuries,
Signing Cascarino instead of Sheringham,
Not signing Cantona ( especially as he was more an Atkinson player than a Ferguson one),
Not signing Juniniho under Gregory,
The 2000 FA Cup Final,
The mishandling of Mon
The mishandling of appointing Mon's successor.

[Smoke]

Emile Heskey & switching to 4-4-2

[Summers]

Luc Nilis' horrible injury, I think, was a massive loss that led to be a missed opportunity. That guy was a top level goal scorer, also allowed other strikers and the team play well around him. Ageing, sure, but he was still class.

I agree with the others listed too.

[TonyD]

MON.

[Dante Lavelli]

Justin Edinburgh clearing off the line - was it over? - and the 6 minutes of injury time at Hillsborough.
Was that even on the same day?  That's how I remember it.

[OzVilla]

Justin Edinburgh clearing off the line - was it over? - and the 6 minutes of injury time at Hillsborough.
Was that even on the same day?  That's how I remember it.

Edinburghs was a mid week game, Fergie time the 1st was at Old Trafford.

Agreed though, two huge moments.

[Deano's Mullet]

Summer of 1994   Blackburn signed Chris Sutton, we signed John Fashanu.

[Dante Lavelli]

Justin Edinburgh clearing off the line - was it over? - and the 6 minutes of injury time at Hillsborough.
Was that even on the same day?  That's how I remember it.

Edinburghs was a mid week game, Fergie time the 1st was at Old Trafford.

Agreed though, two huge moments.

I should be a historian with accuracy like that.

[Damo70]

The departure of Ron Saunders

Doug breaking up the European Cup winning team too quickly/Not allowing Tony Barton to manage his way/Replacing Tony Barton with Graham Turner

Graham Taylor leaving for the England job

Going backwards in the last eighteen months under BFR

Brian Little losing his mojo

The decision making since MON left

[Rico]

European Champs to relegation in 4 years! Thanks for that Mr. Ellis!

[DB]

Summer of '96. We needed a striker to push on and a creative midfielder (finished 4th, won the league cup and semi's of the FA Cup)... We only bought Curcic, Ellis wouldn't saction any more buys. We stagnated and went backwards and that was it.

[brontebilly]

selling gary cahill and instead having heroes such as Cuellar, Knight, Davies and Collins at the back instead.

Emile Heskey & switching to 4-4-2

great call smoke, our results that season after buying Heskey and switching formation were horrendous.

Two examples of MON at his absolute worst.

big mistake was the board turning a blind eye to the growth in wages under MON.

Lerner buying Stephen Ireland without a manager.

Villa supporters generally made a big mistake burying their heads in the sand re Lerner, Krulak etc when questions should have been asked a lot sooner.

robbie keane would have been a great signing for the club. crazy gregory and ellis didnt go the extra 500k for a young player.

[Irish villain]

Most of the above though I do feel a championship win for  us in 1992/93 would have merely delayed by a year the emergence of United under Fergie, first Premiership or not.

Csn I add failing to sign Robbie Keane from Wolves? I think he'd have done very well for us in his early years and if we had sold him on would have made a huge profit. Under Gregory  we tended to sign older players with no sell-on value.

There has also been an element of bad luck about the past twenty years: Managing to fall outside the European places in 1998/99 despite being top at Christmas. Sixth not being enough for Europe in 2003/2004. The emergence of Man City really buggered us c. 2008/09 too....

[Can Gana Be Bettered!?!?]

Repeatedly buying a season ticket. That's a mistake I never seem to learn from.