Press-ed into history

[silhillvilla]

What i'd give for a Brian Little to step in right now.

Him with kenny swain and Sid .

[Clark W Griswold]

It's worth pointing out though that Big Ron had taken us to runners up in the league 18 months earlier and won the league cup 6 months earlier, it seemed rather hasty. But yes, BL was a good choice, made some good signings to re-build the team and won a trophy of his own. We played some excellent football at times too. I think BL's undoing was 2 record signings in a row which went tits up in a big way, Curcic and Collymore. We started to unravel after that and it was time for change again. This was also the real start of player power, and with the likes of Ego and Mouthgate wanting more money elsewhere, it made things even harder.

[Fred]

As I said on a previous post BFR was a very popular manager and i remember asking my mate to confirm using Ceefax (internet of the day) if what i had heard was true. I remember somebody in the office telling me they had heard Villa had sacked Rowan Atkinson. I did not know wether to laugh or cry.

However rhe desicion was right as the team was growing older with the manager and a rot had set in for some time, the fact that BL came in and by 1996 we were 4th with another league cup under our belt proved Doug right.

My worry now is that there is no BL or a BL type of manager to come in and would the chairman be able to find a manager like that?

[dave.woodhall]

As I said on a previous post BFR was a very popular manager and i remember asking my mate to confirm using Ceefax (internet of the day) if what i had heard was true. I remember somebody in the office telling me they had heard Villa had sacked Rowan Atkinson. I did not know wether to laugh or cry.

However rhe desicion was right as the team was growing older with the manager and a rot had set in for some time, the fact that BL came in and by 1996 we were 4th with another league cup under our belt proved Doug right.

My worry now is that there is no BL or a BL type of manager to come in and would the chairman be able to find a manager like that?

Those managers, like Sir Graham, found him. That's the biggest difference between Doug & Randy; the former had the knack of always coming up smelling of roses.

[Clark W Griswold]

Football has changed a lot, and it's difficult to turn a poor team finishing near the bottom into a good one finishing near the top in a season or so. Money talks too much and the gap has widened dramatically between the clubs with money and the ones without. That said, there are cases of clubs achieving some success without a great deal of cash, Southampton currently and Swansea a couple of years ago (winning a trophy). But that comes from the foundations at the club and the quality of coach. We are badly lacking in both areas and until Lerner is able to step aside it won't get much better (in the long term) but I think a better manager could have us performing better than Lambert, despite Lerner (certainly in the shorter term).

[eamonn]

Novmber '94, good old Abdul (where is he now?) fending off the hacks and fans looking for answers. Who else was there and what else happened? SSN would have enjoyed themselves had they been born.

[tom jennings III]

Great article although pretty depressing. Didn't Wimbledon score first in the 7-1 game as well?!

[Richard E]

Great article although pretty depressing. Didn't Wimbledon score first in the 7-1 game as well?!

Yes. We came past some of their fans on the way out and they were singing "1-0 up, 7-1 down."

The next game was the 4-4 with Leicester.

[Fred]

As I said on a previous post BFR was a very popular manager and i remember asking my mate to confirm using Ceefax (internet of the day) if what i had heard was true. I remember somebody in the office telling me they had heard Villa had sacked Rowan Atkinson. I did not know wether to laugh or cry.

However rhe desicion was right as the team was growing older with the manager and a rot had set in for some time, the fact that BL came in and by 1996 we were 4th with another league cup under our belt proved Doug right.

My worry now is that there is no BL or a BL type of manager to come in and would the chairman be able to find a manager like that?

Those managers, like Sir Graham, found him. That's the biggest difference between Doug & Randy; the former had the knack of always coming up smelling of roses.

Thank god Sir Graham did find Doug and wanted the job, Reading about his time at the club he seemed to know how to work with and handle the chairman.

[The Man With A Stick]

I remember wanting BFR out after Forest beat us at home just before that Wimbledon game.  Ashamed to think about it now, as the best football I've ever seen us play was under him (for a few short months in '92/93).  I think signing that talentless oxygen thief Fashanu was one of the final nails in the coffin for me.

Worked out well in the end though with Sir Brian and I still don't think BFR would ever have turned it around, we'd been on the slide for a good while before Ellis pulled the trigger.  That League Cup win the season before papered over a few cracks.

[AV82EC]

Great article although pretty depressing. Didn't Wimbledon score first in the 7-1 game as well?!

Yes. We came past some of their fans on the way out and they were singing "1-0 up, 7-1 down."

The next game was the 4-4 with Leicester.

My god if there was any game that summed up the Villa more in the last 25 years than that 4-4 with Leicester. 4-1 up with 15 minutes left we were taking the piss with a 2 or 3 minute round of ole's and then hit the bar. I've tried to bleach the last 10 minutes from my mind as Mark Draper and I believe Steve Claridge ripped us to shreds. Typical fucking Villa....

[dave.woodhall]

As I said on a previous post BFR was a very popular manager and i remember asking my mate to confirm using Ceefax (internet of the day) if what i had heard was true. I remember somebody in the office telling me they had heard Villa had sacked Rowan Atkinson. I did not know wether to laugh or cry.

However rhe desicion was right as the team was growing older with the manager and a rot had set in for some time, the fact that BL came in and by 1996 we were 4th with another league cup under our belt proved Doug right.

My worry now is that there is no BL or a BL type of manager to come in and would the chairman be able to find a manager like that?

Those managers, like Sir Graham, found him. That's the biggest difference between Doug & Randy; the former had the knack of always coming up smelling of roses.

Thank god Sir Graham did find Doug and wanted the job, Reading about his time at the club he seemed to know how to work with and handle the chairman.

The only manager to ever best Doug.

[Clampy]

What was Sir Graham's 'don't clip my wings' threat to Doug about? I can't recall off the top of my head.

[dave.woodhall]

What was Sir Graham's 'don't clip my wings' threat to Doug about? I can't recall off the top of my head.

His first AGM. "Don't clip my wings because if you do you are wasting money, wasting your time and you will give yourself a heart attack."

[darren woolley]

Spot on as usual Dave.