Neglected Heroes: Aston Villa Early 80s

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Are there parallels between the Lerner/MON situation and Bendall/Saunders ? The manager overstretching the clubs finances to achieve success but the directors/owner at some point deciding the manager is going too far spending money and when the plug is pulled we go into a general decline for 4-5 years.

No. Having won the league with just 14 players our transfer spend as Champions was just £300,000, the signing of Andy Blair from Coventry. I think we only spent £500,000 the season before with the signing of Peter Withe. Admittedly gate receipts wouldn't have been that high with attendances low as the city was suffering the consequences of mass unemployment.

[rob_bridge]

What was the reaction amongst Villa fans when Saunders became Blues manager a week later. Was there anger?..Did Ron suddenly become enemy No1 ...or was there sympathy towards him?

IIRC just shock.

He could have got a much much better, or certainly bigger job.

Fupp me El Tel with a smidgeon of his record wound up at Barca a couple of years later.

Leeds was an obvious one.

He was interviewed a few years back by Pat Murphy and said he didn't want to uproot his family (again) which is why he took the first available 'local' job.

[peter w]

I miss hearing his voice talking about Villa.

[thick_mike]

He was the ultimate Villa agent...won league cup, promotion and championship with us, went to blues and got them relegated and knocked out of the cup to Altrincham, then went to West Brom and sold Steve Bull to Wolves!

[stubbsyandy]

The big centre-forward coolly tapped the ball in with his weaker foot, as it bobbled up just before he struck it...!!

Coolly tapped indeed...

[pbavfckuwait]

I heard but do not know how true it is, when he left he hid the club car, I think a Jag in a barn somewhere over Solihull, but took the drivers seat out as he had paid for a special one due to a back problem. The car sat there by all accounts for years.

[peter w]

I think Gary Williams and to a lesser degree Colin Gibson are completely neglected from that team. hardly mentioned by anyone - even us - but i because unless your'e debonair or still in football that's the life of a full back.

[trevor fisher]

dave woodall is right that the myth that Saunders left because Ellis was coming back is completely untrue. The chair of the board was Ron Bendall in 1982 and in 1983 at an AGM Ellis offered to give his 15% of the shares to a third party if Ron gave his 25% to the same third party. instead a few weeks later Ron sold his shares to Ellis and with 40% Ellis ran the club for years.

The AGM at that time was open to fans to attend, and there were a couple of thousand in the old Witton Lane Stand now the Doug Ellis who heard what was said. But the myth still goes around. Dave is right, Ellis did not return till after Saunders was gone and after we had won the European cup.

[wittonwarrior]

Bendalls were apparently behind the tax fiddle for the new witton road stand and horse fac me on bendall only escaped justice due to him passing away 

[Lucky Eddie]

Harry Kartz said that Bendall had once told him he wanted to goad Saunders into resigning.

Why would you want to get rid of the manager who had given you the League ?

Perhaps Bendall thought Saunders had overspent with the finances and was trying to reign things in. When Ellis returned he said the finances were in a mess, embarking on a programme of austerity which eventually culminated in relegation.

Are there parallels between the Lerner/MON situation and Bendall/Saunders ? The manager overstretching the clubs finances to achieve success but the directors/owner at some point deciding the manager is going too far spending money and when the plug is pulled we go into a general decline for 4-5 years.

Of course the comparison only goes so far. Saunders won the League and left a team which won the European Cup, all MON managed was 6th place.   
 

MFON bought and froze out more players than Ron Saunders used to win the title.

[dave.woodhall]

dave woodall is right that the myth that Saunders left because Ellis was coming back is completely untrue. The chair of the board was Ron Bendall in 1982 and in 1983 at an AGM Ellis offered to give his 15% of the shares to a third party if Ron gave his 25% to the same third party. instead a few weeks later Ron sold his shares to Ellis and with 40% Ellis ran the club for years.

The AGM at that time was open to fans to attend, and there were a couple of thousand in the old Witton Lane Stand now the Doug Ellis who heard what was said. But the myth still goes around. Dave is right, Ellis did not return till after Saunders was gone and after we had won the European cup.

I've no idea where you get the story about the 1983 AGM from. Ellis had sold his shares to Bendall in 1979 and bought them back in 1982. 

[WarszaVillan]

What was the reaction amongst Villa fans when Saunders became Blues manager a week later. Was there anger?..Did Ron suddenly become enemy No1 ...or was there sympathy towards him?

IIRC just shock.

He could have got a much much better, or certainly bigger job.

Fupp me El Tel with a smidgeon of his record wound up at Barca a couple of years later.

Leeds was an obvious one.

He was interviewed a few years back by Pat Murphy and said he didn't want to uproot his family (again) which is why he took the first available 'local' job.

The initial reaction was shock and during the midweek game just after his resignation there were vocal protests against Bendall. But once he went to Blues the anger turned on Saunders and it lasted a long time. Remember in the initial 'there's a cricus in the town' song - it was Saunders who was the clown. But time heals such wounds and he is now remembered as the Villa legend he is. There was also real surprise when Barton was appointed as I remember. I'd never heard of him and thought that if anyone from the backroom staff was going to take over it would have been Roy McLaren as he had a higher profile.

[dave shelley]

"We won the league, we won the cup, now Ronald Bendall's fucked it up".  Is what I remember being sung on the Holte the very first time we played at home after Ron left.

On Donald Bendall, I took issue with Ian Willars I think it was.  He'd written a book on the Villa at the time and in it he'd praised Donald Bendall as being a truly great supporter, travelling everywhere to watch the Villa. 

I wrote to Willars suggesting that it wasn't too difficult to travel everywhere when all you had to do was sit in the back of a Rolls Royce and be chauffeured all over the place and then sit in directors' boxes and be entertained.

I cited to him an example of what I considered to be a real supporter.  The previous Saturday we'd played at Stoke (we won) and standing in front of us was a kid of about thirteen or fourteen.  I got chatting to him asking was he with his dad or mates or what.  It transpired he'd made his own way there.  The joy on that kids face when we scored and at full time and what it meant to him is still with me to this day.  We were going to give him a lift back but he just vanished.  I'll never forget him and told Willars that that was what I considered a real supporter.

In fairness to Willars he paid me the courtesy of replying to my letter and stating that I had a valid point and that he would be addressing or for the next print.  I have no idea whether he did or not.  I've still got that letter somewhere.

[dave.woodhall]

In fairness to the author,  Bendall Jr wasn't a director at that time.  I don't doubt daddy bankrolled his tour of division three but he would have slummed it with the proles.  And that is the only defence I could ever make of the least intelligent director of a European Cup-winning club in history.