Ron Saunders at Norwich

[Villa Lew]

Interesting article on the great man in the Mail, with former player David Cross talking about his time at Norwich with Ron as manager, in the season 71/72 the year they got promoted to the top flight for the first time in their history.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-5322817/Super-fit-Ron-Saunders-mix-Bruce-Lee-Popeye.html

[ADVILLAFAN]

Wow, I never realised that it took them that long to get to the top flight.

[ktvillan]

I remember John Bond, who managed Norwich after Saunders, slagging off Saunders's Villa for playing "100 mph football" - probably after one of the habitual poundings we tended to give Norwich.  Arguably Saunders was way ahead of his time with the type of high intensity football recently perfected by Guardiola and now practised by many.  The 10 attackers and 10 defenders thing sounds like a variation on total football as well.  I know we were arguably the fittest team around at the time, some of our attacking play was breathtaking in it's speed and efficacy, and we always had players like Bremner and Carrodus who worked their balls off to win it back. 

[WarszaVillan]

I never realised we played in the Charity Shield in 1972!

[wittonwarrior]

I remember John Bond, who managed Norwich after Saunders, slagging off Saunders's Villa for playing "100 mph football" - probably after one of the habitual poundings we tended to give Norwich.  Arguably Saunders was way ahead of his time with the type of high intensity football recently perfected by Guardiola and now practised by many.  The 10 attackers and 10 defenders thing sounds like a variation on total football as well.  I know we were arguably the fittest team around at the time, some of our attacking play was breathtaking in it's speed and efficacy, and we always had players like Bremner and Carrodus who worked their balls off to win it back.

We had problems with that prick before the 75 cup final where his great Norwich city couldn’t even fill their allocation

[Big Dick Edwards]

I never realised we played in the Charity Shield in 1972!

And at Villa Pak too. We lost 1-0.

[Pat McMahon]

I never realised we played in the Charity Shield in 1972!

And at Villa Pak too. We lost 1-0.

I don't think there was any logic to who contested it back then. The first one I remember was the Leeds v Liverpool brawling at Wembley in 1974.

[Damo70]

David Cross says Saunders guaranteed him Norwich would be promoted. Reading Peter Withe's book he said the same thing to Withe regarding winning the title when he signed him in 1980. Withe also mentioned Saunders had been a decent boxer in his youth.

[ADVILLAFAN]

Did Saunders guarantee Blues and West Brom relegation too? 😄

[eamonn]

Ron told Jack Woodward he could do with doing some press-ups when they met for avtv.
Jack preferred to play with his rubber duckies in the bath re-enacting an Andreas Weimann goal.