Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: Legion on July 01, 2014, 06:20:16 PM
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7 Great Players Linked with Aston Villa Who Never Joined (http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2084770-7-great-players-linked-with-aston-villa-who-never-joined/)
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Loving Dougs claims about Roberto Carlos. That definitely ranks alongside the bicycle kick. In fact I think I'd sooner believe Ellis invented the bicycle kick.
If it was true, the one I really think was an opportunity missed was Andy Cole. Perhaps we'd have have been in the title race again that season with a 20 goal striker like Cole, as opposed to an increasingly inconsistent Atkinson and under-utilized Yorkie. Deano was solid but not quite the sort of striker that wins you leagues.
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In the summer of 1995 we were linked with Les Ferdinand, Dennis Bergkamp, Gazza and Shoot magazine even claimed we'd get David Platt back. We got Savo, Southgate and Draper instead but things still worked out just fine.
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In the summer of 1995 we were linked with Les Ferdinand, Dennis Bergkamp, Gazza and Shoot magazine even claimed we'd get David Platt back. We got Savo, Southgate and Draper instead but things still worked out just fine.
Would have loved to see Bergkamp at the club.
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In the summer of 1995 we were linked with Les Ferdinand, Dennis Bergkamp, Gazza and Shoot magazine even claimed we'd get David Platt back. We got Savo, Southgate and Draper instead but things still worked out just fine.
I think Brian Little tried to sign Danny Blind as well before deciding to play Southgate as a defender.
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In the summer of 1995 we were linked with Les Ferdinand, Dennis Bergkamp, Gazza and Shoot magazine even claimed we'd get David Platt back. We got Savo, Southgate and Draper instead but things still worked out just fine.
Would have loved to see Bergkamp at the club.
Would have been wonderful.
There was also a rumour regarding Ruud van Nistlroy (?) too.
It was not long after we'd signed Luc Nilis.
RvN has always said that his favourite strike partner was Nilis.
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Robbie Keane is the one for me, most realistic from that list anyway that we could've signed.
A lot is always made of Juninho but to me he lost a bit after breaking his leg at Atletico Madrid, he didn't do much when he went back to Boro shortly afterwards.
I think the Falcao one MON actually came out and denied and said he'd be looking closer to home which of course meant Emile Heskey.
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In the summer of 1995 we were linked with Les Ferdinand, Dennis Bergkamp, Gazza and Shoot magazine even claimed we'd get David Platt back. We got Savo, Southgate and Draper instead but things still worked out just fine.
Wasn't the Platt thing a April Fools joke by Shoot? Seem to remember one of the footie mags doing that at the time.
Remember the Keane one as Gregory shot his month off about him not being worth the money Coventry paid for him, only for him to score one and set one up for them against us the next night. At the time we were pretty strong up front so I don't know if he would have been worth the money or not.
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In the summer of 1995 we were linked with Les Ferdinand, Dennis Bergkamp, Gazza and Shoot magazine even claimed we'd get David Platt back. We got Savo, Southgate and Draper instead but things still worked out just fine.
I think Brian Little tried to sign Danny Blind as well before deciding to play Southgate as a defender.
He even came to Villa park for talks before signing a new contract at wherever he was playing. Or was it that he returned to Holland before retiring rather than joining us from wherever it was he was playing? sure he was around 33 when he came for talks.
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I remember the back of the Evening Mail proclaiming we were going to sign Hans Krankl.
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Why did we never sign Saviola, I mean we had a petition and everything...?
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I remember the back of the Evening Mail proclaiming we were going to sign Hans Krankl.
And we tried to get him on loan. One of the top strikers in Europe at the time.
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Sneijder would have been nice
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I just wanted one of those fancy Celta Vigo lads - Revivo, Mostovoi or McCarthy.
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With the Keane transfer, the money required was another 500k , which if memory serves me right, we sold Oakes the keeper to them shortly after for that amount.
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In the summer of 1995 we were linked with Les Ferdinand, Dennis Bergkamp, Gazza and Shoot magazine even claimed we'd get David Platt back. We got Savo, Southgate and Draper instead but things still worked out just fine.
I remember that edition of Shoot. Wasn't it the April Fool's edition?! I remember hating them for getting my hopes up afterwards. Don't think I bought another issue again!
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Weren't we once linked with David Villa a few years ago?
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I think we were linked with Mario Yepes a few years ago when JPA was playing for Villa.
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I was at that Brazil - Sweden match at Villa Park. Seem to remember it was a 0-0 and the only other thing I remember about the game is that Brazil played in blue (presumably Sweden were in yellow).
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Nearly Cooper
Nearly Cox
Nearly Rioch
......I'll get me coat.
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Wesley Sneijder, Miguel Veloso, Sylvain Distin, Sol Campbell.....all of them, in one article.
In fairness to The Mail it did correctly predict we were going to sign Stephen Warnock.
http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/aston-villa-make-a-play-for-real-99239
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In the summer of 1995 we were linked with Les Ferdinand, Dennis Bergkamp, Gazza and Shoot magazine even claimed we'd get David Platt back. We got Savo, Southgate and Draper instead but things still worked out just fine.
I remember that edition of Shoot. Wasn't it the April Fool's edition?! I remember hating them for getting my hopes up afterwards. Don't think I bought another issue again!
Me too! I was jumping for joy, going around and telling everyone who would listen, only to have my bubble bust by my mum later.
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I just wanted one of those fancy Celta Vigo lads - Revivo, Mostovoi or McCarthy.
Oh yes, I remember the McCarthy one. That was a biggie at the time, I'm sure there was some kind of protest or something when we didn't get him.
Looking at that article makes me feel very sad indeed.
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Does anyone remember 'the list' that was photographed in the Sunday Mercury? Think I rember it had Batistuta among many others.
Remember reading something in a very old H&V about Totti.
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I remember hearing us being linked with Sneijder and thinking 'there is no way on Earth he'll join us'.
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I may have dreamed this one but I seem to remember us being in for Gary Lineker before he signed for Spurs????
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Yeah, when I saw the article I expected to read about Lineker.
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Gary Lineker scored well over 300 goals in his career. Not a single one was at Villa Park.
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Amazed that Christian Vieri hasn't been mentioned yet.
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Gary Lineker scored well over 300 goals in his career. Not a single one was at Villa Park.
I remember him mentioning it. "Good job I never signed for them as I never scored a goal at Villa Park".
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Terry Butcher. Can't remember when. Fat Frank too.
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Didn't Ron have a look at Bierhoff but didn't fancy him?
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I remember when Sheringham and Cascarino were both at Millwall. We were told (Gregory?) that we could have one but not both. We took Cascarino.
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Taylor.
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Wasn't Taylor's valuation of Sherringham about 1m and Cascarino's 800k and we ended up paying 1.5m for Cascarino. Good old Doug
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I remember when Sheringham and Cascarino were both at Millwall. We were told (Gregory?) that we could have one but not both. We took Cascarino.
I heard that we wanted Sheringham and Millwall were not prepared to let him leave, so we spent the money for him on Cascarino instead.
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This is a very random one, but in the summer that we signed Southgate, Draper and Milosevic, we were linked to Chris Coleman for almost the whole summer and I remember him being as quoted as saying "I'd walk there to play for them." I even asked Brain Little about it at a Villa Park open-day and he refused to deny he was trying to sign him!
I've no idea why it didn't happen in the end, but looking back that was a really exciting summer, wasn't it?!
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I may have dreamed this one but I seem to remember us being in for Gary Lineker before he signed for Spurs????
No you didn't dream it but i'm not sure where he was playing at the time. I remember GT mentioning it in a forum. He said that had the deal gone through, we wouldn't been able to afford anyone else for a couple of seasons which in the end put Sir Graham off.
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I may have dreamed this one but I seem to remember us being in for Gary Lineker before he signed for Spurs????
No you didn't dream it but i'm not sure where he was playing at the time. I remember GT mentioning it in a forum. He said that had the deal gone through, we wouldn't been able to afford anyone else for a couple of seasons which in the end put Sir Graham off.
Lineker always seems to dislike us on MotD, I wonder if that's the reason?
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Given how we've played for the last few years, I'm surprised there is any TV viewer that doesn't dislike us.
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I remember us being strongly linked to Fwank. Of all those potential signings, he would have been the best by a mile.
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No he wouldn't, Lineker or Sheringham could have won us the league once if not twice we were that close.
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Sheringham instead of Cascarino and we may have been closer, but not when lineker was linked we wouldn't.
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This is all pretty depressing. I've not been so upset reading through Heroes and Villains since the "Disaster strikes local news" thread.
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Apparently Gudni Bergsson had a trial for us.
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Amazed that Christian Vieri hasn't been mentioned yet.
Yep I remember that. Wasn't it when Gregory was in charge?
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Not quite as exalted as some of the names on this thread, but the oft-linked Aaron Cresswell is joining West Ham for £2m.
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Apparently Gudni Bergsson had a trial for us.
More than that. Wasn't he in the youth or reserve team/squad?
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Sheringham instead of Cascarino and we may have been closer, but not when lineker was linked we wouldn't.
Didn't we try and get him in the summer of '89 when he was leaving Barcelona?
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Sheringham instead of Cascarino and we may have been closer, but not when lineker was linked we wouldn't.
Didn't we try and get him in the summer of '89 when he was leaving Barcelona?
The story broke during 1988-89, so it would have been at the time. As someone said earlier though, if we'd bought him we couldn't have afforded Paul McGrath.
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I doubt we'd have got him. We'd spent the last four seasons either battling relegation, actually being relegated, or in the Second Division, while Spurs had just finished sixth. Add in the London factor and I suspect he wouldn't have fancied Villa much anyway.
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I maybe mad but weren't we linked with Roy Keane when he was at Forest? He was an absolute beast of a player then.
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Euro '96 I seem to recall that we were trying to get Patrick Kluivert, and I seem to recall us being mentioned with the boy Love???? who tore us apart in a intertonto match????
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We were interested in Ljungberg when he was in Halmstads?
Maybe Doug can forsee his modelling career with CK undies to drop the idea of signing him.
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So what this thread all boils down to is that we have been linked with most of the world's top players at some point, but more often than not have failed to get them, but then I wouldn't have it any other way, because at Villa we don't do World's best players, but if we did they would probably be the best in the world :P
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I'm surprised Darren Bent's not on this thread. We got a top striker (then) in his prime from a club well above us in the league at that point and doing well, every other club in the league bar maybe the top 5 would have had him in their side at that point, we made an offer that couldn't be refused, and smashed our transfer record to smithereens.
That's just not really the Villa way. Our bigger name signings tend to have been either over the hill, or out of favour, or have some sort of issue that's held them back from being a top end player.
The day we signed Benty was a good day. It took a good couple of weeks for it sink in with me that we'd actually done it.
Have we signed Benni McCarthy yet?
We were linked a couple of times with Pascal Chimbonda IIRC. Possibly when he was at Wigan and then I think a couple of worrying links maybe a couple of years ago, by which point he was well past his best.
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For a long time during the O'Neill days I wanted us to sign Defoe we just got to a point where we had some good strikers, but lacked that slightly more clinical finisher, from that point of view it maybe that we signed Bent a couple of seasons too late, he did play a big part in keeping us up though.
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For a long time during the O'Neill days I wanted us to sign Defoe we just got to a point where we had some good strikers, but lacked that slightly more clinical finisher, from that point of view it maybe that we signed Bent a couple of seasons too late, he did play a big part in keeping us up though.
We had a few tentative links to Defoe over the years I recall. It is a shame we've only had Bent when we're at the arse end of the table. Playing alongside either Big John or Gabby in O Neill's side and he'd have scored 20 a season. Would that have got us top 4? Maybe.
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I maybe mad but weren't we linked with Roy Keane when he was at Forest? He was an absolute beast of a player then.
1993, but if Manchester United wanted him then he wasn't going anywhere else and as BFR said, we signed Andy Townsend who at that time was the better of the two. BFR never was one for long-term planning.
Talking of long-term, circa 1980 the best scout in football recommended we sign a young lad named Ian Rush.
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I remember strong rumours that we were going to sign Alan Shearer, and later Gregory saying that if he had signed for use he'd have been chasing the title.
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I remember strong rumours that we were going to sign Alan Shearer, and later Gregory saying that if he had signed for use he'd have been chasing the title.
I recall that too. Shortly after the Gullit fallout if I remember correctly. I think Gregory may have been right there too. We were solid at the back but lacked a 20 goal forward.
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I doubt we'd have got him. We'd spent the last four seasons either battling relegation, actually being relegated, or in the Second Division, while Spurs had just finished sixth. Add in the London factor and I suspect he wouldn't have fancied Villa much anyway.
I read a biography of Lineker written by his long time agent/manager. He fancied a move to United but they couldn't afford the fee and wages package involved. Neither could Everton who had first option to buy him back. The only clubs that were prepared to meet the demands were Spurs, Monaco and Fiorentina.
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I'm surprised Darren Bent's not on this thread. We got a top striker (then) in his prime from a club well above us in the league at that point and doing well, every other club in the league bar maybe the top 5 would have had him in their side at that point, we made an offer that couldn't be refused, and smashed our transfer record to smithereens.
That's just not really the Villa way. Our bigger name signings tend to have been either over the hill, or out of favour, or have some sort of issue that's held them back from being a top end player.
The day we signed Benty was a good day. It took a good couple of weeks for it sink in with me that we'd actually done it.
Have we signed Benni McCarthy yet?
We were linked a couple of times with Pascal Chimbonda IIRC. Possibly when he was at Wigan and then I think a couple of worrying links maybe a couple of years ago, by which point he was well past his best.
Darren Bent was exactly the right signing but at the wrong time for the club (o.k he kept us up but not a player to sign when good attackers started leaving).
He should've been signed at some point in the MON era instead of wasting time and resources signing Heskey and Harewood. I'd have signed him ahead of Downing tbh considering they went for a similar amount that summer.
Another one from around that time would be Defoe.