Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: Toronto Villa on December 11, 2014, 05:19:26 PM
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I still remember when we signed him and the excitement of signing a player from South America, and forward at that from such a famous club like River Plate. He probably didn't fulfill his potential with us but still for a lot of people he is one of their favourite players and brings back some really good memories.
Good luck in your retirement JPA
JPA retires (http://hereisthecity.com/en-gb/2014/12/11/photos-aston-villa-legend-juan-pablo-angel-honoured-at-copa-suda/?)
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He's one of those 'could have been' sort of players. I enjoyed his goals in DOL's first season. Shame we rushed him back the following season, he never really hit top form again after that. A good pro - shame we never looked after him when he first signed, it could have been even better.
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One of my fav 'recent years' players. I met him once at a petrol station; a nice fella as well.
All the best JPA.
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I saw him in Sainsburys in Selly Oak once. Strangely.
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The quintessential 21st Century Aston Villa player. Not bad; not good.
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One of my favourite post millennium players. Really nice guy and you could tell he loved playing here. I felt we let him go a little too soon. He played pretty well at the start of O Neill's reign with Moore and Gabby either side of him. As soon as O Neill switched to a 4-4-2, JPA became obsolete being as he was neither a pace player or a big target man. Ironically I think he'd have had a field day playing with Carew.
He was good in Gregory's last season, before being dropped when SGT came in (despite being our top scorer). I think had JG stayed till May, JPA would have score 20 goals in all comps at least.
His first season with O Leary was very good. There were also a few brief signs that he and Baros may have forged a good partnership, but they didn't get enough time together.
Really talented player but perhaps lacked a ruthless streak required at this level. Too nice. He had great technique it must be said. We didn't always play to his strengths with SGT, latter Dolly and then O Neill (when Moore got injured and Sutton came in) opting to hump the ball long to him, but it's not his game.
I really liked JPA. Almost but not quite. Still he scored over 60 goals for the club to be fair to him, and some absolute crackers too. He and Carew have been my favourite players since 00, with Benteke pushing close.
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I liked him. Thanks for the memories, JPA.
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I forgot to mention I liked him too. Offered a lot of hope and was also committed. Good luck to him.
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Never forget the winner he scored against Chelsea in the Carling/Milk/League/Rumbelows Cup at Villa Park.
Saw him play for NY Red Bulls in 2009. I never realised he banged in 23 goals in 2003/4 16 in the PL & 7 in LC. Happy retirement JPA.
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Although he comes across as a thoroughly nice chap, and did alright with us, I think he was another instance of us failing to sign the final piece in the puzzle. I don’t mean that he wasn't the right kind of player, the problem in his case was that he took a long time to settle, and therefore wasn’t able to solve the immediate problem. By the time he did come good, we weren’t really challengers.
At River Plate he was playing with Saviola and Aimar, who according to www.transfermarkt.de transferred to European clubs for EUR35M and EUR21M respectively within half a season of Angel joining us for EUR14M.
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I loved Angel and have really fond memories of his time at the club.
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Bad injury killed whatever pace he had but brilliant in the air and and ace goal poacher. Combined well with Solano, balls to the back post for JPA to head back into the far corner.
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Did pretty well for us and a seemingly top bloke but another example of poor asset management on our part.
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Impressive that he kept playing at a relatively high level until 39.
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Thanks JPA, enjoyed watching!
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Very fond of JPA and some super memories.
I wish him all the very best for a happy and healthy retirement.
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Those two goals against the Dogheads at their place showed what touch he had. Not entirely convinced we saw the best of him, but glad we saw something. All the best, JPA.
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Loved him as he had a touch of class which makes me forgive such a player's shortcomings (the Spurs home game with the own goal and weird corner and missing two pens at Fulham when we gave away the game in the last minute would have had a lot of us on here wanting to throttle him) but on his best form he was good enough to play at a team fighting for the title.
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The noise when he smacked that first Villa goal in front of the Holte vs Cov lives in the memory!
My favourite JPA goal was against Bolton, again at the Holte when he opened up his body to hit a 20 yarder in...technically beautiful
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The Coventry goal aside he was rubbish whenever I saw him, his performance at St James Park stood out in it's awfulness and I still shudder at the thought of the 10,000 word essay pointing out I was wrong and he was the bestest footballer in the world from his number one fan. He was a poor Simon Stainrod that day. Yes, that bad.
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Whatever did happen to Ryu?
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Met him after the Spurs game, where he missed a penalty and headed an own goal at the Holte (the first goal I saw at Villa park :/ )...Didn't hide afterwards, wife and kids playing in the carpark waiting for him to come out. I thought he would come out hiding after those errors.
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The Coventry goal aside he was rubbish whenever I saw him, his performance at St James Park stood out in it's awfulness and I still shudder at the thought of the 10,000 word essay pointing out I was wrong and he was the bestest footballer in the world from his number one fan. He was a poor Simon Stainrod that day. Yes, that bad.
Garbage.
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I liked him. Most prolific scorer we'd had in a season since Yorke until the Beast 2 seasons ago. Two decent seasons out of about 4-5 but he tried hard and obviously loved The Villa. All the best to him.My favourite goal he scored was only a tap in at Southampton but the one touch buildup that played him in was sublime. Also remember a decent goal vs Blackburn where he nutmegged a defender and slid the ball home.
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He was okay, but he wasn't the big smash hit some held him up to be. He did his best work on the edge of the box; he'd have linked up well with Dwight Yorke.
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He was great, not amazing but very very likeable bloke. One of my favourite players. well done jpa, thanks for the username
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I was at the Southampton away game and he scored an absolute peach of a goal, few one touch passes and flicks around the box before he slid it in, lovely move, one of my fave goals to this day.
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The quintessential 21st Century Aston Villa player. Not bad; not good.
I'd almost agree with that. I'd go for not bad, not brilliant. I liked him as well.
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heres the JPA Saints goal at 2 mins 30
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Loved him whilst he was here. Gave me some of my favourite Villa memories growing up, shame we couldn't win the League Cup that year :(
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In terms of pure technique, our best forward this century. Only Kevin Phillips comes close in that respect although we have had more productive forwards due to greater pace, size or work rate.
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The Coventry goal aside he was rubbish whenever I saw him, his performance at St James Park stood out in it's awfulness and I still shudder at the thought of the 10,000 word essay pointing out I was wrong and he was the bestest footballer in the world from his number one fan. He was a poor Simon Stainrod that day. Yes, that bad.
What a strange post. I'd suggest you didn't see him often enough.
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The Coventry goal aside he was rubbish whenever I saw him, his performance at St James Park stood out in it's awfulness and I still shudder at the thought of the 10,000 word essay pointing out I was wrong and he was the bestest footballer in the world from his number one fan. He was a poor Simon Stainrod that day. Yes, that bad.
All I can say is you couldn't have seen him play very often. His struggles with adapting to life in the UK are well documented but after his first year I thought he was very good for us.
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Good luck in your new ventures Juan Pablo. I enjoyed watching you as a Villa player.
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Cant believe no-one has mentioned the Chelsea goal yet...
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I remember that Chelsea goal so well, had spent the entire time before the game talking about how poor we thought Gavin Mccann was, luckily JPA banished that chat with his incredible goal. I wasn't at the Southampton game but that sort of goal is just so lovely to watch, it's the kind of quick thinking and passing around the box that absolutely cuts teams apart.
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Seemed like a lovely bloke, who genuinely cared about Villa even after he'd left.
Cult-Hero, rather than Legend really.
Took a while for his first Villa goal, but it was worth the wait (against Coventry).
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Good player but like many we have seen down VP in the last 20 years could be very inconsistent. Happy retirement JPA though you deserve it.
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The Coventry goal aside he was rubbish whenever I saw him, his performance at St James Park stood out in it's awfulness and I still shudder at the thought of the 10,000 word essay pointing out I was wrong and he was the bestest footballer in the world from his number one fan. He was a poor Simon Stainrod that day. Yes, that bad.
All I can say is you couldn't have seen him play very often.
Well, Chris did say rubbish "whenever I saw him", rather than just "rubbish" full stop so that's possibly true.
There's a limit to how rubbish a player can be, though, if he has a 23 goal season for you. Surely that rules out any accusations of Stainrodism?
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The Coventry goal aside he was rubbish whenever I saw him, his performance at St James Park stood out in it's awfulness and I still shudder at the thought of the 10,000 word essay pointing out I was wrong and he was the bestest footballer in the world from his number one fan. He was a poor Simon Stainrod that day. Yes, that bad.
All I can say is you couldn't have seen him play very often.
Well, Chris did say rubbish "whenever I saw him", rather than just "rubbish" full stop so that's possibly true.
There's a limit to how rubbish a player can be, though, if he has a 23 goal season for you. Surely that rules out any accusations of Stainrodism?
I think he'd have hit over 20 had he played the full season in Gregory's final year (and had he seen out the full season). SGT seemed to drop JPA pretty quickly when he took over.
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The Coventry goal aside he was rubbish whenever I saw him, his performance at St James Park stood out in it's awfulness and I still shudder at the thought of the 10,000 word essay pointing out I was wrong and he was the bestest footballer in the world from his number one fan. He was a poor Simon Stainrod that day. Yes, that bad.
All I can say is you couldn't have seen him play very often.
Well, Chris did say rubbish "whenever I saw him", rather than just "rubbish" full stop so that's possibly true.
There's a limit to how rubbish a player can be, though, if he has a 23 goal season for you. Surely that rules out any accusations of Stainrodism?
Stainrod scored 21 in a season for us despite not signing until the end of September.
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Being awkward, I found myself not liking Angel as much as I should have due to the ridiculous amount of internet fawning and the endless excuses made for him.
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The Coventry goal aside he was rubbish whenever I saw him, his performance at St James Park stood out in it's awfulness and I still shudder at the thought of the 10,000 word essay pointing out I was wrong and he was the bestest footballer in the world from his number one fan. He was a poor Simon Stainrod that day. Yes, that bad.
Garbage.
Sorry Rotterdam, I'm sure you're aware of the matches I saw him play so if you could just remind me which were the performances that stood out. Apart from the one at St James Park.
Ta.
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Being awkward, I found myself not liking Angel as much as I should have due to the ridiculous amount of internet fawning and the endless excuses made for him.
That's pretty much how I felt. That bloody Ryu bloke is to blame.
As paulie pointed out it was the matches I saw him play in where he was underwhelming but if people want to twist my words then fill your boots. Every single match I've seen involving Messi 'live' he's scored 4 goals each time.
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Ryu said mofos were talking smack in the locker room and we had ghetto strikers on the roster. Know what I'm saying?
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He was a good guy, and had one good season.
Unfortunately, that good season led to Peter Crouch being sold for next to f-all, and Angel subsequently did jack shit from then on, whilst Crouch blossomed.
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Two good seasons in fairness, didn't he have 12 league goals the season Gregory left before being used sparingly by Taylor?
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For some reason Graham Taylor didn't like him so that 2001-2 season I think nearly all of this goals were scored under Gregory. To be dropped for Marcus Allback is pretty spectacular...
JPA was a decent player, no more, but had the benefit of his name fitting an easy chant and being a hard working player who wouldn't shirk duties. He could score decent goals,had a great leap but was never prolific. We saw what he could be under Dolly of all people, and I recall him and Crouch working well together in are games at the end of the 2003-4 season.
Re the Stainrod comments above, my recollection is of him scoring circa 20 goals in all competitions in 1985-6, and those in the league were probably the main reason we stayed up.
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My favourite ever Villa player. And a gentleman. Good luck to you Juan Pablo.
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A real Villa player. Great moments, the odd good season, extremely likable but, in the end, kind of amazingly inconsistent. He never really played the same style of football as the rest of the team either - he'd probably look quite good at Swansea or somewhere today, but we were always pretty functional in those days (how much has changed...).