Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Villa Memories => Topic started by: Ivo Stas on May 05, 2017, 09:51:05 PM
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Clearing out the attic, I came across a box of 90s books including one by a certain Mr Andy Gray...
Flat Back Four: The Tactical Game
https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/cka/Flat-Back-Four-Tactics-Football-Andy-Gray/0752211943 (https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/cka/Flat-Back-Four-Tactics-Football-Andy-Gray/0752211943)
...as I recall (I read it once, almost 20 years ago) it was a good read. I do remember that I was playing right-back weekly in an 11-a-side workplace team at the time and it did improve my positioning and taught me what the four or five passing options I should be choosing from were, etc.
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Would have been interesting had he decided to stay on, with BFR, as our assistant manager instead of going to Sky.
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I was given Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics (by Jonathan Wilson) as a Christmas present some years back but it is still gathering dust on my bookshelf unread.
https://www.amazon.com/Inverting-Pyramid-History-Soccer-Tactics/dp/1568587384/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1494018506&sr=1-1&keywords=inverting+the+pyramid+the+history+of+football+tactics (https://www.amazon.com/Inverting-Pyramid-History-Soccer-Tactics/dp/1568587384/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1494018506&sr=1-1&keywords=inverting+the+pyramid+the+history+of+football+tactics)
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I used to have a talking book called 'An Insight to the Villa' read by Gray. The only things I remember are that Gray told Big Ron to start Steve Froggat in the '92 FA Cup quarter final and was shouted down, and it sounded like he was in the middle of eating while he recorded it.
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Would have been interesting had he decided to stay on, with BFR, as our assistant manager instead of going to Sky.
Andy Gray almost became Everton manager in 1997, and - according to the Independent at the time - wanted to buy Dwight Yorke off us.
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football-gray-shocks-everton-by-rejecting-job-1257731.html
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Yorkie to plucky but crap Everton in 1997?! On yer bike.
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Dont care - still the best header of a football i`ve ever seen.
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Fantastic centre forward - better than Withe for me.
We could do with him now, although even he would struggle with the crosses that we put in the box.
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Best number 9 for us in my lifetime
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And mine
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Greatest centre forward in my lifetime at the villa Could head like a bullet
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Most exciting, committed and most prolific number 9 in my Villa lifetime
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agree with all the above
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also the mind boggles at what he would be worth in his prime in todays premiership era
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Most exciting, committed and most prolific number 9 in my Villa lifetime
Add fearless to that list and we are approaching the truth.
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Absolutely.
I recall a game for Everton -against Stoke, I think- where Andy already had a couple of goals and the Toffees were easing to victory. A ball went loose in the six-yard box and Gray headed it in for the hat-trick, paying no heed to the fact that he was very close to losing his head.
The goal was all that mattered to him!
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In relation to trophies won with us he's totally in the shadow of Peter Withe, however as a youth in the seventies it was
" oh Andy, oh Andy, you're the greatest the Holte End say" 🎤
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Apart from joining Villa first time round and later on Everton he made a couple of poor career decisions. He could have been leading the line in Rotterdam, rather than playing away at Rotherham with Wolves
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Absolutely.
I recall a game for Everton -against Stoke, I think- where Andy already had a couple of goals and the Toffees were easing to victory. A ball went loose in the six-yard box and Gray headed it in for the hat-trick, paying no heed to the fact that he was very close to losing his head.
The goal was all that mattered to him!
I loved that goal too, even though not scored for us. IIRC it was against Sunderland in the 2nd season that team won the league - from a cross by Sheedy i think.
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I remember that goal for Everton against Sunderland on their way to the title. I also remember him scoring in what I think was an FA cup quarter final away to Notts County, again for Everton. I have never seen anyone throw their head in with a diving header so close to the ground. I'm sure his nose left an imprint on the turf. I think 'favourite player' is an age thing. At my age it was/is Peter Withe over Andy Gray.
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Any chance in the crazy window that we can go out and put a bid in for Andy.
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Any chance in the crazy window that we can go out and put a bid in for Andy.
I will have a word with my wife. In the course of her work she has sold him a car in the past. Although am I right in saying he has a place somewhere around the Midlands but is based in Dubai?