Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Villa Memories => Topic started by: KevinGage on February 08, 2023, 10:01:29 PM
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Interesting interview with Brian McClair here (https://podcasts.apple.com/se/podcast/fsd-interviews-manchester-united-legend-brian-mcclair/id1190847157?i=1000595226134)
Zoned out about the Yanited stuff later on but he talks about his time at Villa - which I don't think I've ever heard him speak about before.
Comes across as smarter than the average footballer - it was never going to work with Saunders.
"I left school at 16 with the qualifications which would’ve enabled me to get into tertiary education which I did do the following year.
"But I had been up and down to Aston Villa, really liked it there. They wanted me to sign.
"They promised me that I’d be able to continue my education. I was really keen at the time on mathematics and they said they’d look to get me in to doing A-Level maths. That lad was a youth development officer and he left the day after I actually joined.
"I went back for the second season and I got called into Ron Saunders’s office. They’d won the league that year and I played a very big part by making sure Dennis Mortimer’s boots were the cleanest boots in the old First Division!
"They’d won the league, it had been a brilliant season and I got called into the manager’s office after about a week of pre season.
"He said something about university. I had applied for university but it was only to see whether I’d get accepted. I hadn’t really intended to go.
"He just said something about university, said it was in Scotland and he said “You can fcuk off back to Scotland now.” The youth development officer came in, took me back to the digs packed my bags and I was on the train back to Scotland that afternoon."
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Remember Allan Evans speaking around the time of the 25th anniversary of Rotterdam and - along from the lack of investment when Herbert returned - he was miffed that we hadn't made the most of the likes of McClair, Walters and Dorigo from a position of strength back then.
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Have you seen any recent pictures of McClair? He looks like Tom Hanks in Castaway.
https://twitter.com/sharpeyofficial/status/1619369476985880576?s=46&t=UGTrDlXZUPrWRX7mjcgkOg
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Strange for Saunders just to ditch him like that. Had he not shown much promise in our youth set-up at the time?
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Wasn't McClair a member of the side that won the FA Youth Cup in 1981?
Not a bad year all round, that.
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Wasn't McClair a member of the side that won the FA Youth Cup in 1981?
Not a bad year all round, that.
1980 I think but I don't remember McClair being one of the team.
Edit: He wasn't according to this anyway (you'll need to scroll to the bottom).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FA_Youth_Cup_Finals_of_the_1980s?wprov=sfla1
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Thanks for that.
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I had another look at that squad who won the 1980 FA Youth Cup and noticed Ron Saunders took five of them to Small Heath.