Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Villa Memories => Topic started by: SoccerHQ on July 03, 2023, 12:11:06 PM
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25 years ago he joined Real Zaragoza and so ended a very eventful three year spell here.
Elsewhere there's a discussion about Villa players long since departed who are looked back more favourably now and I'd argue on the pitch at least he'd be one of them.
Of course the spitting incident was deplorable and he was never going to stay but on the pitch he did o.k didn't he?
12 prem goals and a magnificent cup final goal in his first season.
Hit double figures in 96/97 and set up a fair few for Yorke aswell.
97/98 he was more a rotation forward with Joachim and Collymore so fewer prem goals but played very well in the european games.
So all in all he did far better than many other forwards we've signed since. I actually think he'd get a decent reception if he was every invited back to VP as time heals and the mid 90s team is still fondly remembered and he was a key part of that.
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Sure made Villa fans look a bit weird in the 90s, saying 'you know what, I like that Milosevic'.
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"He's wanted in Holland but he's not keen on moving there"
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Transfer fee set by an international tribunal.
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He had a very fit girlfriend.
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Did he make his home debut for us at the Hawthorns in a European game when VP was closed for some reason?
I was never a fan, always thought he was far too slow in both movement and thought. His goal in the cup final aside he was pretty much a massive disappointment
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Did he make his home debut for us at the Hawthorns in a European game when VP was closed for some reason?
I was never a fan, always thought he was far too slow in both movement and thought. His goal in the cup final aside he was pretty much a massive disappointment
We played them in a pre-season friendly there.
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Did he make his home debut for us at the Hawthorns in a European game when VP was closed for some reason?
I was never a fan, always thought he was far too slow in both movement and thought. His goal in the cup final aside he was pretty much a massive disappointment
We played them in a pre-season friendly there.
The day the new kit came out and we were hopeless
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Savo was a talented player who just lacked consistency with us. Not a surprise really considering his age and moving countries. As he showed as his career progressed, he blossomed in Spain and had a good career. I’d love to see a better goal in cup final from a Villa player as that thunderbolt in 1996.
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Remember the summer he signed, we went to go and visit my grandad, who would've been in his mid 70s then. Worked on farms all his life, so he was quite outdoorsy but had the first signs I guess of starting to become a bit frail. I would've been 13 at the time.
He lived in his childhood home in a little village, Donnington, in the Cotswolds. We'd walked up from the nearest bus stop, which was about
a mile away. Really typical village for the area, windy single track road working its way up a hill through a cluster of yellow Cotswold stone houses. No shop, no bus stop, just a handful of houses, couple of farms, and a big country house belonging to some toff or other.
All very quiet, where everyone knew everyone. Houses passed through generations, where 150 years ago the same folks great great grandparents would've lived in the exact same houses and largely been doing the exact same things, unhindered by the march of technology elsewhere in the world. It was all very sedate.
We made this walk up every month or so since I could remember - used to visit my great gran there before she passed away & he moved back. It was all very familiar, walk up the hill, go round the back garden, then in through the back door. Only the vicar, the lord of the manor, or the queen would've gone through the front door.
Anyway, we turned the last corner before we got to the house and there was my grandad, standing on top of the septic tank (which was right up against the wall and about the same height), in a Villa bandana chanting "Savo! Savo! Savo!" at the top of his voice. My gran said that he'd been wearing this bandana for the past fortnight and Mrs Bostock, who lived next door, had asked my gran if he was alright!
One of my favourite memories of my grandad, and of the Villa.
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My brother and I were inaugural and, to the best of my knowledge, still the only remaining members of the Savo and Gary Charles fan club. Formed the night of Bordeaux at home to offer solidarity to maligned players.
Lovely post algy BTW
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Yeah, that's a great post algy
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If they measured assists back then like they do now, he'd have been a lot more highly regarded. He was an excellent player, but in those days most teams still played 4-4-2 with two out-and-out strikers, so somebody who did his best work around the edges of the box was still something of an oddity.
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My brother and I were inaugural and, to the best of my knowledge, still the only remaining members of the Savo and Gary Charles fan club. Formed the night of Bordeaux at home to offer solidarity to maligned players.
Lovely post algy BTW
Yes, great post about your Granddad algy.
I was always a Savo fan, yes, he was a bit wayward with his shooting at times but he was a player who excited me the way he could glide past players and had a great drop of shoulder and drag back of the ball.
I never liked Gary Charles probably because he never lived up to the player I thought we were getting.
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Did he make his home debut for us at the Hawthorns in a European game when VP was closed for some reason?
I was never a fan, always thought he was far too slow in both movement and thought. His goal in the cup final aside he was pretty much a massive disappointment
We played them in a pre-season friendly there.
You might be thinking of Luc Nilis. The pre season friendly v Partizan was Savo's debut and that was at Villa Park.
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I used to like it when he controlled a bouncing ball with the sort of back of his knee, deliberately. Hard to explain in writing but I'm sure he did it more than once and it was ace.
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Did he make his home debut for us at the Hawthorns in a European game when VP was closed for some reason?
I was never a fan, always thought he was far too slow in both movement and thought. His goal in the cup final aside he was pretty much a massive disappointment
We played them in a pre-season friendly there.
You might be thinking of Luc Nilis. The pre season friendly v Partizan was Savo's debut and that was at Villa Park.
We beat Partizan 2-0. The game at the Hawthorns was an Intertoto game against Marila Pribram who were a sponsored version of Dukla Prague.
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Did they wear their away kit?
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Sadly not.
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My brother and I were inaugural and, to the best of my knowledge, still the only remaining members of the Savo and Gary Charles fan club. Formed the night of Bordeaux at home to offer solidarity to maligned players.
Lovely post algy BTW
Yes, great post about your Granddad algy.
I was always a Savo fan, yes, he was a bit wayward with his shooting at times but he was a player who excited me the way he could glide past players and had a great drop of shoulder and drag back of the ball.
I never liked Gary Charles probably because he never lived up to the player I thought we were getting.
You're not allowed in the club then. It's all or nothing.
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Loved him as a player.
When he was on it he was outstanding.
Remember one game v QPR at home where he did this nifty drag back and turn in near the corner of the Holte and Trinity and took about three or four of their players out of it.
Other times he could look a bit Heskey, alright.
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He really improved as a player during his time here. When he first came he could barely hang onto the ball, but he soon became grizzly-strong and was a great partner for Yorke. His finishing was a bit variable, as they say.
Typical Villa, though. We sold him to a Spanish club for about £3m, he had a good first season, then went to Italy for £15m!
Good old Doug, always getting the best price for our players.
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Loved him. Had we not signed Collymore - hindsight is a wonderful thing - I wonder how we'd have done under Sir Brian thst season come the end of the season.
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We managed to get tickets to the players’ lounge at Villa Park ( me and Alex-Alex Cropley - long story) after a Chelsea game and I noticed that Savo seemed to be quite separate from the other players, sitting on his own, not really engaging with anyone and looking very left out so I felt a bit sorry for him. I lost any sympathy for him at Ewood Park though. At one point it looked like Villa fans would get on the pitch and give him a hiding.
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Definitely a childhood favourite.
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Savo was as strong as a bull, too.
I remember him rag-dolling Sol Campbell on Boxing Day 1997.
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Loved him. Had we not signed Collymore - hindsight is a wonderful thing - I wonder how we'd have done under Sir Brian thst season come the end of the season.
Collymore signing certainly upset the balance, wasn't Yorke shifted to central midfield/number 10 for start of 1997 season?
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Loved him. Had we not signed Collymore - hindsight is a wonderful thing - I wonder how we'd have done under Sir Brian thst season come the end of the season.
Collymore signing certainly upset the balance, wasn't Yorke shifted to central midfield/number 10 for start of 1997 season?
Sir Brian Basically tried to play them all up front in a sort of 5-2-3 formation, and to say it didn't work is an understatement, as being 3-0 down at half time to Blackburn showed in graphic and grisly detail. We just got overrun. I think that game we had Draper and the ageing Townsend in midfield, and they just couldn't cope.
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I think Brian was painted into a corner.
He had to give Savo a certain number of starts as he was a non-EU player; he had just signed Stan for a club record fee; Yorke was the club's top scorer and 'glamour' player.
The only way to play them all was to empty the midfield with predictable consequences, as you pointed out.
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I think Brian was painted into a corner.
He had to give Savo a certain number of starts as he was a non-EU player; he had just signed Stan for a club record fee; Yorke was the club's top scorer and 'glamour' player.
The only way to play them all was to empty the midfield with predictable consequences, as you pointed out.
We'd obviously been successful with Brian's 5-3-2 formation, but the switch to 5-2-3 ballsed it up properly, and it also coincided with Draper's form dropping off a cliff. The signing that year of Simon Grayson wasn't a good one either, he played for too many games for a player who was nothing more than a hugely underwhelming utility player. Also worth remembering that by the end of the season Joachim had outscored both Milosevic and Collymore.
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Yes, the record fee for Collymore meant there wasn't much left in the pot for the rest of the squad's requirements.
With Townsend soon being moved on (probably a good sale, looking at the player's knee problems) Grayson and Nelson both saw some midfield action as there wasn't much choice.
I quite liked Grayson, but then I've always liked players who can give it a rip in several positions. Staunton and Gregory, both superior to SG, were other examples.
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Yes, the record fee for Collymore meant there wasn't much left in the pot for the rest of the squad's requirements.
With Townsend soon being moved on (probably a good sale, looking at the player's knee problems) Grayson and Nelson both saw some midfield action as there wasn't much choice.
I quite liked Grayson, but then I've always liked players who can give it a rip in several positions. Staunton and Gregory, both superior to SG, were other examples.
Maybe after the Curcic disaster, Little just wanted a solid pro and in Grayson he got that. He just wasn't very good.
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Happy memories of Savo. It's such a shame we brought in Collymore. Curcic and Collymore were two massive flops at a time when the right buys could have pushed us towards a title charge.
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Loved him. Had we not signed Collymore - hindsight is a wonderful thing - I wonder how we'd have done under Sir Brian thst season come the end of the season.
Collymore signing certainly upset the balance, wasn't Yorke shifted to central midfield/number 10 for start of 1997 season?
Sir Brian Basically tried to play them all up front in a sort of 5-2-3 formation, and to say it didn't work is an understatement, as being 3-0 down at half time to Blackburn showed in graphic and grisly detail. We just got overrun. I think that game we had Draper and the ageing Townsend in midfield, and they just couldn't cope.
In Sir Brian's defence, it wasn't a bad shout. In 1995-96 we did very well with Tommy Johnson in behind Yorke and Milosevic so there was a precedent in his system. And Yorke had been sort of converted into a striker from a player who used to play as an attacking midfielder.
A real hypothetical would be if we had bought Merson a year earlier instead of Collymore and played him behind Yorke and Milosevic!
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Johnson was an attacking midfielder though, who did his share of work. Even so, it wasn't that long until he was replaced by Ian Taylor.
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Johnson was an attacking midfielder though, who did his share of work. Even so, it wasn't that long until he was replaced by Ian Taylor.
I still can't read the name Ian Taylor without thinking to myself ' I fuc k ing love Ian Taylor'.
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I do love Ian Taylor, but in my mind back then he was always a player I thought we could upgrade on.
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I do love Ian Taylor, but in my mind back then he was always a player I thought we could upgrade on.
Wash your mouth out LeeB. He was great.
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I do love Ian Taylor, but in my mind back then he was always a player I thought we could upgrade on.
Wash your mouth out LeeB. He was great.
He was, I know, but still that's how I felt at the time
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I was only joking mate, should have put a smiley face :) On his day he was brilliant and as a Villa fan he was given a lot more leeway than other players when he had a stinker.
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Alan Wright, Kevin Richardson and Garry Parker were others that I didn't appreciate fully at the time
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Alan Wright, Kevin Richardson and Garry Parker were others that I didn't appreciate fully at the time
Interesting. Richardson was a hard worker who covered lots of ground and reminded me of Des Bremner. He was the unsung hero but a very good player.
Parker was great when he was with it, great goals, brilliant passes and sometimes unplayable, but he didn't deliver week in, week out.
Alan Wright unfortunately followed Steve Staunton, who was brilliant. Wrighty was a very good player imho.
Just my opinions of course.
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Ian Taylor did have his poor games though. I remember watching a few games where he kicked the pitch rather than the ball and looked quite clumsy playing even simple passes. Many redeeming qualities though and always scored a few goals.
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Supertom only came into the team when Taylor got injured. We battered West Ham away and went with it for quite some time afterwards. Don't think anyone thought he was an attacking midfielder at the time tbh. Taylor was back in by the time of the cup final and played his part of course.
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In fact, didn't Taylor only come back in because Johnson was injured?
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I thought he came in for Townsend.
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It was Townsend that got injured at West Ham. The next few games after that it was Taylor, Draper, Johnson, Savo and Yorke that started.
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I stand corrected