Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Villa Memories => Topic started by: Legion on February 14, 2025, 10:53:47 PM
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Who have we signed but never played in a game for us? Such as players sent out on loan before going elsewhere. Or signings that just never came to fruition.
For starters...
David Unsworth
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Too soon for Lewis Dobbin?
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Assuming reserve and friendly games don't count... Ivo Stas, Vaclav Drobny (sadly no longer with us), Gustavo Bartelt (on loan).
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Did Bosko Balaban ever make a start for us?
Also I remember us signing Didier Six and the Shoot magazine doing a feature and I know he did play the odd game, but it was like a dream and it never happened.
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Balaban started a League Cup defeat at home against Wednesday. Sure I'd have been at the game but I remember nothing of it, let alone his performance. Also eight sub appearances.
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Did Bosko Balaban ever make a start for us?
Also I remember us signing Didier Six and the Shoot magazine doing a feature and I know he did play the odd game, but it was like a dream and it never happened.
Six starred in a home win over Man Utd on his debut and played more than the odd game to be fair, but never again got anywhere near the level of his performance in that first game.
Him, Nigel Callaghan & Ian Ormondroyd are the reason I’m always a bit worried when a new signing has a great debut for us. There’s a lot more I could add to those three.
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I assume players we signed as kids aren't included because there's loads of those over the years.
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Bob Bradley's son can't recall his name .
Omar Cummings (did he sign in the end)
Illing Junior
Michael Boulding
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Thought Borja Baston was one, but was not.
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Bradley played four games, with his only start being when Houllier decided to chicken out of the FA Cup at Man City. Boulding played twice, both in the InterToto Cup. I'm guessing he's the only player whose entire "home" Villa career took place at The Hawthorns. Cummings was on trial but never signed as we couldn't get a work permit.
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I went to see Beinlich and Breitkreutz make their debuts for the reserves and felt both would have a long career with us.
I also thought Breitkreutz would have the better career.
Wrong.
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Fabio Ferraresi and Michael Standing came to mind, but they were both signed as youth players, so probably don’t count.
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Ferraresi - one sub appearance at Stromsgodset in the UEFA Cup.
Michael Standing never played for the first team. By various accounts, we only signed Gareth Barry to keep him happy, so it probably still worked out pretty well for us. Standing ended up being Barry's agent.
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Fabio Ferraresi and Michael Standing came to mind, but they were both signed as youth players, so probably don’t count.
Ferraresi played against Stromsgodset.
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Close to not playing, but who was the kid we thought was going to be a world beater when he played against them in the League Cup. A big Ron signing?
Helenius was another who had a couple of appearances.
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I went to see Beinlich and Breitkreutz make their debuts for the reserves and felt both would have a long career with us.
I also thought Breitkreutz would have the better career.
Wrong.
I went to that too. Overseas players were at the time a novelty for us, i think those two might well have been our first German players when German players were starting to be fashionable on the back of Bowie’s Berlin trilogy. I too thought Bueitkrutz was the far superior player and was most disappointed to be proved wrong. He went back to Germany and amounted to nothing special.
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Close to not playing, but who was the kid we thought was going to be a world beater when he played against them in the League Cup. A big Ron signing?
Helenius was another who had a couple of appearances.
Lamptey?
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Hector Fullońe Arce - signed alongside his brother Oscar in 1967
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Don't think any of the Bellon or Steiber brothers played for us.
That Portuguese GK we signed (Moreira?) Couldn't play for us, as we had too many loans. Did play in a Cup game, think against Yeovil. Was dreadful, but saved a penalty.
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Bradley played four games, with his only start being when Houllier decided to chicken out of the FA Cup at Man City. Boulding played twice, both in the InterToto Cup. I'm guessing he's the only player whose entire "home" Villa career took place at The Hawthorns. Cummings was on trial but never signed as we couldn't get a work permit.
Boulding played, and scored, at Villa Park in the Intertoto.
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I couldn't remember Ghrayib making an appearance for us but he did according to Wiki.
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Think the Spanish Crespo played once for us.
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Ivo Stas
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I couldn't remember Ghrayib making an appearance for us but he did according to Wiki.
I was surprised how little he played. I thought he had played a few more.
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I went to see Beinlich and Breitkreutz make their debuts for the reserves and felt both would have a long career with us.
I also thought Breitkreutz would have the better career.
Wrong.
Remember watching them against Liverpool reserves, not sure if that was their debuts but we put 7 past them and they were both outstanding.
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What part of the word 'never' is so difficult?
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Lee Turnbull was signed as part of the Kevin Poole transfer in the summer of 87 from Boro. Made the bench once before a 17k move to Doncaster in November 87.
Only on loan but Tiago Ilori springs to mind. Unable to dispossess Micah Richards at centre-back (insert your own joke here). Sent back to Liverpool in January 2016.
We had a few goalies on loan from SHA when we were low on numbers; Jim Herriott (1970) & Martin Thomas (1993). Also on a similar theme, Paul Crichton from WBA (1997).
We had Marcus Hahnemann on the books at one stage for a short time back in late 1990s. He had no hair then either. We ended up with Enckelman instead.
Now for a few from the past that not many would have heard of:
Haydn Price – played for Wales in 1907 despite struggling to get into our second eleven.
Harry Lamb & Bill Tunstall – both played over 100 central league reserve games without making the first eleven. Lamb was signed from Stourbridge and was unable to oust the Moss brothers from centre-half, ended up at Scunthorpe. Unsurprisingly, Tunstall never got a look in at inside-forward with Billy Walker in the way. Signed from Precost Cables in 1928, sold to Bournemouth in 1933.
Sir Gilbert Garnsey K.B.E. He wasn’t a Knight of the Realm when he played for us in 1903-04. That came later. A native of Somerset, moved to work in accountancy for a Walsall firm. Played as a forward for us as an amateur, also represented Birmingham & District in the annual ‘junior international’. Became partner for PwC and was involved in some of the most notable cases in 1920s like the collapse of Wolseley Motors and the Clarence Hatry trial.
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Great facts Morris. Perhaps unsurprisingly they are all new names to me apart from Ilori and Hahnemann.
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Balaban started a League Cup defeat at home against Wednesday. Sure I'd have been at the game but I remember nothing of it, let alone his performance. Also eight sub appearances.
I do have the miss-fortune of remembering it. He was utterly crap. When you look at his career elsewhere it makes me wonder if he was another foreign player we didn't support properly, like JPA. Or he wasn't up to the Premier League.
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Wasn't there a player Atkinson bought who then sold him in the same transfer period?
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Wasn't there a player Atkinson bought who then sold him in the same transfer period?
Paul Mortimer?
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Wasn't there a player Atkinson bought who then sold him in the same transfer period?
Paul Mortimer? He did play a couple of times, giving a v-sign to the Holte as I remember on his last appearence.
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I used to work with a bloke that played for the Villa back in the forties I believe it was. His name was Arthur Haynes, not the comedian, he made four appearances.
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Anyone mention Trevor Berry? When I was trying to trace who it was Atkinson bought and sold, I noticed his name and all stats seems to show we never played him.
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I can't believe Andrew Greaves hasn't been mentioned yet. He reckons he has as he was, as he thought, part of the early 80s squad despite all evidence to the contrary. Great player by no accounts.
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I couldn't remember Ghrayib making an appearance for us but he did according to Wiki.
I was surprised how little he played. I thought he had played a few more.
Alan Wright in that time was never injured or suspended although guessing he picked something up for Ghrayib to get some games. Also Jlloyd Samuel emerged towards the end of that season in first team squad.
Ghrayib was actually an assistant to Gregory when he managed in Israel so no hard feelings in the long term.
Was trying to think if that loan player we signed under DS in the promotion season ever played? Think he came from Swansea and was billed as o.k passer and the sort Dean liked in midfield at the time but forgotten his name!
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I couldn't remember Ghrayib making an appearance for us but he did according to Wiki.
I was surprised how little he played. I thought he had played a few more.
Alan Wright in that time was never injured or suspended although guessing he picked something up for Ghrayib to get some games. Also Jlloyd Samuel emerged towards the end of that season in first team squad.
Ghrayib was actually an assistant to Gregory when he managed in Israel so no hard feelings in the long term.
Was trying to think if that loan player we signed under DS in the promotion season ever played? Think he came from Swansea and was billed as o.k passer and the sort Dean liked in midfield at the time but forgotten his name!
Was it Tom Carroll?
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Balaban started a League Cup defeat at home against Wednesday. Sure I'd have been at the game but I remember nothing of it, let alone his performance. Also eight sub appearances.
I do have the miss-fortune of remembering it. He was utterly crap. When you look at his career elsewhere it makes me wonder if he was another foreign player we didn't support properly, like JPA. Or he wasn't up to the Premier League.
It went down as a dodgy transfer but he was very highly rated at the time we got him, plenty of interest from Serie A clubs.
Gregory on the website years back said we rushed through the signing as there was a UEFA deadline and he'd never seen him play live.
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There was Vaclav Drobny who O'Leary signed on loan from Strasbourg before the 2004/05 season. I don't think he played a minute but his is a sad story. He died in an accident when he was only 32 which Wikipedia says was bobsleighing but might gave been what we would call sledging.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A1clav_Drobn%C3%BD?wprov=sfla1
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Henrik Larsen certainly trained with us but I don't recall him playing for the first team.
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Oooh, got another one. Big Fat Ron!
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I couldn't remember Ghrayib making an appearance for us but he did according to Wiki.
I was surprised how little he played. I thought he had played a few more.
Now he was a player who came with some serious hype.
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Oooh, got another one. Big Fat Ron!
I think he was only ever a non-contract player.
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Oooh, got another one. Big Fat Ron!
I think he was only ever a non-contract player.
What does that mean?
My Uncle Ian was on the youth team books in the early 70s for a bit but never played, does he count?
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Wasn't there a player Atkinson bought who then sold him in the same transfer period?
Paul Mortimer? He did play a couple of times, giving a v-sign to the Holte as I remember on his last appearence.
If I remember right it was after he scored against Luton, causally walked toward the Holte and gave us the v-sign. Sold soon after.
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Did Freddie Mwila or Emment Kapengwe ever start a competitive game?
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Henrik Larsen certainly trained with us but I don't recall him playing for the first team.
He didn't. Sadly he was the Danish midfielder rather than the Swedish striker.
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Did Freddie Mwila or Emment Kapengwe ever start a competitive game?
I think they did, it was either Huddersfield or Cardiff in mid-week. Huddersfield were close to or even top of the league and we beat them 4-1 at home and done by Cardiff away on the Saturday. If memory serves it was the only time Tommy Docherty played the same eleven two games running in that season. I'm sure someone will know for sure.
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Kapengwe started a 1-0 home win over Carlisle, they both started the next game a 0-0 v Blackpool. Kapengwe started a game months later away to Millwall. And that was it for them both.
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Oooh, got another one. Big Fat Ron!
I think he was only ever a non-contract player.
What does that mean?
My Uncle Ian was on the youth team books in the early 70s for a bit but never played, does he count?
He was never full-time and I think he was an amateur.
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I couldn't remember Ghrayib making an appearance for us but he did according to Wiki.
I was surprised how little he played. I thought he had played a few more.
Now he was a player who came with some serious hype.
After he left us he just went back to play in Israel so no other european club ever showed an interest. Also only won 18 caps for Israel with the last coming in 2001.
From what I remember Gregory wanted to sign Haim Revivo from Celta Vigo who was Israeli and a good player so we probably thought get a compatriot to help him settle in.
The Revivo move fell through and so wasn't much need for Ghrayib with Alan Wright established and Jlloyd breaking into the first team squad later that season.
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I couldn't remember Ghrayib making an appearance for us but he did according to Wiki.
I was surprised how little he played. I thought he had played a few more.
Alan Wright in that time was never injured or suspended although guessing he picked something up for Ghrayib to get some games. Also Jlloyd Samuel emerged towards the end of that season in first team squad.
Ghrayib was actually an assistant to Gregory when he managed in Israel so no hard feelings in the long term.
Was trying to think if that loan player we signed under DS in the promotion season ever played? Think he came from Swansea and was billed as o.k passer and the sort Dean liked in midfield at the time but forgotten his name!
Was it Tom Carroll?
Yep!
Played twice for us according to Wiki.
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I think Tom's last appearance for us was as a sub in the 4-0 win against Derby (the first of the ten-game winning run). Shortly after, he broke down again and returned to Swansea for an operation.
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Wrong thread I suppose, this guy never signed for us but did play for us
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7GhdF0Cb2quvCYdjGhyLfxxPZVpTt4O5C5-VbjunJmypc83kr4IzvadTLkJza4BDTbbxxLVbUGmOwVniUMsCdklmdRm0PODPL6JlTlBMPuhFIHm0kA8s00XytgdjNqKGPqX91plt6RTE3/s400/bestvillacropped.jpg)
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwcFrPhTEAxf6MDAcFriSF1Hsor7HShSm8_CAAjPXQDx6dhCWpxf5XnHXqDlt6RuF7SS0X83iDpkQHDH1z6akwEkoL47J-AWbDShHR7dMMGpMwwt1wOjxigDBygHpzEza6CGP3e1pflIKe/s320/GeorgeBestNickyCross.jpg)
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8ugj1limv2m_KAT2T-ZDtifh5nlYg7FueZkkSKzuQxvlvGRR-RpJgToSB9i4g-d7ExrGsbEUDgiBuQN3ykNvYyUWMzJ_IRHOBp5RP9OSoacgiE2WZi6co2JT_sSx4lXUKednKHeF5os3b/s400/villawithgeorge.jpg)
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I think Tom's last appearance for us was as a sub in the 4-0 win against Derby (the first of the ten-game winning run). Shortly after, he broke down again and returned to Swansea for an operation.
Yes, playedokay against Derby, putting a few nice passes through. But couldn't stay healthy.
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Did Andy Marshall ever play a game?
If not, there's our keeper.
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Did Andy Marshall ever play a game?
If not, there's our keeper.
Only made it to the bench but did nominally jointly manage Villa briefly.
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Sure it was only a loan but don’t think the late Alan McLoughlin played did he?
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I seem to recall him playing in the Zenith Data Systems Bollocks competition under BFR. Not sure he played in any 'proper' matches.
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Goalkeeper Adam Rachel - I haven't seen him mentioned yet. An emergency sub appearance after Oakes was sent off away at Blackburn in 1998/99. Don't remember him playing again.
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I saw a picture of the 1989/90 squad the other day an in it was Dean Spink who SGT signed from apparently Halesowen Town (I thought it was from another local non-league club but couldn't remember which one). He seemed close to getting a game but never did.
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I saw a picture of the 1989/90 squad the other day an in it was Dean Spink who SGT signed from apparently Halesowen Town (I thought it was from another local non-league club but couldn't remember which one). He seemed close to getting a game but never did.
Dean Spink: The Window Cleaner Extraordinaire
(https://i.ibb.co/d4chjmFK/Sports-Argus-17-June-1989.jpg) (https://ibb.co/d4chjmFK)
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I saw a picture of the 1989/90 squad the other day an in it was Dean Spink who SGT signed from apparently Halesowen Town (I thought it was from another local non-league club but couldn't remember which one). He seemed close to getting a game but never did.
Dean Spink: The Window Cleaner Extraordinaire
(https://i.ibb.co/d4chjmFK/Sports-Argus-17-June-1989.jpg) (https://ibb.co/d4chjmFK)
I saw him play for us in a pre-season friendly at Paget Rangers.
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There's a wonderful story about how the signing of Spink went through when SGT was manager. I'm in a rush at the moment, but I'll re-tell the story if people don't know it.
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He had a decent career at Shrewsbury in the 90s where he was converted to a centre back
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I'd forgotten he went there.
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Goalkeeper Adam Rachel - I haven't seen him mentioned yet. An emergency sub appearance after Oakes was sent off away at Blackburn in 1998/99. Don't remember him playing again.
Matthew Ghent made the bench a game or two that season.
He's had a very extreme life story since his football career came to an end.....
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Any details?
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Any details?
(https://d.ibtimes.co.uk/en/full/369874/living-it-matthew-ghent-issued-snaps-revelling-his-wealth.webp?w=632&f=d44419d47bc77a4b862148d79f7efcc7)
https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/matthew-ghent-villa-stalker-467218