Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Villa Memories => Topic started by: Chico Hamilton III on July 13, 2010, 05:12:52 PM
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... player disatisfaction, "Coffee-Gate", Ellis struggling to hold the club together.
Only 4 years ago:
Sunday Mirror
July 16, 2006 Sunday
FOOTBALL: ELLIS ANGER OVER VILLA 'MUTINY';
EXCLUSIVE
BYLINE: BY RALPH ELLIS
SECTION: SPORT; Pg. 79
LENGTH: 232 words
DAVID O'LEARY will find his job on the line if he can't find out who started the great Aston Villa player mutiny.
Furious chairman Doug Ellis is demanding to know who was behind a public statement, supposedly on behalf of the players, which hammered the 82-year-old for "lack of ambition."
O'Leary will find himself in a dilemma because he supports the complaints over summer spending cutbacks.
He survived in his job despite the club's poor season because it would cost pounds 2m in compensation to sack him - but he has been given no cash to spend on summer transfers.
Now Ellis wants to know who began the rebellion, and is so angry he'd be willing to sack any staff member involved.
The last person who dared take him on was John Gregory, who complained at the sacking of a chef at the training ground and claimed his chairman was "living in a time warp".
That led to Gregory being forced to issue a grovelling public apology.
Last night Villa's stars were insisting they had nothing to do with Friday's 305-word statement.
It spelled out complaints over failure to water training pitches, the sacking to save money of a masseur, and a physio having a cup of coffee at an airport knocked off his expenses.
Villa's head of communications Phil Mepham said: "To suggest this is a collective statement is ridiculous.
"I have spoken to several senior first-team members, none of whom had knowledge of it."
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And here's the players' statement that sparked the fury
"People talk about Aston Villa being a big club and winning the European Cup in 1982. We feel it should be a big club but if the chairman has got ambition he needs to start showing it. It has to come from the top. So many other clubs are doing so much to show their ambition apart from us. As players we're all ambitious and we want to improve. The chairman should be behind the club and not working against what we're trying to achieve.
"There have been a series of cutbacks and we feel we have to mention this because they are now starting to affect us. At the end of last season the chairman refused to pay £300 for the pitches to be watered. The training-ground development, which we were all looking forward to working in, has stopped. Now we have lost a masseur because the club refuse to pay for one and we are clubbing together to pay for our own.
"We have also heard that the physio, who was on his way to see Martin Laursen, could not claim back for a cup of coffee at the airport. We've had no explanation for the cutbacks and we feel if the manager can't get one then we have no chance. Maybe the chairman thought he would have left by now because of the takeover. Supporters are concerned with what happens on the pitch and rightly so. But we feel with all the cutbacks it is difficult to attain the targets we all share.
"In the second half of last season there was no investment in the team, a loan player, Eirik Bakke, was sent back to Leeds, and now we're unable to sign James Milner from Newcastle. There are no positives coming out of the club. We need to see a plan where the club is going and all the players feel the same. Every penny is being watched."
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What those so called players could never understand is that an apple well sold is an apple poorly bought and that, if you look after the pennies, the pounds will look after themselves.
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Was it ever actually established who was behind it?
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Sorensen?
I thought Woodhall would have got to the bottom of it by now.
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I thought it was the pug nosed twat who released it.
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Sorensen?
I thought Woodhall would have got to the bottom of it by now.
. Bill Howell, who knew more about it than anyone cared to admit, told me the full story one night. Then I forgot it.
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We will probably never know all the facts.
However I would refer to page 134 of Dave Woodhalls The Little Book of Aston Villa.
"O'Leary was never anything less than courteous, friendly and, above all, professional. But he did appear to have a secretive, cynical, perhaps spiteful, side to his nature"
Leeds supporter Gary Edwards writing about David O'Leary's time at Elland Road.
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Sorensen?
I thought Woodhall would have got to the bottom of it by now.
. Bill Howell, who knew more about it than anyone cared to admit, told me the full story one night. Then I forgot it.
Hmm, was he plying you with Belgian ales at the time?
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Sorensen?
I thought Woodhall would have got to the bottom of it by now.
. Bill Howell, who knew more about it than anyone cared to admit, told me the full story one night. Then I forgot it.
Hmm, was he plying you with Belgian ales at the time?
That's like the story of Coleridge's Kubla Khan - awoken from a dream, he was unable to remember the rest...
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Sorensen?
I thought Woodhall would have got to the bottom of it by now.
. Bill Howell, who knew more about it than anyone cared to admit, told me the full story one night. Then I forgot it.
Hmm, was he plying you with Belgian ales at the time?
That's like the story of Coleridge's Kubla Khan - awoken from a dream, he was unable to remember the rest...
Are you implying that DW was on the pipe?
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If you mean the pipe the beer runs through, yes. Any other pipe, wash your mouth out!
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How good is it to see gaffer Deano on Sky Sports.
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Are you going to watch this game or strop off like before?
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Are you going to watch this game or strop off like before?
Haha. A bizarre question, but then again, not really.
I think I'll watch the game, but keep myself away from the match thread as you spoil it for me with your rubbish scorchios.
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Somehow we'll survive.
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I'm sure you will.
Now leave me alone, and stop bothering me.
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Stop trolling FV and I will.
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Stop trolling FV and I will.
You make a fine pair, I must say.
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I'd rather stand against trolling than do it. Maybe think about how you don't like it back before doing it.
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This is a strange aside...
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Whatever makes you feel good about yourself.
I'm sure I'll be fine. I'd be quite happy to bicker with you for as long as you want. Actually, no, I take that back.
I'm sat here with a smile on my face at how you've taken issue with someone, as you say, 'trolling', but are quite happy to turn a blind eye to whatever FV posts.
But well done to you anyway.
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Standing up against trolling is a good thing. That side or the sdie of dredging up decade old threads to troll someone, I'm happy with my choice.
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And I'm happy with mine.
Trolling trolls
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Is this the match thread? I do agree that the match threads are ruined by over-zealous announcers of goals but why is it in the Memories thread?
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Because we don't have a dating thread is my guess.
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😂