Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: villabear on May 17, 2020, 10:37:27 PM
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Lil Lee article from the Guardian talking quite openly about trying to take his own life and renewed hope.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/may/17/lee-hendrie-interview-aston-villa-england-harrys-heroes
Apologies if this has appeared on the site before. Mods feel free to merge if so.
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I hope things continue to look up for him once this has passed,
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What a candid interview that is. Always liked Lee Hendrie. Could've probably amounted to more, but you can say that about 90% of people including myself. Bottom line is he had a good career and played around 250 games for Villa and always gave his best, and added a bit of quality too. I'd have taken that! Glad he's turning things round. More power to him.
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Sad to read he's still struggling as there was a similar article a couple of years ago. Since then he's been a regular Sky pundit - and pretty decent too in fairness. Can't flick a switch on depression obviously. He's got a bunch of kids who are far better-off with him in his life than without so hopefully he keeps the demons at bay.
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He's a good pundit. Better than most I think but that might be because I'm biased. I liked him as a player too even with all the baggage. He got some unmerciful stick on here, some of it justified I might add but I don't think people really knew what was going on in his head back then.
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As a pundit he doesn't appear to resort to cliché very often and I've been impressed every time I've heard him. He also has the ability to reign in his bias when he covers our games and can be objective.
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I've met him for a chat a few times now, and like Ian Taylor he's very down to earth, very friendly and a really nice bloke.
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Lee is on SKY Sports program the Football Show on Thursday morning between 09.00am and 11.00am, talking about his dark times.
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I agree he is a good pundit.
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Like a fair few people, I've heard stories from back in the day about Lee Hendrie being a pissed-up dick out in town.
A few years back I played in a charity game at Villa Park - a Villa home team versus a Villa away team with a former player in each side. I was in the home side - notionally alongside Hendrie in midfield, though he was very fit (still playing non-league) and was all over the pitch.
He was brilliant with everyone. It struck me that he really enjoyed being involved in a team - clearly comfortable in a changing room surrounded by team-mates even if we were fans rather than fellow pros.
He was also very generous with his time afterwards in the bar/hospitality. I thought he was sincere and honest in how he answered questions in a group and one-to-one - including being asked about whether he was secretly a Blue-nose.
Even if someone is a complete arse, they don't deserve to struggle with mental health issues - in many instances there can be a link as how people are can be a manifestation of their wellbeing.
Lee struck me as a genuinely decent bloke. Happy birthday and good luck Lee.
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I believe he lives not far from me, although I don't exactly know where. The first time I met him was in my local chippy on the day my son was born and I asked him to sign an autograph for him on a sheet of chip paper. Although I recall he did have to ask me how to spell 'Daniel'. His wife also kindly let me in front of her in our local One Stop once when she had a big basketful of stuff and I was just buying a newspaper. She had a couple of little kids in tow. I knew who she was from the four wheel drive outside the shop because they had a private plate that read something like 'HEN'. He also had a Villa related private number plate on his Porsche. The last time I saw him a while back was at the petrol station in Solihull town centre when he was filling up his white Mercedes. I had just got a new car and had pulled up at the wrong side of the pump and had to manoeuvre around to fill up, which amused him and we had a brief chat. I spoke to him once on a Talksport phone in and he remembered the petrol station incident. He is a nice guy.
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What a candid interview that is. Always liked Lee Hendrie. Could've probably amounted to more, but you can say that about 90% of people including myself. Bottom line is he had a good career and played around 250 games for Villa and always gave his best, and added a bit of quality too. I'd have taken that! Glad he's turning things round. More power to him.
He's a good pundit. Better than most I think but that might be because I'm biased. I liked him as a player too even with all the baggage. He got some unmerciful stick on here, some of it justified I might add but I don't think people really knew what was going on in his head back then.
I'd agree with both of those but haven't seen that much of his punditry.
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I don't know if this interview has been mentioned anywhere.
http://thebirminghampress.com/2020/05/england-international-previews-new-tv-series/
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I'm currently watching him in Harry's Heroes where he's revealed his struggle with depression. The ads are on whilst I'm typing this so I'll save the video until later. It's good to see him looking fit and well albeit still fragile of mind. Keep going Lee.
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He certainly should've played more for England. Was actually in really good form at start of 2001/02 season and plenty were putting him forward for a recall.
After that he flattered to deceive bar that flurry of weekly wonder goals in one of the O'Leary seasons. He was the sort of player who'd have thrived more in today's formations I think rather than being shoehorned into a 4-4-2 as was the case back then.
Certainly wish him well in post retirement like any other ex player who's struggled to adjust.
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I've mentioned it before but I think it's in Gerrard's autobiog where he talks about himself and Lampard watching Hendrie at England U 21's training and both looking at each other, thinking Hendrie was the best of the three. Hendrie under a manager with the ability to discipline and coax like Alex Ferguson would have been a top-tier player.
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Hendrie was almost in the wrong era for his talents. We saw plenty of good stuff from him, but through most of his time here, bar a period under JG, he was very much in a 4.4.f.2 system and having to play wide. If he was on the left, able to cut in he found it more comfortable. I don't think he was that comfortable on the right (Barry played a lot on the left for a number of years) because maybe as a wide player in that era there's an onus to get your boots chalky and get down the line to deliver crosses.
People are falling over themselves to praise Maddison. Hendrie was potentially a great no8/10. But yeah, we saw a lot of great moments from him. He scored a good amount of goals and in his time was probably a little underappreciated. It might be that his antics held him back a little, but most seasons he was here and playing he tended to have hot periods where he looked the dogs bits. Again, I think playing so much on right mid, and not being a full back roasting pace merchant, you tended to see him in flashes during a game rather than a constant influence. Look at some of the footballing ability we've had, and we played great stuff in flashes with the likes of Lee, Merse, Angel, Barry, Nobby (also Carbone, Ginola, Hadji) we didn't always have the right approach to utilising a lot of our technical players as much as certain managers might have been getting at other clubs. Granted it's Brazil 1970 compared to our play now but we had too many games under Gregory in particular that were very dour, and pretty rigid. On the flipside, had Hendrie fulfilled all that potential, would have been snagged by Utd or the like after a couple of seasons?
I hope he's on the up with his mental health. I concur, he's one of the better pundits out there, seems a decent bloke on the whole too.
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Harry's Heroes, well done Lee scored the winner against The Germans, not many Englishmen can say that.
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I've mentioned it before but I think it's in Gerrard's autobiog where he talks about himself and Lampard watching Hendrie at England U 21's training and both looking at each other, thinking Hendrie was the best of the three. Hendrie under a manager with the ability to discipline and coax like Alex Ferguson would have been a top-tier player.
With the best will in the asphalt world, I can't see Hendrie as a Fergie-era Man Utd player. Yes, there have been Darren Fletchers and Luke Chadwicks, but he'd never have bought him.
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I always saw Hendrie as a poor man's Scholes.
BTW, I detested Scholes, gobby, violent thug!!
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I've mentioned it before but I think it's in Gerrard's autobiog where he talks about himself and Lampard watching Hendrie at England U 21's training and both looking at each other, thinking Hendrie was the best of the three. Hendrie under a manager with the ability to discipline and coax like Alex Ferguson would have been a top-tier player.
With the best will in the asphalt world, I can't see Hendrie as a Fergie-era Man Utd player. Yes, there have been Darren Fletchers and Luke Chadwicks, but he'd never have bought him.
I think the point is that our merry go round of managers did not provide for developing nurturing talent.
Look at how many managers Jack has already been subject to.
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I've mentioned it before but I think it's in Gerrard's autobiog where he talks about himself and Lampard watching Hendrie at England U 21's training and both looking at each other, thinking Hendrie was the best of the three. Hendrie under a manager with the ability to discipline and coax like Alex Ferguson would have been a top-tier player.
With the best will in the asphalt world, I can't see Hendrie as a Fergie-era Man Utd player. Yes, there have been Darren Fletchers and Luke Chadwicks, but he'd never have bought him.
The ideal scenario is that Villa would have had that kind of manager in place to get the best out of Lee. In that era we had the makings of a fantastic young team which, under a decent manager, could have achieved top four and silverware.