Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Villa Memories => Topic started by: Deano's Mullet on June 03, 2021, 10:04:40 PM
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Excellent 2 hr interview just been released by the Claret and Blue podcast team, well worth a listen and lots of memories.
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I liked John Gregory however he was a bit limited when plan A didn't work.
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Two hours is roughly how long every second half felt like when he was manager.
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Will listen to it tomorrow.
I really enjoyed his spell pretty much up to the cup final. Total rollercoaster of two years with the ridiculous form we had as soon as he came in, went from just above relegation zone to making europe.
Then really thinking we could win the league up to Feb in 98/99.
Next season he was probably 45 minutes from the sack in one game we were losing but won that and we had a really good second half of the season in league and FA cup.....
Should've gone soon after the terrible cup final performance but we'd actually given him a new 3 year deal two weeks before that game. 00-01 was largely a boring season and 01/02 started off good but pretty much everyone (including him and the players) knew it wouldn't last and we soon dropped down the league although him quitting mid table was still a shock.
The Villa view lads did a good interview with him a few years back, he admitted he messed up in the cup final.
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I love Gregory. One of my favourite managers, despite his faults.
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Excellent 2 hr interview just been released by the Claret and Blue podcast team, well worth a listen and lots of memories.
He doesn’t come up for air during those two hours ! That said he was very interesting and you can feel his love for all things Villa.
The Steven Frogatt podcast by the same guys is a really good , Frogatt could be an after dinner speaker with his recollections of funny tales.
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I watched this last night after I had posted in the other thread about the 2000 cup final. I was hoping we would hear a little more about that 98-99 season and why we fell away.
He was dead right about Dwight Yorke. I know it's all ifs and buts and maybes but if Yorke's head hadn't been turned and we had made that wonderful start in 98-99....things could have been different - especially if we had gone on to sign Dublin ti partner him.
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I watched this last night after I had posted in the other thread about the 2000 cup final. I was hoping we would hear a little more about that 98-99 season and why we fell away.
He was dead right about Dwight Yorke. I know it's all ifs and buts and maybes but if Yorke's head hadn't been turned and we had made that wonderful start in 98-99....things could have been different - especially if we had gone on to sign Dublin ti partner him.
In the Villa view interview he said Ugo getting injured was massive turning point (which it was) given we had to play Scimeca regulary (who wasn't that good and had started that season filling in as striker!), not signing Juninho and also he was involved in off field stuff like pressing Ellis to spend more money on the training ground so took his eye off the pitch a bit. Collymore and Merson also had their issues around that time of course.
What I liked about JG in those early years was he knew how big he could be and was constantly in press bigging us up and trying to get in bigger name players to lift the mentality.
Had plenty of managers since who've had no clue on that and tried to downplay our status and even past achievements.
It fizzled out big time but his reign was plenty of fun for two and a bit years before he became very negative in his general approach.
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Agree with your summary there SHQ.
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Agree with your summary there SHQ.
Agreed also.
You'd think more managers would realise that a bit of flattery goes a long way with fans, compare John's approach to the Houllier, the dolt. You'd think a man of his experience and reputation may have worked it out, but no, crawl up Liverpool's arse, call us a lower mid-table club when we've just finished 6th three years on the trot and then alienate half your squad when the transfer window has just closed. Pillock.
Then there's O'Leary.
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We have had some vain managers over the years. Some of them like Ron Saunders and Ron Atkinson backed it up by winning things. Others like John Gregory, David O'Leary, Gerard Houllier and Tim Sherwood fell short. MON was another vain manager and he probably falls in between the two groups.
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Excellent 2 hr interview just been released by the Claret and Blue podcast team, well worth a listen and lots of memories.
He doesn’t come up for air during those two hours ! That said he was very interesting and you can feel his love for all things Villa.
The Steven Frogatt podcast by the same guys is a really good , Frogatt could be an after dinner speaker with his recollections of funny tales.
Frustrating to think how much of a key player Froggatt could have been for us without the injuries.
He took to first team football like a duck to water after making his debut in 1991/92, the wonder goal in the cup against Swindon away being the highlight that year. And he provided at least half the assists when Deano bagged six goals in his first three games in 92/93.
The Wimbledon away game is fondly remembered for Dalian's wonder goal. But it was Froggatt's injury in that game that largely bollocksed his Villa career. He still went on to get England recognition when he eventually ended up being sent to Coventry via Wolves. He was that good.
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Agree with your summary there SHQ.
Agreed also.
You'd think more managers would realise that a bit of flattery goes a long way with fans, compare John's approach to the Houllier, the dolt. You'd think a man of his experience and reputation may have worked it out, but no, crawl up Liverpool's arse, call us a lower mid-table club when we've just finished 6th three years on the trot and then alienate half your squad when the transfer window has just closed. Pillock.
Then there's O'Leary.
O'Leary and Houllier are good friends apparently.
Which explains alot.
Mind you the source for that is O'Dreary himself. So I wouldn't take it to the bank.
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Agree with your summary there SHQ.
Agreed also.
You'd think more managers would realise that a bit of flattery goes a long way with fans, compare John's approach to the Houllier, the dolt. You'd think a man of his experience and reputation may have worked it out, but no, crawl up Liverpool's arse, call us a lower mid-table club when we've just finished 6th three years on the trot and then alienate half your squad when the transfer window has just closed. Pillock.
Then there's O'Leary.
O'Leary and Houllier are good friends apparently.
Which explains alot.
Mind you the source for that is O'Dreary himself. So I wouldn't take it to the bank.
Dosen't it stem from Houllier's heart attack and Leeds were actually Liverpool's opponents that day and think O'Leary visited him straight after in hospital.
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Excellent 2 hr interview just been released by the Claret and Blue podcast team, well worth a listen and lots of memories.
He doesn’t come up for air during those two hours ! That said he was very interesting and you can feel his love for all things Villa.
The Steven Frogatt podcast by the same guys is a really good , Frogatt could be an after dinner speaker with his recollections of funny tales.
Frustrating to think how much of a key player Froggatt could have been for us without the injuries.
He took to first team football like a duck to water after making his debut in 1991/92, the wonder goal in the cup against Swindon away being the highlight that year. And he provided at least half the assists when Deano bagged six goals in his first three games in 92/93.
The Wimbledon away game is fondly remembered for Dalian's wonder goal. But it was Froggatt's injury in that game that largely bollocksed his Villa career. He still went on to get England recognition when he eventually ended up being sent to Coventry via Wolves. He was that good.
Interesting. Had never given Froggatt's demise much thought. Reminds me of a contemporary of his, Graham Fenton and how he peaked so quickly. Like Froggatt, injuries hit him and he had ok spells at decent-ish clubs after but a '94 near-debut appearance at Wembley was always going to be difficult to live up to.
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Remember how cocky Gregory was in his first week, months and year? He brought a real swagger to the job.
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And rightly so. In an annualised league table for the calendar year 1998 we would have been runners-up. Given the poor results under Brian in Jan/Feb which partly led to his departure, we probably would have finished ahead of Arsenal with Gregory's average points per game from the rest of the year.
Pretty drastic fall from grace though. In a Jan-Dec 1999, we would have come 14th!
(https://i.ibb.co/6t2JXmW/20210701-001153.jpg) (https://ibb.co/6t2JXmW)
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I recall things went very stale under Little with the Collymore signing being a total flop and that he sort of left the job out of the blue with JG's appointment being a real shock one. As you say, our form under JG that calendar year was top 2 and the football wasn't bad either. Merson and Dublin were good signings. Not so sure about some of the ones that followed: Stone and Watson or example. Things went a bit dour thereafter and that cockiness seemed a bit misplaced as we trudged through games in following seasons.
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I never liked Gregory at the time but in hindsight he did a remarkable job doing as well as he did with all the splits and factions at the club. He was superb at getting the supporters onside as well, although whether that helped long-term is open to debate.
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Why weren't you a fan, Dave? His personality or how the quality of football declined under his watch?
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Why weren't you a fan, Dave? His personality or how the quality of football declined under his watch?
The football was often dire and he was a bit too populist for me. He was BFR without the style.