Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: maidstonevillain on June 06, 2021, 11:31:32 PM
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Apologies if already posted.
Matt Kendrick/John Gregory interview.
Long watch and I've only fast forwarded through it. But some good background stories, and Gregory's love of the club shines through.
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Thanks for this, cant wait to watch it :)
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Listened to it over the weekend, actually took most of the weekend to get through it. Say what you like about JG, but he’s Villa through and through. I like how Kendrick interviews ex- Villa people- gets them relaxed and let’s them tell their story. Surprised a bit how he didn’t ask more about the Collymore situation. Maybe Gregory refused to discuss it. Great listen though.
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Yorke shows what he all knew, what a dick he was.
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What a great interview, he left Villa when we were seventh in the league, we had many chances to be a top four club on a permanent basis the only impediment was Doug Ellis. Gregory is still disgusted with Yorke, the highlight for me was how he left wickham to come back to the Villa. A true Villa man.
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Its still crazy to think JG left on the back of two straight league wins and with form improving. It shows the sense of disillusionment he had with Doug. And as a wise man once said, it was a brief period of mourning for him to join Derby as quick as he did. Fond memories of JG but we've had better managers.
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Thought it was a shame when the Little/Gregory combo split.
For me it was very similar to Clough and Taylor, different characters, but it worked.
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Thought it was a shame when the Little/Gregory combo split.
For me it was very similar to Clough and Taylor, different characters, but it worked.
Totally agree- we never looked as good for that final year under Little when Gregory left. We seemed to have Little Gregory and Evans covered all bases.
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Thought it was a shame when the Little/Gregory combo split.
For me it was very similar to Clough and Taylor, different characters, but it worked.
I agree with that. It was a shame he left in the first place. In that 96-97 season didn't reach the heights of 95-96. Squad depth killed us those years. Remember getting thumped at Anfield 3-0 with a very makeshift team- Mark Draper declared unfit pre-match.
Gregory, of all the managers we had under Doug, actually had money to spend. In hindsight 95-2002 was a golden opportunity missed.
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I must watch this.
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I must watch this.
It's worthwhile Daz, I watched it full on Friday night, it's great.
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I really enjoyed watching this .It answered a few things i had always wondered about over the years like Doug's penny pinching and the no show against Chelsea in the cup final and JG admitting it will always haunt him how we just never turned up .The thing that really interested me was how frank he was about Yorke and how he had told JG that he just did'nt want to play for Aston Villa anymore and how he did'nt lift a leg at Everton .To me he is up there with Steve Hodge as someone i will always have utter contempt for
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I really enjoyed watching this .It answered a few things i had always wondered about over the years like Doug's penny pinching and the no show against Chelsea in the cup final and JG admitting it will always haunt him how we just never turned up .The thing that really interested me was how frank he was about Yorke and how he had told JG that he just did'nt want to play for Aston Villa anymore and how he did'nt lift a leg at Everton .To me he is up there with Steve Hodge as someone i will always have utter contempt for
I was there that day at Everton, it was clear that something was up. I loved Yorke, and players move on, it's their career etc but it left such a sour taste, and then the badge kissing nonsense was pure twattery.
He got what he wanted and was proven correct with the treble win, but I've got to say I quite enjoyed it when he was disposed off unceremoniously and spent the rest of his days jobbing around at crap clubs.
Maybe because I'm a bit older and wiser, but I never had the same issue with Young or even Benteke, both of whom I'd have had back in a heartbeat.
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I really enjoyed watching this .It answered a few things i had always wondered about over the years like Doug's penny pinching and the no show against Chelsea in the cup final and JG admitting it will always haunt him how we just never turned up .The thing that really interested me was how frank he was about Yorke and how he had told JG that he just did'nt want to play for Aston Villa anymore and how he did'nt lift a leg at Everton .To me he is up there with Steve Hodge as someone i will always have utter contempt for
Hard to know whether he had truly downed tools or was just heavily distracted.
You'd like to think it was the latter, seeing as he'd been with us from the age of 18.
I'd prefer to remember the better moments. And if it had just been the Everton display, or the badge kissing for Yanited and then Blackburn you could excuse it away in isolation. But all that and the verbal diarrhoea about everyone knowing B-lose are the bigger club in the city is harder to bat away.
Then again, Gregory was prone to verbal diarrhoea as well.
Bertie Bigbollocks, milking his 15 minutes. He never knowingly walked past an open mic when there was a chance to hold court. Like a poundshop Brian Clough. If only his teams were as exciting as his early press conferences.
Didn't he also say it was great to be at a club where the fans don't turn on the team shortly after taking over at Derby? Classy. But loves the Villa, obv.
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It's probably the best interview to date and confirmed my belief that JG was a man with Villa in his heart.
Full of interest from start to finish for me from a period when we were flying at times.
Yorke's exit was desperate but for me it doesn't take away many special memories of his contribution to this club.
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Just a good listen, Matt Kendrick has said he’s got David Platt in his sights for an interview but he can’t see the real biggie Martin O’neill happening
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Watched/listened to this yesterday. I think Gregory still has huge regrets about how he left the Villa both as a player and manager. He covers his departure as a player very honestly. All for the sake of £25 quid a week in 1979. Casting envious glances from his new club, Brighton to the midlands as we soon won the league and European Cup.
In terms of leaving the Villa as a manager - well very few go on to bigger things and so it proved with him. He was a mixed bag of a manager. The performances and results for the calendar year 1998 when he took over would have seen us win the league if it ran Feb-Dec. The following three years were bad cover versions.
The swagger he cultivated from the outset, within himself but also as a cheerleader for the club, was great to listen to when the results went well but made it all the more galling when we were going through long spells of turgid football, struggling to score.
That he still clutches to not being given the money to sign the mighty Muzzy Izzet...Doug may have penny-pinched but Gregory struggled to get value on a fair few of his (English - MON prototype...don't be like them, Dean...please) signings - the Geordie trio of Watson/Thompson/Stone all underwhelmed at an average of £5m a pop. Bosko Balaban was a....bung(?). I'd have liked Kendrick to challenge him a bit more on the transfers and seeing things from Doug's perspective but I guess that's the thing with these podcasts. Fantastic to hear ex-players/managers of the Villa talk at length and uncensored but the host is generally going to feed them nice "buddy" questions rather than difficult ones.
Respect for JG in how he stalked Ollie Mellberg into signing for us though.
And I hope all those Muller yoghurts didn't leave stains on his sofas - a fcuking nightmare to remove.
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It was an interesting interview and good to hear from Gregory as I still have a lot of happy memories of his time. But Kendrick dodged asking a few trickier questions, such as the Balaban transfer as eamonn rightly mentions.
That period when he first took over from Sir Brian though, what a blast that was. And topping the table twice was pretty decent as well, it's just sad that it petered out as it always seems to do when we have good periods (see O'Neill from March onwards every year, and Smith this season just finished for other examples.)
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I still find it hard to forgive the negative way we played in 2000, with a side full of attacking flair, where an average Chelsesa side where there for the taking!
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Just a good listen, Matt Kendrick has said he’s got David Platt in his sights for an interview but he can’t see the real biggie Martin O’neill happening
O'Neill's done a few interviews online in last year, don't know how much he talks about us or if it's just 90% Brian Clough stories.
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It was an interesting interview and good to hear from Gregory as I still have a lot of happy memories of his time. But Kendrick dodged asking a few trickier questions, such as the Balaban transfer as eamonn rightly mentions.
That period when he first took over from Sir Brian though, what a blast that was. And topping the table twice was pretty decent as well, it's just sad that it petered out as it always seems to do when we have good periods (see O'Neill from March onwards every year, and Smith this season just finished for other examples.)
Surprised he wasn't asked about Angel either. I got his book that came out in 2001 (?) and he mentioned we played in London and he got to Heathrow just in time to make the flight on a motorbike and went to watch him play, think he wanted Pablo Aimar and Diego Forlan from around that time aswell.
He actually answered the Balaban question in a Q&A he did with the club website years back, joked it would be on his gravestone and he'd never seen him play live although felt he'd come good eventually given it took JPA a good six months to get going:
https://www.avfc.co.uk/news/2012/09/11/askgregory-part-two-john-on-doug-bosko-and-fa-cup-regrets
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Also was waiting for them to touch more on Collymore but guess that was off limits! JG alluded to what it was like working with him, brilliant v Liverpool on his debut, then had the issue with Harkness allegedly abusing him and then useless in first leg v Atletico Madrid on the Tuesday.
I would assume he massively regrets that comment now about how can you be depressed on 20k a week, can understand why he said it in 1999 but completely unacceptable nowadays.
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I still find it hard to forgive the negative way we played in 2000, with a side full of attacking flair, where an average Chelsesa side where there for the taking!
We really didn't have a squad full of attacking flair though....our sub options that day were Jloyd, Steve Stone, Joachim and Hendrie. Hendrie only one of those who arguably should've started.
Could understand the logic of playing the first half like we did....but we just stuck with the negativity right up to the last 10 minutes so terrible second half was the issue and Chelsea did eventually step it up and dominate for a good twenty minutes before the scrappy goal.
Had a team of graft and solidity in those days bar Merse and Carbone who could come up with magic so there was always a limit in how on the front foot we could be.
Q] If you could play the 2000 FA Cup final again, would you do anything different?
A] Yes, I'd win it!
I would do lots of things differently. That game haunts me. There have been times in my life where I've sat there and thought: "Why didn't I play a more offensive style on the day and really go for it!"
I just feel tactically I got it all wrong on the day.
I thought if we could keep Chelsea quiet for an hour we'd start imposing our game.
We were always a very strong second half team. I always thought 0-0 at half-time was a good score because we were very strong after the break. There was a lot of energy and the lads were fit and in that situation we generally won games.
I just wanted to keep them quiet but we didn't, they nicked one and the rest is history. It was very poor after that and we never really had a go until the last 10 minutes.
Had it been a good game and we had lost 4-3, 3-2, even 2-1, you could draw some comfort from it.
But no, I got it wrong and I have to live with it.
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Yep, he does have to live with it.
I've never been so disappointed in anything.
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Villa beat Chelsea Spring 1998 at Stamford Bridge a fortnight after he took over (might have been in between the two Atletico ties) pretty comfortably. It was only 1-0 but we did most of the running. There was such an attacking swagger about us in Gregory's first three months in charge. Scoring for fun, winning nearly every game, never drawing! (shades of how we started this season, perhaps)
We then lost Yorke at the end of the following summer and Savo/Stan departed too after their own problems but I compare that Spring 1998 flair-filled team to the one who rocked-up against Chelsea at Wembley barely two years later and didn't even lay a glove in a desperately disappointing display.
Lee Hendrie probably the best contrasting example - in 1998, he's a precocious Grealish-lite thriller of a player. Two years on, his time has been and gone with the international team, he's lost confidence and fitness and struggles to get in a fairly workmanlike midfield.
I guess it mainly shows that it's a lot easier to perform when the pressure is off and a new manager has just come in (especially a likeable one who has coached the players before). *sigh* They do make us hope and dream...don't they?
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Shame he didn't talk about Robbie Keane either. I remember thinking at the time if we got him we would be serious contenders. As I recall it rattled Man utd, Alex Ferguson went public sticking his nose in, which I believe put Gregory/Ellis off.
Great interview he really is a character.
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I really enjoyed watching this .It answered a few things i had always wondered about over the years like Doug's penny pinching and the no show against Chelsea in the cup final and JG admitting it will always haunt him how we just never turned up .The thing that really interested me was how frank he was about Yorke and how he had told JG that he just did'nt want to play for Aston Villa anymore and how he did'nt lift a leg at Everton .To me he is up there with Steve Hodge as someone i will always have utter contempt for
I was there that day at Everton, it was clear that something was up. I loved Yorke, and players move on, it's their career etc but it left such a sour taste, and then the badge kissing nonsense was pure twattery.
He got what he wanted and was proven correct with the treble win, but I've got to say I quite enjoyed it when he was disposed off unceremoniously and spent the rest of his days jobbing around at crap clubs.
Maybe because I'm a bit older and wiser, but I never had the same issue with Young or even Benteke, both of whom I'd have had back in a heartbeat.
*Fun Fact* That Yorke Manure badge kissing day was the day my wife and I moved into our house.
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My condolences pal, truly a dark day.
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Yep, he does have to live with it.
I've never been so disappointed in anything.
What not even the 2015 Final?
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Shame he didn't talk about Robbie Keane either. I remember thinking at the time if we got him we would be serious contenders. As I recall it rattled Man utd, Alex Ferguson went public sticking his nose in, which I believe put Gregory/Ellis off.
Great interview he really is a character.
Keane would have been a great signing at the time. The right age and profile. But I always felt Gregory, like MON, preferred the older pro and was generally a bit risk averse when it came to team selection and transfers. Juninho and Izzet wouldnt have changed things too much and the Geordie trio were dreadful.
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Shame he didn't talk about Robbie Keane either. I remember thinking at the time if we got him we would be serious contenders. As I recall it rattled Man utd, Alex Ferguson went public sticking his nose in, which I believe put Gregory/Ellis off.
Great interview he really is a character.
Had geniunely forgotten about that! Keane for me was more the one that got away than Juninho a few months before that more remember.
What was it, we bid 5.5m but wouldn't go up to 6m like Coventry. Mental. I know people will say typical Doug but pretty sure JG pretty much confirmed it was his decision a few months later when he didn't have to.
Of course that meant we then signed Carbone who played a big part in the cup run but Keane was simply a better all round forward and would've been brilliant linking up with Dublin imo. Perhaps he wouldn't have stayed that long given he liked a few moves in that time but the sort of missing link to push us on further in those times.
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Yep, he does have to live with it.
I've never been so disappointed in anything.
What not even the 2015 Final?
You could see that coming though. We just never got out of first gear against Chelsea.
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Yep, he does have to live with it.
I've never been so disappointed in anything.
What not even the 2015 Final?
You could see that coming though. We just never got out of first gear against Chelsea.
Quite. And the Chelsea one was the first one in my lifetime.
Arsenal wasn't disappointment. I'd been ripped off for fake tickets for that one and was just plain angry, the result was like salt in the wounds.
Chelsea had me dreaming and hoping.
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Yep, he does have to live with it.
I've never been so disappointed in anything.
What not even the 2015 Final?
You could see that coming though. We just never got out of first gear against Chelsea.
Quite. And the Chelsea one was the first one in my lifetime.
Arsenal wasn't disappointment. I'd been ripped off for fake tickets for that one and was just plain angry, the result was like salt in the wounds.
Chelsea had me dreaming and hoping.
Explains your nervousness around my pals tickets last year!
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Yep, he does have to live with it.
I've never been so disappointed in anything.
What not even the 2015 Final?
You could see that coming though. We just never got out of first gear against Chelsea.
Quite. And the Chelsea one was the first one in my lifetime.
Arsenal wasn't disappointment. I'd been ripped off for fake tickets for that one and was just plain angry, the result was like salt in the wounds.
Chelsea had me dreaming and hoping.
Explains your nervousness around my pals tickets last year!
Yep! Precisely!
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We had players that team capable of beating Chelsea and never turned up. That's the thing I'll never understand.
Most disappointing Villa moment of my life.
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We had players that team capable of beating Chelsea and never turned up. That's the thing I'll never understand.
Most disappointing Villa moment of my life.
Yep, made worse by the fact that Chelsea didn't turn up either.
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Shame he didn't talk about Robbie Keane either. I remember thinking at the time if we got him we would be serious contenders. As I recall it rattled Man utd, Alex Ferguson went public sticking his nose in, which I believe put Gregory/Ellis off.
Great interview he really is a character.
Had geniunely forgotten about that! Keane for me was more the one that got away than Juninho a few months before that more remember.
What was it, we bid 5.5m but wouldn't go up to 6m like Coventry. Mental. I know people will say typical Doug but pretty sure JG pretty much confirmed it was his decision a few months later when he didn't have to.
Of course that meant we then signed Carbone who played a big part in the cup run but Keane was simply a better all round forward and would've been brilliant linking up with Dublin imo. Perhaps he wouldn't have stayed that long given he liked a few moves in that time but the sort of missing link to push us on further in those times.
He went to see Keane play in a pre-season friendly for Wolves. He had a poor/quiet game by his standards, and that was ultimately the clincher in Gregory telling Doug not to bother going half a million higher. (Imagine Yanited pulling out of the Yorke deal based on his display at Everton.) As if Keane hadn't shown enough in actual competitive football up to that point...
Between that story and the one Gregory repeated on the podcast - that a Villa fan in a café told him to get rid of Yorke and JG then going to Doug telling him to accept the £12m offer.....it kind of paints him as too impulsive which chimes with the cockiness/swagger in his manner. A little bit too naive all-round, I reckon.
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I wanted to hear his take on David Unsworth, and getting banned from the dugout, but nonetheless a great interview.
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We had players that team capable of beating Chelsea and never turned up. That's the thing I'll never understand.
Most disappointing Villa moment of my life.
Yep, made worse by the fact that Chelsea didn't turn up either.
Made worse for me as I broke a tooth that morning, and turned up at Wembley bleeding from the mouth in agony. Took two root canals and over a grand to fix it. Every bloody time I have toothache now it takes me back to that day. A lifetime of hurt until we finally lift the trophy.
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Thanks again for this link. I just finished listening to it. I was moved by Gregory's obvious love for the club, the stadium, the history, his own time there. I really hope we can finally achieve the things he wanted for the club - to be spoken of as genuine contenders and add to the club's silverware.
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Shame he didn't talk about Robbie Keane either. I remember thinking at the time if we got him we would be serious contenders. As I recall it rattled Man utd, Alex Ferguson went public sticking his nose in, which I believe put Gregory/Ellis off.
Great interview he really is a character.
Had geniunely forgotten about that! Keane for me was more the one that got away than Juninho a few months before that more remember.
What was it, we bid 5.5m but wouldn't go up to 6m like Coventry. Mental. I know people will say typical Doug but pretty sure JG pretty much confirmed it was his decision a few months later when he didn't have to.
Of course that meant we then signed Carbone who played a big part in the cup run but Keane was simply a better all round forward and would've been brilliant linking up with Dublin imo. Perhaps he wouldn't have stayed that long given he liked a few moves in that time but the sort of missing link to push us on further in those times.
He went to see Keane play in a pre-season friendly for Wolves. He had a poor/quiet game by his standards, and that was ultimately the clincher in Gregory telling Doug not to bother going half a million higher. (Imagine Yanited pulling out of the Yorke deal based on his display at Everton.) As if Keane hadn't shown enough in actual competitive football up to that point...
Between that story and the one Gregory repeated on the podcast - that a Villa fan in a café told him to get rid of Yorke and JG then going to Doug telling him to accept the £12m offer.....it kind of paints him as too impulsive which chimes with the cockiness/swagger in his manner. A little bit too naive all-round, I reckon.
I did know some Villa fans who thought selling Yorke could bring Collymore really to the fore.
I disagreed with them, impolitely
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We had players that team capable of beating Chelsea and never turned up. That's the thing I'll never understand.
Most disappointing Villa moment of my life.
The cup run was brilliant that year, the Leeds game is one of my all time favourites. Leeds were one of the top teams at the time, Mersin and Carbone were just awesome.
Is the story he tells about the fans throwing Carbone's gold boots back at him after the final true? I remember seeing him with those boots that day and thinking wtf, absolutely no need.
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Can anybody get behind the Torygraph paywall and paste the content of this interview with JG?
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2023/10/04/john-gregory-former-aston-villa-manager-europa-league/?s=08
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Can anybody get behind the Torygraph paywall and paste the content of this interview with JG?
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2023/10/04/john-gregory-former-aston-villa-manager-europa-league/?s=08
John Gregory on life at Aston Villa: ‘We had club chocolates that went off in 2000 – Doug Ellis got an intern to change the date to 2002’
The former Aston Villa manager on winning in Europe, working under ‘Deadly’ Doug Ellis and living with regret
With less than 10 minutes remaining of Aston Villa’s last appearance in a European final, John Gregory left the home dug-out and made his way up to the directors’ box to take a seat next to the club’s notorious former chairman Doug Ellis.
Villa were 4-1 up against Swiss club FC Basel and held a 5-2 two-leg advantage, which meant they not only became one of three winners of the 2001 Intertoto Cup, along with Paris Saint-Germain and Troyes, but also progressed into that season’s Uefa Cup.
‘Deadly’ Doug, as he was referred to by supporters and pundits, was rubbing his hands at the prospect of another revenue route but had not realised the Intertoto success was going to cost him.
“There was a clause in my contract that meant I got a pay rise if we qualified for the Uefa Cup,” said former Villa manager Gregory. “We hadn’t finished high enough in the League the previous season, but we qualified by winning the Intertoto Cup.
“So after we went 4-1 up against Basel, I went up to the directors’ box and sat next to Doug which I had never, ever done before. He couldn’t work out why I was there, but he was delighted we were about to qualify for the Uefa Cup. What I didn’t remind him of on the night was that my salary was going up £3,000-a-week because it was written into my contract.”
Gregory will celebrate his 70th birthday next year and, although there may be the odd hint of grey in his shock of black hair, recalled his four years working for Ellis as though they were yesterday.
Villa entertain Bosian club Zrinkjski Mostar on Thursday night in the Europa Conference League – 22 years since Gregory’s team lifted football’s smallest trophy in front of their home fans.
“It was kind of a poor forerunner to the Conference League,” said Gregory. “The trophy was tiny, you could barely see it and some of the players were a bit embarrassed, I think. But the Villa fans were just desperate for any sort of success and they still are now. I was at the final game of last season, when they won to qualify for the Conference League, and the celebrations were like they’d just won the FA Cup. It was incredible. . . the noise.”
The Intertoto Cup had changed format by the time Villa again booked a Uefa Cup spot through it in 2008, with 11 clubs from the third round advancing, meaning 2001 was the last time Villa lifted a European trophy since the 1982 European Cup victory over Bayern Munich that supporters still sing about.
David Ginola scored Villa’s final goal of the Intertoto campaign under Gregory, which would have delighted Ellis, who was responsible for signing the Frenchman for £3 million from Tottenham Hotspur the previous summer.
“Doug went on holiday to Mauritius and fell in love with David,” said Gregory. “He phoned me saying ‘he’s an amazing man, he’s this and that, and hasn’t he got amazing hair’. I knew all about David and I knew he was a great showman, but he was never going to do anything defensively.
“Anyway, Doug comes back and I would have to go to the stadium two or three times a week because my personal secretary wasn’t allowed to work at the training ground. That way, I had to go to the stadium because she basically ran my life and it made sure Doug would see me.
“I would love going in and talking to absolutely everyone, but Doug had just come back and he insisted I go in and see him and he started going on about David again. He had had lunch with him and he was besotted with him. I put forward a few players I was interested in, but all I got back was ‘what about David?’ and he knew he could get him for £3 million.
“I thought that was £3 million I could spend elsewhere on someone I really wanted, but eventually I realised it was going to be David or nobody and I suppose I convinced myself that I could change him.
“David was on £20,000-a-week at Tottenham and Doug started out by offering him £15,000, which was his usual tactic. By the end of the meeting with ‘team Ginola’ he’d agreed to pay him more than double that and I’m thinking ‘I’ve got (Paul) Merson, (Dion) Dublin and (Gareth) Southgate, and they’re all going to be knocking on my door’. Of course, word got around and Merse refused to go on a pre-season trip until he was put on the same salary, and fair play because he had been brilliant for us.
“I must say that David was wonderful around the club and great company to chat to. He scored some brilliant goals, including in the final against Basel, but I remember we had just started using an early version of the GPS system to track the players. Every Tuesday the guy would come in to go through the players’ results from the weekend and one week he came in to me and said ‘one of your players moved one metre in the first two minutes of the game. Who do you think it was?’ I immediately guessed it was our goalkeeper David James, but, of course, it was David (Ginola). He walked one metre after the opposition kicked off and stood still. That was him, he was so frustrating.”
The signing of Ginola was out of character for Ellis and his strict control of Villa’s finances put a major obstacle in the way of Gregory’s ambition to take the club from the Intertoto Cup all the way to the Champions League.
“I wanted to sign Ruud van Nistelrooy, but there was no way Doug was going to pay £19 million, which is what Manchester United paid for him,” said Gregory. “We had a great team and I really thought we could push on and try to qualify for the Champions League and challenge for the title, but I could never drag Doug along.
“The club used to put out Aston Villa chocolates in the hospitality suites at Villa Park, which were wrapped in claret and blue foil. The best before date on them was 2000 and written on the back in gold writing. I remember Doug getting one of the interns to change the date on them all in a gold pen to 2002, so he didn’t have to throw them away and buy a new batch.
“There was another instance when a couple of the youth players had groin surgery and it was going to cost Villa about £700 on top of the insurance cover. Doug managed to convince the surgeon to drop his invoice so that the insurance covered the entire cost and he was dancing around his office celebrating. United were signing Ruud van Nistelrooy and we were changing the best before dates on chocolates and saving a few hundred quid on operations for the players.”
Gregory’s budgetary battles with Ellis came to a head two months after the Intertoto success, with Villa at the top of the Premier League table following a 3-2 victory over Bolton Wanderers at the end of October.
“We went top beating Bolton and on the Monday, I went in and told Doug that I wanted Muzzy Izzet,” said Gregory. “I knew we could get him for £5 million and his first response was ‘why do you need Muzzy Izzet, you’re top of the league’. I called a board meeting the next day to state my case, but I didn’t have a chance. From that day, I just felt like I was banging my head against a brick wall.”
Villa were seventh in the League when Gregory quit in January 2002 – the same position he witnessed the club clinch on the final day of last season to qualify for Europe.
“We had won at Charlton and I told Doug the following Wednesday that I wanted to go,” said Gregory. “He told me to sleep on it, but I felt the same way in the morning and that was that.
“I regretted it very quickly and I still do now. I had said to my wife years earlier that ‘if I ever I leave this club, it will only be downhill’ and it was. I walked away from that new contract I’d earned by winning the Intertoto Cup with nothing.
“But I look back really fondly on my time at Villa and I just wanted people to talk about us. We used to win 3-0 and still be last on Match of the Day and it would really wind me up. It’s only when you get to the club, you realise how big it is. Fortunately, things are moving in the right direction again.”
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Can't believe he's nearly 70...then again, it's no age now, is it? In the last week I've seen Midge Ure and Kevin Rowland prance around on stage, in full fettle vocally and physically.
As for Grecian Gregory, he still likes to talk himself up, doesn't he? Idiotic for resigning - he was never going to get anything as good as the Villa again. An upmarket TacticsTim, good for a quote but he still doesn't mention the absolute turgid style of play for about half of his reign.
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Gregory had his flaws, but he wasn't an upmarket Tactics Tim. If Tim Sherwood had stayed for four years we'd have spent the last 3 in the Championship...
...
...oh.
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I loved JG. Imagine if we had gotten Juninho and Nilis had stayed fit..?!
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I blame Gregory for me leaving the country. I was 50/50 and the 2000 cup final performance/tactics tipped it.
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That spell after Yorke left and when Dublin signed was one of my favourite times, with Merson, Dublin, Ginola, Southgate, Ugo etc. unfortunately the rest were bang average!
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For the amount of money spent he served up some right boring dross. Sherwood was a Poundland Gregory, once the quips and motivation wasn't enough there nothing of substance with either of them.
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For the amount of money spent he served up some right boring dross. Sherwood was a Poundland Gregory, once the quips and motivation wasn't enough there nothing of substance with either of them.
Yes.
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Was it Gregory who used to spend part of the home games running along the concrete in the half-built Trinity, following the play?
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For the amount of money spent he served up some right boring dross. Sherwood was a Poundland Gregory, once the quips and motivation wasn't enough there nothing of substance with either of them.
Agree on Sherwood but there were some exciting times with Gregory. I do concede that when Gregory quit, he'd run out of steam.
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His book not a bad read.
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For the amount of money spent he served up some right boring dross. Sherwood was a Poundland Gregory, once the quips and motivation wasn't enough there nothing of substance with either of them.
Was Gregory a bit of a Poundland MON? I love all these stories "I could have got RvN", every ex manager has one. Muzzy Izzet, Juninho, Benni McCarthy...from memory we were constantly linked with them. Failing to go the extra mile for Robbie Keane kind of summed up Gregory, probably used that money to buy Steve Stone. Keane would have been ideal next to Dion Dublin.
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Another enjoyable interview.
Didn't Ginola try to sue him after Gregory called him fat in the press?
In a way the article sums up the general thinking at the time.
We weren't spending 20m under Lerner on individual players so no idea why JG thought it would've been realistic in 2000 when 5m was a very big fee.
Obviously Ginola wasn't a very good fit but he was only 3m and like Merson could win a game out of very little in largely workmanlike team.
Yet the solution to going top in October 2001 was to try to buy Izzet for 5-8m? He'd have just had the same impact as someone like Steve Stone, would give 100% but not the sort to take us to the next level.
Think Izzet went to SHA a year or two later and had to retire after a bad injury. Neil Lennon would've probably been a better fit for us from Leicester in those times.
According to something I read elsewhere we were very close to signing Hasselbaink before he moved to Atletico Madrid. Leeds sold him for 15m and signed Viduka for about 7m so before their financial implosion they were doing better deals than us in those times.
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Ginola was such an odd signing at the time. We already had a couple of flair players, Merson obviously being one.
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I’ve always liked Gregory because he respected the club.
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Was it Gregory who used to spend part of the home games running along the concrete in the half-built Trinity, following the play?
Who else could it be?
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I saw him a couple of weeks ago walking his dog up a hill in Englefield Green, just outside Egham. No idea where he's living or what he's doing, but I was 99% certain it was him at the time.
I've added this interview to my watch list...
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Met him at the Springsteen concert, he was very pleasant and lots of people had their picture taken with him.
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Ginola was such an odd signing at the time. We already had a couple of flair players, Merson obviously being one.
A signing that had Ellis' paws written all over it
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But he did let him spend £6 million one Balaban 😳
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I’ve always liked Gregory because he respected the club.
"There's an aura about this club, a sense of history and tradition. Even the name is beautifully symmetrical with five letters in each word."
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I’ve always liked Gregory because he respected the club.
"There's an aura about this club, a sense of history and tradition. Even the name is beautifully symmetrical with five letters in each word."
When i read him saying that, I fully appreciated that he really did get it.
I like him, he's undisputably one of us.
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I saw him a couple of weeks ago walking his dog up a hill in Englefield Green, just outside Egham. No idea where he's living or what he's doing, but I was 99% certain it was him at the time.
I've added this interview to my watch list...
His family were based in Windsor while he managed us and he was renting a place in Four Oaks.
Before his foreign adventures he last managed QPR and Crawley so all you need for 100% confirmation was for him slipping on some Grecian in between throwing balls for his dog to chase and shouting "run faster than Fat Dave (Ginola)."
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I love Gregory.
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I’ve always liked Gregory because he respected the club.
"There's an aura about this club, a sense of history and tradition. Even the name is beautifully symmetrical with five letters in each word."
I've always loved this quote. The fact that he appreciates the aesthetics of the words themselves and is drawn to their beauty, he must have sat and just stared/meditated on the name - a man in love.
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I’ve always liked Gregory because he respected the club.
"There's an aura about this club, a sense of history and tradition. Even the name is beautifully symmetrical with five letters in each word."
I've always loved this quote. The fact that he appreciates the aesthetics of the words themselves and is drawn to their beauty, he must have sat and just stared/meditated on the name - a man in love.
I thought Tom Hanks said that
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I’ve always liked Gregory because he respected the club.
"There's an aura about this club, a sense of history and tradition. Even the name is beautifully symmetrical with five letters in each word."
I've always loved this quote. The fact that he appreciates the aesthetics of the words themselves and is drawn to their beauty, he must have sat and just stared/meditated on the name - a man in love.
I thought Tom Hanks said that
I think Hanks's quote was the equally poetic "it sounds like a lovely spa or something".
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For the amount of money spent he served up some right boring dross. Sherwood was a Poundland Gregory, once the quips and motivation wasn't enough there nothing of substance with either of them.
Was Gregory a bit of a Poundland MON? I love all these stories "I could have got RvN", every ex manager has one. Muzzy Izzet, Juninho, Benni McCarthy...from memory we were constantly linked with them. Failing to go the extra mile for Robbie Keane kind of summed up Gregory, probably used that money to buy Steve Stone. Keane would have been ideal next to Dion Dublin.
I actually think the RvN story may have had some legs, as Nistlrooy, said, a few years later, that his favourite playing partner was Luc Nillis.
He may have fancied teaming up again at Villa. Would never have happened as Ellis would never have entertained the idea
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I’ve always liked Gregory because he respected the club.
I liked him because he looked like a no nonsense hard bastard.
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I see similarities in Gregory and O'Neil. Both bought more crap players than good ones. Both got to a cup final and lost. I don't mind Gregory. He left us in 7th place I think. That's not bad.
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I've always said that your opinion of Gregory as a manager was based largely on whether or not you liked him.
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I’ve always liked Gregory because he respected the club.
"There's an aura about this club, a sense of history and tradition. Even the name is beautifully symmetrical with five letters in each word."
When i read him saying that, I fully appreciated that he really did get it.
I like him, he's undisputably one of us.
Same here.
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I see similarities in Gregory and O'Neil. Both bought more crap players than good ones. Both got to a cup final and lost. I don't mind Gregory. He left us in 7th place I think. That's not bad.
Age profile of the squad was poor though. Ellis had pretty much given up by then, Southgate, Ugo and the likes going to Middlesboro!
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I've always said that your opinion of Gregory as a manager was based largely on whether or not you liked him.
I did like him but looking back see how disappointingly limited as an attacking coach he was despite the clever soundbytes.
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I liked him as a raconteur but after his first full season the teams he set up almost bored me to death.
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I've always said that your opinion of Gregory as a manager was based largely on whether or not you liked him.
His reign was one of two parts, a real rollercaster of long unbeaten runs and also long winless runs right up to the cup final.
Then after that about 18 months of really boring football and he should've gone at least six months before he actually did.
2000/01 was one of the most nondescript seasons I've ever watched (and we've seen a few in the last 15 years). I've said this before but from the Nilis wonder goal v Chelsea in the second match to that brilliant Merse winner that sent Coventry down I can hardly recall anything else that happened then which is odd when I can recall so many matches and incidents from other seasons around that time.
The cup final performance just broke everything we were building at the time and really finished us off as a top level club considering what happened to Chelsea after that game.
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04/05 second season under Dolly was pretty non-descript as was O'Neill's first.
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I've always said that your opinion of Gregory as a manager was based largely on whether or not you liked him.
His reign was one of two parts, a real rollercaster of long unbeaten runs and also long winless runs right up to the cup final.
Then after that about 18 months of really boring football and he should've gone at least six months before he actually did.
2000/01 was one of the most nondescript seasons I've ever watched (and we've seen a few in the last 15 years). I've said this before but from the Nilis wonder goal v Chelsea in the second match to that brilliant Merse winner that sent Coventry down I can hardly recall anything else that happened then which is odd when I can recall so many matches and incidents from other seasons around that time.
The cup final performance just broke everything we were building at the time and really finished us off as a top level club considering what happened to Chelsea after that game.
Post-cup final he knew that one bad set of results and he'd be sacked.
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I agree Dave, he went to Derby before he'd be pushed.
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I've always said that your opinion of Gregory as a manager was based largely on whether or not you liked him.
His reign was one of two parts, a real rollercaster of long unbeaten runs and also long winless runs right up to the cup final.
Then after that about 18 months of really boring football and he should've gone at least six months before he actually did.
2000/01 was one of the most nondescript seasons I've ever watched (and we've seen a few in the last 15 years). I've said this before but from the Nilis wonder goal v Chelsea in the second match to that brilliant Merse winner that sent Coventry down I can hardly recall anything else that happened then which is odd when I can recall so many matches and incidents from other seasons around that time.
The cup final performance just broke everything we were building at the time and really finished us off as a top level club considering what happened to Chelsea after that game.
Post-cup final he knew that one bad set of results and he'd be sacked.
I'm not sure. Didn't he do a weird interview when he said really derogatory things about Ellis but wasn't in any danger of being sacked as he'd signed a lucrative contract in the run up to the cup final. Pay-off in those days would've been pretty significant so it was a strange sort of impasse between the two and that filtered through to the pitch as a club going nowhere fast and just treading water.
Actually come to think about it Angel signed in 00/01 mid season which was very exotic and exciting even if his early performances were completely forgettable.
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Yeah, he basically called Ellis a dinosaur. Bodymoor Heath was really outdated, and Gregory said that Ellis thought that it was still the best in Europe.
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And he was right, I remember going there a couple of years before and it was no better really than most municipal pitch changing blocks.
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I loved Gregory, mostly. Some really exciting times like when he first took over which was very Emery-like, and then topping the table twice and getting us the closest we've come to winning the FA Cup in most of our life times, even if the day itself was a hugely disappointing damp squib. I think in the end, the inevitable feeling that 6th was about as good as it was going to get under Ellis killed his enthusiasm, and he resorted to safety first measures, as well as maybe looking for ways to possibly supplement his salary, allegedly.
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Wasn't that more at Derby? They suspended him first and the accusations were settled out of court (I think). He then managed QPR a year or two later.
He was in with Paul Stretford at the time. The Schmeichel move certainly came about because of that. But then loads of British managers are close with agents and indeed in the years since we've seen them pretty much buying players for clubs, Mendes at Wolves and think Joorbachin had a spell when he was placing 3-4 at Arsenal in a six month period.
Edit; I did laugh at that revelation he went up and sat next to Doug when we won the Intertoto to remind him he was getting a bonus for qualifying for the Uefa cup!
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There was the timewarp interview and from then on his days were numbered. With flotation and the NTL money Villa could compete with almost any other club in the transfer market but as a couple of people whose judgment I trust said, for what he spent we should have done better. He signed a lot of average players on above-average wages.
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His record in the transfer market was pretty average at best but I suspect that was more about what he was allowed to do as much as anything. I suspect that’s also where the short termism came in.
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There was the timewarp interview and from then on his days were numbered. With flotation and the NTL money Villa could compete with almost any other club in the transfer market but as a couple of people whose judgment I trust said, for what he spent we should have done better. He signed a lot of average players on above-average wages.
Paying the British premium. Just like his "emulator", Martin O' Neill. Why look across the continent when Steve Stone or Steve Sidwell are proven Premier League players and good pros.... no wonder both managers' style of football flattered to deceive
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Yeah, he basically called Ellis a dinosaur. Bodymoor Heath was really outdated, and Gregory said that Ellis thought that it was still the best in Europe.
One of my favourite Ellis quotes came from that piece (I think).
“What do you think they’re having at Leicester John? Beans on toast?”
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Thanks for putting up the video -a long watch but I really enjoyed it. In fact, I wish it had been even longer and included his thoughts on his time at Brighton, QPR and Derby and England and how he felt about missing out on the glory years here.
In his first summer, we lost Staunton, Yorke, Savo and Nelson despite already having a threadbare squad, only signed Thompson initially, yet were top of the Prem for three months!! Incredible, really. When the injuries kicked in, we had no chance.
Thought his first two and a third seasons were great but after that he seemed to lose his drive to win matches. The big 'if only'? What if Luc Nilis had never had that shocking injury?
Thanks for some good memories, John.
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Wasn't that more at Derby? They suspended him first and the accusations were settled out of court (I think). He then managed QPR a year or two later.
He was in with Paul Stretford at the time. The Schmeichel move certainly came about because of that. But then loads of British managers are close with agents and indeed in the years since we've seen them pretty much buying players for clubs, Mendes at Wolves and think Joorbachin had a spell when he was placing 3-4 at Arsenal in a six month period.
Edit; I did laugh at that revelation he went up and sat next to Doug when we won the Intertoto to remind him he was getting a bonus for qualifying for the Uefa cup!
Letting a 31 year old David James go to be replaced by a 38 year old Schmeichel kind of summed up where we were going as a club at the time.
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Yep.
Hadn't James fallen out with Ellis over the latter's failure to talk about extending his contract?
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He's done another one with the Under the Cosh guys (Jon Parkin, Chris Brown and the host) :
The usual stories in this about Steve Stride talking to him in hotel car park when he was Wycombe manager and not signing Muzzy Izzet but he talks more about Collymore in this than all the other interviews he's done in recent times put together.
40 minutes in his time as manager starts.
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There was the timewarp interview and from then on his days were numbered. With flotation and the NTL money Villa could compete with almost any other club in the transfer market but as a couple of people whose judgment I trust said, for what he spent we should have done better. He signed a lot of average players on above-average wages.
it did not take us long to become uncompetitive. By the time O’Leary was in charge we couldn’t afford to keep a past it midfielder on loan. The appointment of Gregory for me encapsulated the small time thinking of Ellis (no relation).
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He's done another one with the Under the Cosh guys (Jon Parkin, Chris Brown and the host) :
The usual stories in this about Steve Stride talking to him in hotel car park when he was Wycombe manager and not signing Muzzy Izzet but he talks more about Collymore in this than all the other interviews he's done in recent times put together.
40 minutes in his time as manager starts.
Re the Collymore content, is that cos it's a Forest podcast?
As for Muzzy Izzet, fuck me, £8.5m on another British (yeah, ok with a Turkish daddy) run of the mill midfielder. Gregory always acts as if this missing piece of the jigsaw was going to be the difference in us being winners instead of (brief) contendas.
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This is a good point. How much difference would Izzet really have made?
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This is a good point. How much difference would Izzet really have made?
Muzzy Izzet was a decent hardworking player but would've probably made impact of Steve Stone, been a regular for us and solid without ever being the sort to elevate us into the CL spots or win a trophy.
SHA signed him a year or two later and he had to retire injured after a few months.
For how we played at the time Neil Lennon would've been a better signing as Ian Taylor was well into his 30s by then.
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JG interview , sorry If already posted
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This is a good point. How much difference would Izzet really have made?
Quite a bit I think. People thought I was mad when we were struggling under DOL and I said signing Solano and Izzet in January would get us into the Champions League. We signed Solano and just missed out by not very much.
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He's done another one with the Under the Cosh guys (Jon Parkin, Chris Brown and the host) :
The usual stories in this about Steve Stride talking to him in hotel car park when he was Wycombe manager and not signing Muzzy Izzet but he talks more about Collymore in this than all the other interviews he's done in recent times put together.
40 minutes in his time as manager starts.
Re the Collymore content, is that cos it's a Forest podcast?
As for Muzzy Izzet, fuck me, £8.5m on another British (yeah, ok with a Turkish daddy) run of the mill midfielder. Gregory always acts as if this missing piece of the jigsaw was going to be the difference in us being winners instead of (brief) contendas.
Gregory's downfall I always felt was down to him spending the last 12 months in office trying to take on Ellis - a battle he was never going to win.
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If he's got the robbie keane deal over the line I'm sure things would have worked out better for Gregory and Villa.
Look at the career Keane had compared to Izzet. Muzzy got his big move to chelsea and hardly played, I expected a similar out come if he'd moved to B6. I distinctly remember at the time even Fergie was so rattled at Villa getting KEane he leaked some stuff to his friends in the press saying he wasn't worth the money. Fair play to Cov for paying the extra 500k, they more than doubled their money a few years later.
I've watched a couple of interviews with Gregory and he's mentioned Muzzey izzet but it surprises me he never mentioned Keane and it was a long "will he wont he" saga at the time especially when red face stuck his nose in. Keane was definatly the one who got away more than izzet and Junhinio.
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Didn't Izzet come through at Chelsea rather than move there for big money?
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There was the timewarp interview and from then on his days were numbered. With flotation and the NTL money Villa could compete with almost any other club in the transfer market but as a couple of people whose judgment I trust said, for what he spent we should have done better. He signed a lot of average players on above-average wages.
Exactly the same as O'Neill. The only difference was Gregory had a genuine affinity with the club, whereas O'Neill was only ever interested in protecting his own image. Both spent vast fortunates of the club's money, yet left very little to show for it.
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Yeah, started with Chelsea then moved to Leicester. Played a few games afterwards for another team in blue who shall not be mentioned.
His kids were at the same school as my lot.
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There was the timewarp interview and from then on his days were numbered. With flotation and the NTL money Villa could compete with almost any other club in the transfer market but as a couple of people whose judgment I trust said, for what he spent we should have done better. He signed a lot of average players on above-average wages.
Exactly the same as O'Neill. The only difference was Gregory had a genuine affinity with the club, whereas O'Neill was only ever interested in protecting his own image. Both spent vast fortunates of the club's money, yet left very little to show for it.
The other difference is that O'Neill controlled the club from top to bottom while Gregory knew he could get the sack at a minute's notice.
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Jack Grealish has laid into former Aston Villa manager John Gregory, who insists that he got the Manchester City winger substituted during a match while on loan at Notts County. Suffice it to say that Grealish does not agree with Gregory's version of events, despite their mutual affiliation with Villa Park.
Grealish joined Villa's academy at the age of six and worked his way through the various youth ranks before being sent for a temporary stint at Notts County in 2013/14.
As a fresh-faced 18-year-old, the playmaker notched five goals in 37 League One matches to set him up perfectly for a return to the top flight. But Gregory, who spent four years as Villa manager and two as a player, claims that it wasn't all plain sailing for Grealish in the third tier.
During a game between Notts County and Crawley Town, who Gregory managed at the time, the veteran boss claims that mind games got the better of the youngster.
"I actually got Jack Grealish taken off once," he told Undr the Cosh. "He was on loan at Notts County from Villa so this would be about 2014. He must have been about 18 or 19 at the time.
"I'm in the dugout and whenever he came near me, I said, 'F***ing Jack Grealish. Aston Villa. F***ing rubbish. No wonder they've f***ing sent you out to Notts County.' I'm right in his ear, 'No wonder they don't f***ing want you up there'. Getting into him.
"They take him off and he went home and told his dad and his dad spoke to one of my friends. He said, 'Hey, what about your mate Gregory having a pop at my Jack?'. So my mate said, 'Took him off though, didn't they?'."
Grealish replied to the story on the podcast's Instagram page, writing: "John Gregory - Episode 1 of things that never happened... What a lying clown." The Man City star is a lifelong Villa fan and would have been a bright-eyed schoolboy cheering on Gregory's side while growing up.
There appears to be no love lost between the pair now, however, with Grealish into his third season away from the West Midlands outfit. The 28-year-old banked Villa a whopping £100million when he joined the Sky Blues in 2021.
Grealish played an important role in last season's stunning treble triumph under Pep Guardiola, but he has found regular minutes hard to come by this campaign, with Jeremy Doku providing stiff competition on the left wing.
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They took him off when Gregory said they did though.
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The fact that Gregory seems pleased with himself that he was giving shit to a kid that had just turned 18 says everything you need to know about the twat.
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I guess if you're old enough to fall asleep drunk on a Spanish pavement, you're old enough to hear a bit of bad language on a football pitch.
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The Proper Football Men Club (of which Gregory would be a fully paid up member) would say that it's part of the game
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The Proper Football Men Club (of which Gregory would be a fully paid up member) would say that it's part of the game
Fair point. Seem to recall him accusing Ugo of slacking not long after he'd nearly lost an eye playing for him.
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If he's got the robbie keane deal over the line I'm sure things would have worked out better for Gregory and Villa.
Look at the career Keane had compared to Izzet. Muzzy got his big move to chelsea and hardly played, I expected a similar out come if he'd moved to B6. I distinctly remember at the time even Fergie was so rattled at Villa getting KEane he leaked some stuff to his friends in the press saying he wasn't worth the money. Fair play to Cov for paying the extra 500k, they more than doubled their money a few years later.
I've watched a couple of interviews with Gregory and he's mentioned Muzzey izzet but it surprises me he never mentioned Keane and it was a long "will he wont he" saga at the time especially when red face stuck his nose in. Keane was definatly the one who got away more than izzet and Junhinio.
Didn't Gregory fuck-up the Keane move? Pretty sure he says in his book that he went to see Keane in a pre-season friendly, he had a quiet game (the horror!) and Gregory decided not to ask Ellis for the half a million more that Wolves wanted.
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If he's got the robbie keane deal over the line I'm sure things would have worked out better for Gregory and Villa.
Look at the career Keane had compared to Izzet. Muzzy got his big move to chelsea and hardly played, I expected a similar out come if he'd moved to B6. I distinctly remember at the time even Fergie was so rattled at Villa getting KEane he leaked some stuff to his friends in the press saying he wasn't worth the money. Fair play to Cov for paying the extra 500k, they more than doubled their money a few years later.
I've watched a couple of interviews with Gregory and he's mentioned Muzzey izzet but it surprises me he never mentioned Keane and it was a long "will he wont he" saga at the time especially when red face stuck his nose in. Keane was definatly the one who got away more than izzet and Junhinio.
Didn't Gregory fuck-up the Keane move? Pretty sure he says in his book that he went to see Keane in a pre-season friendly, he had a quiet game (the horror!) and Gregory decided not to ask Ellis for the half a million more that Wolves wanted.
Alex Ferguson got to him, saying Keane wasn't worth the money. That was when he was worried about the Villa.
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Didn't Gregory make a comment about baring his arse in Rackhams if Keane did well in the Premier League?
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Didn't Gregory make a comment about baring his arse in Rackhams if Keane did well in the Premier League?
No, that was Footy.
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The fact that Gregory seems pleased with himself that he was giving shit to a kid that had just turned 18 says everything you need to know about the twat.
Have to say, this was my first thought when reading it. He sounded very proud of singling out a kid to bully from the sidelines.
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The Balaban deal was bizarre though , can’t believe we sanctioned it
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I guess if you're old enough to fall asleep drunk on a Spanish pavement, you're old enough to hear a bit of bad language on a football pitch.
😂
I thought Gregory was quite polite in the way he spoke to greasy, really.
Joe better hope that I'm nowhere near the touchline when he's there walking up the wing before stopping, passing backwards and sideways. Doing anything to avoid beating a man or scoring a goal.
The things I'd love to say to that fuckhead and his tit of a dad.