Assorted Doug-isms

[Chico Hamilton III]

These are all genuine quotes from newspaper interviews down the years.

"The day I am not able to hold my own with all the young whipper snappers in this business, then I'll call it a day" - I don't know why, but I can't help reading this without slipping into a Mr Burns impression

"Only women and horses work for nothing"

"I've treated him like a son and we've looked after him very well" ( on Paul McGrath)

"He is like a son to me" ( on Brian Little)

"He's been like a son to me. I was with our former manager Graham Taylor when we spotted Dwight playing in a local game in Tobago when he was 17" ( on Dwight Yorke)

"this man is like a son to me" ( on Stan Collymore)

"He was like a son to me" ( on Graham Turner)

"I have known Randy for many years. He is, in many ways, like a son to me. More importantly, he is a dear friend"

"At all times I supported him, he was like a son to me" ( on Abdul Rashid)

[big 1st serve]

Cant remember the exact quote,
At the time of the sale of the club , I,m sure Mr Learner gave Doug a gift
 which was a piece of Cleveland Browns headwear.
  So therefore Doug could converse with all & sundry about Randy,s helmet..............

[TheTimVilla]

And his rear offence.

[Can Gana Be Bettered!?!?]

Naming a stand after himself.

[Chico Hamilton III]

Cant remember the exact quote,
At the time of the sale of the club , I,m sure Mr Learner gave Doug a gift
 which was a piece of Cleveland Browns headwear.
  So therefore Doug could converse with all & sundry about Randy,s helmet..............

I found this in a Daily Mail article from 2006

FORMER Aston Villa chairman Doug Ellis unwittingly brought the house down at a gala dinner in his honour while recounting how American gridiron club owner Randy Lerner had presented him with a Cleveland Browns headguard during their takeover talks.

Doug said: 'When the other bidders saw Randy's helmet lying on the desk , they knew they had no chance!'

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

Good old Deadly, he helped save us in 1968 and we loved him.
 Then he stayed on too long and we fell out of love with him.
 Since he stepped down I think we have made up with each other again.
 But remember, this is the man who claims to have invented the bicycle kick !
Now when he talks he certainly doesnt sound like me and probably not you either, and maybe thats why some dont think he's a supporter like us. But whenever I watch this, he looks like one of us.


   

[Deano's Mullet]

Ron Atkinson is one of the top three managers in England.

The Preem-e-are-ship.

[andyaston]

Great footballer aswell, he invented the bicycle kick..

[eric woolban woolban]

Didn't he refer to Pete Colley from Sky Sports News as the 'Big C'

[Lucky Eddie]

Hospital Bedgate - great sentiment but a sad reflection of both Aston Villa and early nineties England.

[Uncle Junior]

You may have heard this before but during his reign at VP no one was allowed to call the dug out "the dug out" For obvious reasons.

[curiousorange]

I don't like Doug Ellis in the same way that I don't like the Queen - both irrelevant symbols of an age that has outstayed its welcome (IMO, before we get into a Monarchist/Republican schism). But I can also tolerate them because they don't do me any harm.

And I reckon that clip of Ellis shaking Abramovich's hand absolves the old coot for some of the inertia our club went through during most of his tenure.

[OldUser]

An old farmer told me a nice story about Doug today. Back in the heady days of his/Pat Matthews takeover, some plumber mates of said farmer volunteered to go to Villa Park and sort the pipes out. They did this for nothing, and also numerous subsequent returns (often on match days) to fix things.

By way of a thankyou all four blokes were given "life" season tickets by Doug, which he has honoured for all to their dying day, with one left now, and Doug still paying for it. The old farmer is a nose, by the way, not that that has anything to do with the price of fish or Marillion.

[kipeye]

Did he have the other three killed Ian? Nice story for a change.

[KevinGage]

There was a report beyond parody in one of the broadsheets soon after Gregory took over.

Or more accurately, the first close season after JG took over. There had been plenty of talk at the time of a senior General Manager/ Director of Football to bridge the gap between the board and football personnel. Bobby Robson and Terry Venables were early favourites for the role.

HDE had other ideas.

Quoting from memory so might not be verbatim, but it was along the lines of: "We looked at a number of alternatives. In the current climate, we needed someone with extensive knowledge and contacts in the domestic game, who also kept abreast of the game in Europe and further beyond.

"After careful consideration, we decided the best man for the job was...me"