Alan Hutton the Scottish Cafu Retires

[RamboandBruno]

Good pro, seems a decent bloke, strikes me he'd always give his all on the pitch but was a limited player. The club treated him very badly it has to be said. At the same time he was poor in the PL for us, did well for us without being outstanding in the Championship and the fact no one took him on when he left us probably says a fair bit. If every player back then had his attitude we probably wouldn't have stunk the league out for years, if every player had his ability we'd probably have dropped a lot sooner.

I thought his positional sense in particular was very limited, the goal at Fulham in the play off final, which he referenced himself, being one example. I also remember sitting in the upper trinity for a change, against West Ham on Boxing day the year we got relegated. You clearly see there winger making advances forward but AL didn’t seem to be aware and they scored, there were many more examples of this. 

However, his self analysis is correct in my view in that he always tried his hardest, which is more than most of the players from 2011 to 2016/2017 seem to do.

Its a really lovely, warm, insightful and funny interview and he comes across as a top bloke who loves the Villa. If there is a new book written about Villas greatest players he wouldn’t be in it, but if someone wrote a book about the great Villa cult heroes, he may well make the top ten, in my lifetime anyway. Fair play to the Scottish Cafu. 

[AV82EC]

Nice bloke shit player in my view. Always tried but lacked positional sense and would go wandering around at times leading to acres of right back space for the opposition. Let’s also not forget he gets injured at Stoke away and then the 10 game winning run starts the next week, coincidence I think not.

His two best moments were turning into Roberto Carlos away at Hull and the goal against that lot.

[Risso]

His defensive play was generally OK for the Championship, but his final ball was usually appalling, which is why Elmo turned out to be the better option. Hutton's crosses into the box were usually wafty shite like an Ashley Westwood corner.

[Drummond]

Good pro, seems a decent bloke, strikes me he'd always give his all on the pitch but was a limited player. The club treated him very badly it has to be said. At the same time he was poor in the PL for us, did well for us without being outstanding in the Championship and the fact no one took him on when he left us probably says a fair bit. If every player back then had his attitude we probably wouldn't have stunk the league out for years, if every player had his ability we'd probably have dropped a lot sooner.

He says in the interview that he had offers but didn't want to a/ move or b/ take short term contracts and be surrounded by folk he didn't know.

He loved the Villa, the people and being part of the whole thing.

There are definitely some interesting insights in the interview, and differing perspectives of both the Garde thing, and the French/foreign players too.

I'm not surprised by his praise of Bruce, the man, because he always came across well, it's his football that lets him down.

[RamboandBruno]

Nice bloke shit player in my view. Always tried but lacked positional sense and would go wandering around at times leading to acres of right back space for the opposition. Let’s also not forget he gets injured at Stoke away and then the 10 game winning run starts the next week, coincidence I think not.

His two best moments were turning into Roberto Carlos away at Hull and the goal against that lot.

I agree he wasn’t the best but on a different level we’ve labelled a lot of the current players shit before they were coached properly. He worked under some appalling managers and although he really liked Bruce, none of them including Bruce would of helped him become a better player.

I also think you’ve made a jump with Huttons injury and the 10 game run, probably more to do with the return of a certain Jack Grealish the week after, than Huttons injury.

Overall as I’ve said myself he was a limited player, but your assessment is a bit harsh

[LeeB]

Good pro, seems a decent bloke, strikes me he'd always give his all on the pitch but was a limited player. The club treated him very badly it has to be said. At the same time he was poor in the PL for us, did well for us without being outstanding in the Championship and the fact no one took him on when he left us probably says a fair bit. If every player back then had his attitude we probably wouldn't have stunk the league out for years, if every player had his ability we'd probably have dropped a lot sooner.

He says in the interview that he had offers but didn't want to a/ move or b/ take short term contracts and be surrounded by folk he didn't know.

He loved the Villa, the people and being part of the whole thing.

There are definitely some interesting insights in the interview, and differing perspectives of both the Garde thing, and the French/foreign players too.

I'm not surprised by his praise of Bruce, the man, because he always came across well, it's his football that lets him down.

He spoke warmly of Bruce, but Tommy Elphick basically called him a two faced twat. I suppose it all comes down to your individual situations.

[brontebilly]

My memory of TSC is that he was awful in his first spell with us, went out on loan to IIRC Wolves, Forest and Mallorca - not necessarily in that order - and came back a vastly improved player. Loans can go either way of course cf Alli at Besiktas, but that set seemed to have done AH the world of good

Yep, there's definitely a bit of revisionism among supporters about Hutton. He was dreadful under McLeish, showed up completely unfit as he admits himself and was poor throughout. Lambert, dreadful as he was, wouldn't have bombed him out if he was any use. But he was a very good player for us under Bruce particularly. Did a great stint for us at left back including blotting out Adama Traore in a playoff semi final. Though he was arguably at fault for Fulham's winner in the final. Smith was right to move him on, Elmo was a more consistent performer.

[LeeB]

The job he did on Traore in that semi was probably his best game for us, it was a total shutdown of their only threat.

[London Villan]

He was a very average player, but gave everything. If a few more of the more talented players we had would have been committed as him, we would have never been relegated.

What did he say about Garde?

[Risso]

He was a very average player, but gave everything. If a few more of the more talented players we had would have been committed as him, we would have never been relegated.

What did he say about Garde?

Basically that he was doomed from the word go. There were frequent arguments between Garde and the players, at which Garde would just walk off. Used to get them to run around the car park at Bodymoor as a punishment if he wasn't happy.

[Ian.]

Sometimes I wonder if Garde wanted to be here after he signed up. obviously at that point we were a complete mess from top to bottom but I get the impression he wasn’t up for it either.

[Toronto Villa]

Garde came with a decent reputation from his time at Lyon. But between his management style and the complete group of wankers at the club he had no chance. And he didn't help himself in how he managed the situation.

I was listening to Gabby laughing on TS about how Roy Keane didn't have time for some of the antics amongst players. Now, Keane has his own issues, but fuck right off Gabby. Laughing about it now, while we all had to watch that fat ****** walking around the pitch, while with his mates embarrassed us off it also.

[algy]

Came out of that interview quite well, I thought.

Won't lie, it took me a few years to take to him, but he ended up becoming one of my favourite Villa players. He's the type of player I'd modelled myself after when I was younger - hard-working, aggressive, attacking fullback. Unfortunately I wasn't really any of those things except maybe aggressive.

[N'ZMAV]

he spoke higher about Bruce than any other manager. He clearly got on with McLeish. He hardly said a word about Smith, he didn't rate Garde

[brontebilly]

Garde came with a decent reputation from his time at Lyon. But between his management style and the complete group of wankers at the club he had no chance. And he didn't help himself in how he managed the situation.

I was listening to Gabby laughing on TS about how Roy Keane didn't have time for some of the antics amongst players. Now, Keane has his own issues, but fuck right off Gabby. Laughing about it now, while we all had to watch that fat ****** walking around the pitch, while with his mates embarrassed us off it also.

I can't really understand why we didn't just pay off the likes of Richards and Gabby to leave the club. The damage those two leeches must have caused as senior players.