Let's not forget Tony Barton

[PeterWithesShin]

Although i've mellowed a fair bit towards Doug over the years, whenever I think of Barton and how the club (Ellis) treated him, all the old hatred comes back. And I can well imagine there is a lot more than what I know or have heard.

[dave.woodhall]

Although i've mellowed a fair bit towards Doug over the years, whenever I think of Barton and how the club (Ellis) treated him, all the old hatred comes back. And I can well imagine there is a lot more than what I know or have heard.

My feelings exactly.

[PeterWithesShin]

[Pat McMahon]

For his role in keeping the focus for a group of players who had known only one manager and were struggling to find form that season, Tony Barton deserves the highest praise. From all I have ever heard he was also a complete gentleman and was thoroughly proud of being a Villa manager and very aware of the club’s tradition and heritage. He was also very unlucky in the summer of 83 when signing McMahon and Rideout as Sid suffered that awful pre-season injury, depriving him of a potentially excellent central midfield.

 One of my great unanswered questions about the Villa is what would have happened if Ron Saunders had stayed. Our League form during the 81-82 season was very poor and my belief for several years was that we would not have gone on to glory in Rotterdam, and Tony Barton had picked the players up when he took over.  IIRC he had previously been our chief scout so had a good reserve of knowledge of European opponents and had decent tactical awareness too.

Can somebody please remind me when his testimonial was held.  I think I was living in France at the time and in those heady pre-internet days I have no recollection of it at all.

[eastie]

Doug has done a lot of good things for the club during his reign but no doubt he has also been ruthless at times and treated people like tony in a despicable way, ultimately tony barton will forever be known as the man who led us to the european cup win whereas doug will be remembered as the man who held us back on many occasions and our most successful years were during his abscence.

[nigel]

When it comes to the way he was treated you don't know half.

I'm really pleased that I started this thread.
Thanks for the replys, it's opened my eyes to a few things.
Maybe we ought to have a Saunders & Barton statue at the ground next to McGegor?
Over to you Randy.......

[kipeye]

Always fondly remembered by me and anyone who was a fan at the time. Have to say that I never thought he would pull off winning the cup and he was definitely handed a poisoned chalice at the time. I also never forgot Herbert and his ego. His treatment of Tony can only be put down to jealousy and pique.

[Big Dick Edwards]

Maybe we ought to have a Saunders & Barton statue at the ground next to McGegor?
Over to you Randy.......

Or change the name of the Witton Lane stand to The Tony Barton stand.
Ellis might appreciate the irony..

[badluckeric(gates)]

I'd like to echo some of the points above, fondly remembered. Also one of my best non footballing nights was the Tony Barton Memorial dinner on Monday 5th December 1994.
I have the menu in front of me right now. Keep it in my office draw.
It was the Euro winning squad and the (then) current day squad (including Yorkie, Deano etc.). We had the old guard on one big round table, and the newbies on another and they played the video of the final during dinner.
Much banter!! and a chance to shake hands and get autographs with my hero's, Sid, Des etc..
Were any of you there and what were your memories, as an aside I remember Gary Parker turning up late in a shocking White suit!

[not3bad]

Maybe we ought to have a Saunders & Barton statue at the ground next to McGegor?
Over to you Randy.......

Or change the name of the Witton Lane stand to The Tony Barton stand.
Ellis might appreciate the irony..

Maybe this is what the redeveloped North Stand could be called?

[ktvillan]

I seem to recall Saunders was quoted as saying,  perhaps a little arrogantly,  that the team he'd built was so well drilled and professional that it could run itself for 18 months, regardless of who they put in charge.  And I also seem to recall we were already in the QF of the big Cup when Saunders walked out.  However Barton deserves credit for not trying to fix what wasn't broken and maintaining the spirit of what Saunders had built.  It could have gone badly wrong and Barton did well to ensure that it didn't.  I think he was starting to rebuild us quite nicely as the 1982 heroes were passing their best but never got the chance to see how it panned out.  I can't recall that much about how he and his family were treated by Ellis but I've heard it was pretty bad.  It seems Ellis was and still is quite vitriolic towards anything that might remind people of how successful Villa were while he was out of the boardroom.       

[nigel]

Maybe we ought to have a Saunders & Barton statue at the ground next to McGegor?
Over to you Randy.......

Or change the name of the Witton Lane stand to The Tony Barton stand.
Ellis might appreciate the irony..

Now, I would love to see that happen.
More realistically would be to rename the redeveloped North Stand though.
The 'Ron Saunders Holte End' and the 'Tony Barton Stand'
Once again, over to you Randy

[ez]

I remember the minute silence at the next home game after his death. We were playing man utd. Ron Saunders came back to villa park for the testamonial.

[Ray Graydon]

A Great topic Nigel & some great comments about a man whose name as mentioned before is alongside the legends of the game.
Tony was  treated appallingly by Doug but always maintained his dignity & the comments here are testimony to what he did for our club & hopefully his name & achievements will live a lot longer in Villa's history than Doug's.

[Legion]

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