Never meet your hero

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Met Chris Nicholl in a service station on way back from Southampton where he had been doing some hospitality work,a brilliant man.He was having a meat and potato pie and invited us to sit with him and talked about the Villa for ages.Think we drew 2 all and conceded a last minute goal some things never change

Heard from a few people about what a nice bloke he is.

Everybody seems to meet him at the petrol station too.

[Legion]

He is. I see him regularly at Sainsbury's in Reedswood.

[TopDeck113]

John Slueewenhoek used to call at our house each week in the early 70s to deliver Villa bingo tickets for Dad to sell at Longbridge and his local pub (in Oldbury, so not many takers there).  His visit was the highlight of my mum's week.

highlight of mums week eh??? pfnarr pfnarr

Always wore a hat... or was it a Dutch cap?

[Bernie]

Met Chris Nicholl in a service station on way back from Southampton where he had been doing some hospitality work,a brilliant man.He was having a meat and potato pie and invited us to sit with him and talked about the Villa for ages.Think we drew 2 all and conceded a last minute goal some things never change

  Sorry but just makes me think of when Alan Partridge met Dan
 

 

Agree that Chris N was a great Villa man - I was at Leicester for the 2-2 & have many other great memories of his work

[Apyadg]

He wasn't my hero, certainly not back then, but I met Gareth Barry before he was getting games for the first team, in the burns unit at Selly Oak hospital, the club sent him and Darius Vassell to meet a young villa fan who'd been caught in a house fire.

Darius seemed like a nice bloke, though I had no bloody idea who he was. Gareth was alright too. Unfortunately he took one look at the kid and fainted.

[Sexual Ealing]

I met Ian Taylor again Saturday, bloody legend, my mate took the bloody picture and I had my bloody eyes closed

Did you meet him in Chickentown?

Ha! Very good.

I've met JCC a few times and he's a gent.

[MadJohnnyC]

On the day prior to "Mellberg Day", I was strolling along Canary Wharf wearing my Villa Shirt when i spotted Reo-Coker, Zat Knight, and Stiliyan Petrov sitting outside a hotel. Now at this point I want to stress i didn't go out of my way to go over to them they were sitting to my immediate right as i was heading to my destination (pub!).

"Bloody hell, here's a surprise, hello lads how are you? Confident for tomorrow?" Was my line.

At which point Reo-Coker drew his phone out of his pocket and pretended to text somebody. Zat Knight muttered "yeah" and Stan turned around to offer his hand. All three then left me standing there like a plum with no attempt to make two way conversation so I just said "Oh right, good luck then" and walked off with all my faith in modern day footballers destroyed. I spend my wages and weekend away for 90 minutes with them and they can't be arsed to return two minutes of their time.

Fortunately Olof restored my faith with the free Villa shirt the following day.

Stan saves a bit of face with the handshake and smile, But Reo-Coker and Knight were full blown ******.

[silhillvilla]

Ive bumped into Jools Holland twice, once in a caravan park in Kent and a lift in Bristol
& Met Ron Saunders twice, both times in Solihull in sainsburys and at the driving range. The second time he even stopped for a chat

[Apyadg]

Stan saves a bit of face with the handshake and smile, But Reo-Coker and Knight were full blown c***s.

Stan's usually really good, I've only met him once and had a quick chat, but a few mates have met him and he's usually got plenty of time for fans. I'm not surprised about Reo Coker, he's well known as a bit of a bellend. Would have thought Knight would have had a bit more time for fellow Villa fans though..

At any club 95% of the players are arrogant bellends with no real affection for the fans. Of the current squad, the only players who I think would give some of their time if fans approach them are Gabby, Petrov and Albrighton.

Mellberg is probably the player I've met who was most generous with his time, he'd already left Villa when I had a chance to see him, and he was really happy to stop, talk, signed something for a nephew and talked about the Villa, he also seemed genuinely pleased when I told him I wore the shirt I'd got at the WH game to every match. A lot of players are a lot more generous with their time when they leave a club or retire, maybe they're just more grateful for the attention when they're not being bothered by fans every single day.

[Percy McCarthy]

My mate often tells the story of when he met Ginola, Hadji and Kachloul up town. He says that while the other two were a bit off, Ginola was real gent who got them to autograph a napkin and even made them print their names underneath their signatures so my mate's son could tell who's was who's.

Another pal of mine (bluenose, proper nawty) told me that he saw Gareth Barry out one night in Solihull. GB had been accosted by some pissed up Villa fans who were singing and generally getting on a few noses nerves. The noses confronted them and chased them all off; my mate went after Gazza, but couldn't catch him. 'I'm surprised you never caught him' I said, 'he's as slow as fuck'.

'Perc', he replied, 'he's a 25-year-old professional athlete. I'm a 40-year-old drug addict. Of course I couldn't catch him'.

[silhillvilla]

I also met Julian Dicks up solihull on a night out at the height of his playing career with Liverpool
Total lunatic, was wearing a bobby dazzler orange knitted jumper I recall

[Dave Clark Five]

I saw Ron 'Chopper' Harris in Solihull. They all seem to go there.
Back in time our football club asked Ron Saunders to present our trophies at the awards night. At late notice, we were told he could no longer come. Ron was replaced by Doug Ellis who was very good. We also had Charlie Aitken one year and then Gary Newbon.

[Risso]

I met Big Ron walking his dogs in the Lickey Hills a few days before the 94 League Cup win.

[JJ-AV]

When we played Odense in the Intertoto a few years back I met Djemba-Djemba in Odense town centre the day after the game.

I say met, I'm not one for talking to 'famous' people. My mate got a photo with him though, and he seemed nice enough.

[russon]

I live in a house that Terry Bullivant used to live in. I've never met him but nice to know I lay cables where an ex Villa player used to lay them