The greatest period of untapped attacking ability? Between 01 and 02?

[supertom]

Just watching an old highlight vid for the game against Southampton in 2001. Some really brilliant goals. But it just made me remember a period in time for our club when we had a wealth of fantastic attacking ability, and in many cases we never saw the best of those players. In fact despite some of the players Gregory signed, he was never known as a very attack orientated manager.

We had a squad which had:
Ginola
Hadji
Merson
Hendrie
Angel
Vassell

Among others.
Even on top of that, we had Dion Dublin and Tayls too, who were both reliable. Barry was breaking through too.
We had some good defenders at the back too, and good keepers around that period.

I know JG is generally quite popular, and in a couple of his seasons we spent a fair chunk of time in the heady heights at the top of the league before faltering but should we not have been doing better with such talent? Could you imagine if he'd have got the most out of all the technically gifted attacking players at our disposal. In particular it's frustrating that Ginola and Hadji never produced anywhere close to their best form.

[glasses]

Angel and Vassell probably did the best for us out of that list.

Ginola was past his best. I never rated Hendrie. Merson did ok but was on the decline, and Hadji. meh.

If I remember Taylor had an injury around that time and was never the same again, and you could possibly say the same for Dublin after the neck break.

[supertom]

Angel and Vassell probably did the best for us out of that list.

Ginola was past his best. I never rated Hendrie. Merson did ok but was on the decline, and Hadji. meh.

If I remember Taylor had an injury around that time and was never the same again, and you could possibly say the same for Dublin after the neck break.

I've always thought Hendrie could have been a brilliant player for us, instead of just a nearly man. He looked really good when he first broke through. Actually I felt he always player better on the left hand side, cutting in, but we didn't play him their much after his first couple of seasons.
Maybe he lost all his ability when he lost his curtains???

I guess too when you're talking about players like Ginola and Hadji, to some extent Merson, they're individual types of players, a bit mercurial. You can normally only afford 1 or 2 of them in a good side.

[ADVILLAFAN]

Hadji was always played out of position, which wasn't his fault. I remember him playing left-back at one stage.

Ginola was cack for us, incredibly one-footed.

[supertom]

On an old copy of Pro Evo somewhere, we've got a hell of a side around this era. lol.

If Ginola still ran and took people on.

If Hadji did anything.

If Vassell had more confidence and composure.

If Gregory was a better man manager.

Also looking at the list of players we had during that period (and thrown in the likes of Stone, Alpay, Balabobbins and Watson too) it has to dispel a myth that Herbert never spent any money. We spent a shite load back then.

[Damo70]

I never felt that Ginola's heart was in it. I think he still had the hump at Spurs for flogging him and instead of trying to prove them wrong he just sulked.

[PeterWithesShin]

Also looking at the list of players we had during that period (and thrown in the likes of Stone, Alpay, Balabobbins and Watson too) it has to dispel a myth that Herbert never spent any money. We spent a shite load back then.

Most of it was the Yorke and NTL money if memory serves.

[supertom]

Also looking at the list of players we had during that period (and thrown in the likes of Stone, Alpay, Balabobbins and Watson too) it has to dispel a myth that Herbert never spent any money. We spent a shite load back then.

Most of it was the Yorke and NTL money if memory serves.

Still at least Doug didn't spend it all on a team of scientists to work around the clock, inventing the bicycle kick for him.

[dave.woodhall]

Also looking at the list of players we had during that period (and thrown in the likes of Stone, Alpay, Balabobbins and Watson too) it has to dispel a myth that Herbert never spent any money. We spent a shite load back then.

"Enough to make Villa good, but never enough to make them great."

[saunders_heroes]

Angel and Vassell probably did the best for us out of that list.

Ginola was past his best. I never rated Hendrie. Merson did ok but was on the decline, and Hadji. meh.

If I remember Taylor had an injury around that time and was never the same again, and you could possibly say the same for Dublin after the neck break.

Angel better for us than Merson? Na, never.

[supertom]

Also looking at the list of players we had during that period (and thrown in the likes of Stone, Alpay, Balabobbins and Watson too) it has to dispel a myth that Herbert never spent any money. We spent a shite load back then.

"Enough to make Villa good, but never enough to make them great."

Yep. Particularly the times under JG we were top. We just needed that one more decent signing to really help hold onto it, but it never quite came.
IIRC we were top in 98-99 for quite a well. Ehiogu got injured and we kind of fell apart around the time. A signing like Mellberg a year earlier might have helped cover the loss of Ugo who was brilliant that season.
Who knows what might have been.

[Pete3206]

Angel and Vassell probably did the best for us out of that list.

Ginola was past his best. I never rated Hendrie. Merson did ok but was on the decline, and Hadji. meh.

If I remember Taylor had an injury around that time and was never the same again, and you could possibly say the same for Dublin after the neck break.

Angel better for us than Merson? Na, never.

Your having a giraffe mate.

[Deano's Mullet]

At the start of 02-03 our strike force consisted of Angel, Vassell, Crouch, Dublin, Allback. You'd have thought that lot would go goal crazy but only Dublin hit double figures in the league and Allback only got a decent run of games and goals towards the end.

[eric woolban woolban]

We've had so many nearly moments it's untrue.

[Irish villain]

We've had so many nearly moments it's untrue.

Between 1995-2002.... we could have achieved so much. We were consistently top eight those years and made two finals. Would have been great to get in ahead of the new money clubs like Chelsea and City.