2005 Article by Harry Kartz - Villa will miss Doug.

[Dave Clark Five]

Villa will miss Doug
14 Jul 2005
VILLA'S chairman in the season they last won the League Championship believes the club will be much poorer without Doug Ellis at the helm.

VILLA'S chairman in the season they last won the League Championship believes the club will be much poorer without Doug Ellis at the helm.

Ellis is expected to be absent for six months after undergoing triple heart bypass surgery last month.

But according to Harry Kartz, who spent 16 years on the Villa board and was chairman from 1979 to 1981, Ellis will be back - and stronger than ever.

The Hockley-born 91-year-old actually sided with Ron and Don Bendall to oust Ellis from the board following a 1979 power struggle which saw Doug head for Birmingham City and Wolves.

But he admits that Ellis has always had the best interests of Villa at heart, and they only ever fell out because they both felt they could run the club better than the manager!

Kartz said: "I saw Doug just a month or so ago and he looked very well and was still busily working away.

"He is pretty strong. He's got tremendous willpower and I'm very optimistic about how he will cope after this operation.

"He doesn't let things like this worry him and he'll want to be back at Villa Park next week!

"Steve Stride is very experienced and is a solid individual. He's been there a long time and Villa are in safe hands.

"There won't be a crisis down there, that's the way things have been set up by Doug.

"The club is on some very sound footings - there are good men there.

"And I don't think it has been that bad a time for Villa, in any case, it's just that the team don't score enough goals."

Kartz and Ellis had been business acquaintances long before Doug was appointed chairman on December 16, 1968, after Pat Matthews' buy-out.

"We had horses together," he recalls.

Kartz's horse, Wellington Bomber, even finished third in the Irish 2000 Guineas.

He said: "Doug and myself both think we know everything. And we both thought that we knew more than the manager.

"I've mellowed a lot. I get on with everyone now.

"But back then Doug, Ron Saunders and myself all wanted to be the boss. But you can't get away from the fact that Doug is one hell of a businessman.

"You can bet your life on Doug."

Kartz revealed that, unlike Ellis, he had always been a reluctantchairman himself.

"I was chairman for two years, but I wasn't a good one - I hated the publicity," he said. "Ron Bendall had the majority shareholding and he had asked me.

"I offered it to Eric Houghton but he wouldn't take it."

Kartz looks back with a great deal of affection on those heady days at Villa.

"I've had a good life," he says. "Sport has been everything for me.

"I even met my wife, Dorothy, through football and we've been married 65 years. I've been very lucky.

"Villa were always my team and it's been 85 years since I first went there.

"I was the only one left from the original Ellis board when Villa won the European Cup.

"I was in America on business during the final, but I think I played my part in putting together that side."

Kartz, as deputy chairman, joined Bob Mackay and former first-teamer Harry Parkes on Ellis' first board with Tommy Docherty brought in as team manager.

He recalls: "I had been in the Villa Shareholders Association and was one of the leading lights invited in by Matthews, the president.

"We were a good bunch. I had the job of funding a sports ground and Mackay found us Bodymoor Heath.

"I was in charge of the youth set-up. Tommy Docherty, as manager, sent me up to Scotland to see Jimmy Brown, a young lad up there who was wanted by Arsenal.

"But we also brought in crackers like John Gidman and Brian Little.

"Peter Doherty was our chief scout from July 1968 to October 1970 and when we signed Brian he told us: "He's got it - don't let anyone coach it out of him!"

"We took three or four players out of the Scottish youth set-up, including Brown."

Kartz resigned the chair in 1981 - the year they won the title - after falling out with Ron Saunders over a signing.

He said: "They were great times. We were very lucky as we had some very good managers.

"Tommy Docherty brought the place back to life. He had personality.

"Vic Crowe was very unlucky. There was that goal disallowed at Leicester that came out after hitting the stanchion."

Villa lost 1-0 in April 1970 and despite beating both Middlesbrough and Sheffield United in their final two matches were relegated to the old Third Division.

Kartz went on: "Then Ron Saunders was excellent. The players he signed all came for peanuts. He was a hard man, but a great manager.

"It is the manager who runs a club and he did that very, very well.

"Jimmy Rimmer was a great keeper and one of the best signings, in my opinion, was Des Bremner, who was a powerhouse. Ron turned Kenny Swain from a winger to a defender. Then there was Ken McNaught and Tony Morley. The list goes on."

Kartz revealed he resigned the chair after falling out with Saunders over his proposed move for Mick Ferguson from Coventry City.

Kartz gently persuaded the manager to instead go for Nottingham Forest's Peter Withe who eventually signed for #500,000 in May 1980.

"We had a disagreement," he recalls. "He wanted to take Ferguson, but I'd seen him play and wasn't impressed.

"I don't regret not letting him sign Ferguson. Withe was a far better player than Ferguson would ever be.

"Withe had been terrific at Forest. You daren't say to any manager 'sign this player' but Withe set up so many goals for the likes of Gary Shaw.

"But I feel that a club must have a chairman who is able to get on with his manager, so I asked Ron Bendall to take over.

"Then Bendall went to the Isle of Man to live, so we had our arguments over that."

Kartz bitterly regrets the fact that Saunders quit Villa for Blues at a time when Villa really could have challenged Liverpool to become the team of the 1980s.

He said: "I bumped into him at John Robson's funeral. He looked well and we had a long chat.

"He was one of the best - right up there with Bill Shankly and Brian Clough for what he did at Villa.

"When he left I told Ron Bendall we mustn't get a new manager in. When that happens they get rid of players to get their own in and alter the set-up.

"So we went with Tony Barton and won the European Cup. Then Doug sacked Barton in May 1984. We got a new manager (Graham Turner) and a new set-up."

Kartz doesn't blame Ellis for Barton's hasty demise.

He said: "That's Doug's prerogative. He does what he wants to do. He owned the club.

"The general public don't know what goes on in the Villa boardroom.

"I read in a book recently 'Harry Kartz appointed the managers but Bendall had the real power' - that was rubbish.

"He never knew anything of what was going on day-to-day.

"But I still say that I wasn't a good chairman. I could never do what Doug does. He has been great for the club."

[Dave Clark Five]

I sat by Harry Kartz on the flight to Bucharest, well he kept coming in to our section from the VIP area. He brought half of the players in, one by one. Lovely bloke. Last time I saw him, in Solihull, he looked as sprightly as ever.

[Ron Manager]

Is Harry still alive DC5?. I always liked him.

[dave shelley]

Harry Kartz used to call to the place I worked regularly on business.  As said, he was a gentleman, always polite and willing to talk Villa without giving too much away.  A nice man.

Isn't there an error in that piece though?  Didn't we sign Peter Withe from Newcastle?  I remember being displeased at the time.  Shows how much I know, sorry Peter, you were the man.

[dave.woodhall]

He was still alive a couple of years ago and there's not been anything reported about him that I've seen since then.

[Dave Clark Five]

I think he lived / lives in Dorridge. He did our football presentation for us once.

[eamonn]

So, that Mick Ferguson chap,  was he a dud we dodged in what sounds like a similar situation to the Teddy Sheringham/Tony Cascarino one a decade or so later (except we bought the wrong one on that occasion)?

[Damo70]

So, that Mick Ferguson chap,  was he a dud we dodged in what sounds like a similar situation to the Teddy Sheringham/Tony Cascarino one a decade or so later (except we bought the wrong one on that occasion)?

Howard Kendall bought him as one of his first signings for Everton in '81. He also bought Alan Biley from Derby to partner him and they both flopped. But now comes the good bit. Ferguson ended up at Blues under Saunders. Until they decided to loan him back to his old club Coventry. During which time he scored a last day goal that kept Coventry up and sent Blues down. It has been mentioned on here a number of times, but it is nice to repeat the story every so often.

[Ron Manager]

Alan Biley?  Do you mean Alan Buckley?

[Damo70]

Alan Biley?  Do you mean Alan Buckley?

No, definately the distinctive haired Alan Biley. He went to Portsmouth after Everton. Alan Buckley wasn't good enough to play for the noses for long, let alone Everton.

[Chico Hamilton III]

Alan Biley?  Do you mean Alan Buckley?

Alan Biley. Looked like a cross between Rod Stewart and the lead singer of Sweet, if I remember

[eamonn]

So, that Mick Ferguson chap,  was he a dud we dodged in what sounds like a similar situation to the Teddy Sheringham/Tony Cascarino one a decade or so later (except we bought the wrong one on that occasion)?

Howard Kendall bought him as one of his first signings for Everton in '81. He also bought Alan Biley from Derby to partner him and they both flopped. But now comes the good bit. Ferguson ended up at Blues under Saunders. Until they decided to loan him back to his old club Coventry. During which time he scored a last day goal that kept Coventry up and sent Blues down. It has been mentioned on here a number of times, but it is nice to repeat the story every so often.

Crackin' tale succinctly told. Not heard it before. Cheers our kid.