Big John Carew- Cracking video.

[LeeB]

Chris Samba used to visibly wilt at the sight of him.

[tom jennings III]

Young, Gabby, Big JC, Laursen and Petrov all in one team, no wonder we were good!

[gnrpoison]

Isn't he one of the few villa players since 1992 to get two hat tricks for us, one against Reading in the cup and that wonderful second half display against Newcastle in 07/08 when we came from 1 nil down to win 4 -1 which is still one of fave matches to have been at in the last few years.

[SoccerHQ]

He scored one against Palace in the Fa cup the round before Reading aswell.

[supertom]

His record in the FA Cup was 11 goals in 10 appearences (8 starts). That we never made it past a semi while he was here was a shame really.

[willywombat]

Loved him and he loved us

[SoccerHQ]

His record in the FA Cup was 11 goals in 10 appearences (8 starts). That we never made it past a semi while he was here was a shame really.

Yeah the Palace game was the midweek before the league cup final, he didn't start the final, Heskey did which again was probably an error as Carew had that big game mentality.

[Irish villain]

That Newcastle 4-1 game is one of my favourite games since 2006. Actually, that season, 07/08, is probably my favourite of the Lerner era.

The 'expectation' wasn't quite there yet so we were thrilled with some wonderful wins, some great players, a high finish and I liked the kit.  2008/09 and 2009/10 were somewhat disappointing  by comparison. Up to Moscow I felt we could break the top four's stranglehold then the first doubts in the management surfaced and never went away. By 2009/10 we all knew Man City had arrived, Spurs were coming and we had hit a glass ceiling with MON.

[supertom]

His record in the FA Cup was 11 goals in 10 appearences (8 starts). That we never made it past a semi while he was here was a shame really.

Yeah the Palace game was the midweek before the league cup final, he didn't start the final, Heskey did which again was probably an error as Carew had that big game mentality.

I know. It frustrated me. By the time he came on, which is often the case with an MON substitution, it was too little too late. He's a big game player. Some strikers are okay in some regards but don't score many against the bigger clubs. Carew could score against anyone on a given day.
Heskey is similar to McLeish for me. Good guy. No grudge against him personally, but he shouldn't have been signed and represented a bleak period in our club on the whole. You could see in the space of O Neills last 18 months that Heskey was gradually becoming more favoured ahead of Carew. But as erratic as Big John could be (on and off the pitch I guess), you're still trading off 10-15 league goals a season for about 3 on a good year for Emile. Not only that but Carew would get more assists too, making the "team player" tag for Emile further obsolete.
The Emile signing to me basically confirmed that the top 4 would always be just out of reach and that eventually the better players would move clubs to achieve it. Then Heskey essentially headlines the sort of level of team quality he normally does, which in recent times had been at clubs in the bottom half. And it turned out that way, eventually the squad came more down to Heskey level too as the likes of Barry, Milner, Downing and Young all left. It's obviously not Emiles fault but he became something of a poster boy for a period of implosion. Furthermore it always felt on the cards even from the point O Neill joined. I always had this niggling feeling that at some point he'd sign Emile Heskey.

[Pat McMahon]

I liked Carew but I don't remember him scoring against the big boys - did he ever score against Man U, arsenal, Chelsea et al?

His second half performance at Reading was probably his best for us but my favourite was against the Blues in 2008 where he mangled them. I also think he gave us extra defensive ability at set pieces, something we lost after MON left.

One personal disappointment was that he didn't use his physique more against Terry. He never seemed to be able to dominate him, or evn slyly break his nose.

[dave.woodhall]

If he was more consistent he'd have been world-class, and come nowhere near us. He also looked like a monster yet never seemed to impose himself, and was always having niggling injuries.

[supertom]

I liked Carew but I don't remember him scoring against the big boys - did he ever score against Man U, arsenal, Chelsea et al?

His second half performance at Reading was probably his best for us but my favourite was against the Blues in 2008 where he mangled them. I also think he gave us extra defensive ability at set pieces, something we lost after MON left.

One personal disappointment was that he didn't use his physique more against Terry. He never seemed to be able to dominate him, or evn slyly break his nose.

He scored against Utd and Chelsea (we lost both, including that 7-1 tonking). Man City, Spurs (albeit before those two were top 4-5). Also famously tore Real Madrid apart before he joined us (He's scored 3 against them during his time at Lyon).

[SoccerHQ]

Without scoring he was also terrific in the 4-4 draw at Chelsea on boxing day 2007 and also Arsenal at VP a few weeks beforehand.

Yeah 07/08 was a fun season. Didn't we score 70 league goals that year. We also conceded a fair few once Carson lost his confidence after the England game.

[Ian.]

I really liked Carew, on his day he was brilliant for us. How many goals did Ashley set up too? Blimey he was also absolutely outstanding for us at times. I wish he stayed here and I'd have him back if he could recapture that form. I'm sure I could forget about that dive once for goals started going in again from his deliveries.

[Slaphead]

Yeah that video indicated what good service our forwards had, almost everything was set up by Young, Barry or Gabby.