Mistakes and missed opportunities

[not3bad]

3. its a common theme, come back up under taylor and come second. drop off the radar under venglos but back again under ron. 92/93 second when we should have won the league only to fall away totally the next.

I'm sure Ron Atkinson, in one interview, listed the targets he identified to build on the runners up position in 92/93, then listed the players he had to 'settle for' (one of whom was Andy Townsend).  Having said that it should be noted that Atkinson came close to winning the title a couple of times when he was at Man Utd but failed, so it could be argued that 2nd/3rd was the ceiling for his teams in the league.

[Steve R]

Great post Dave. It was a similar story in the 60's. The decade when footballers became film stars, as did some managers and European football added a new dimension to a game that suddenly became awash with money. It all passed us by then as well.

The team that won the cup were relegated two years later. We appointed a manager, Joe Mercer, who revamped the youth system whilst developing a first team good enough to get us promoted and push the country's top 6. It should have been a new dawn but it all went nipples up very quickly.

Joe went on to manage another club out of the second division and this time go on to win the league, league cup, fa cup and cup winners cup. It was an almost unique period of meritorious success in Manchester City's history. Meanwhile we missed the boat big time as we dropped down to the third division.

If only our supreme achievement of the 20th century had come a dozen years earlier or a dozen years later when football was thoroughly fashionable.

I think the truth is that there have been many times in the last 50 years when we have reached a fork in the road and some daemon or other has been there to give us a firm shove in the wrong direction. We are a big club, opportunity seemingly cannot help coming along every now and then. We've just never been big enough at the time to bite its hand off.

[Archbishop Herbert Cockthrottle]

We're starting to sound like Bloos fans now.

[dave.woodhall]

3. its a common theme, come back up under taylor and come second. drop off the radar under venglos but back again under ron. 92/93 second when we should have won the league only to fall away totally the next.

I'm sure Ron Atkinson, in one interview, listed the targets he identified to build on the runners up position in 92/93, then listed the players he had to 'settle for' (one of whom was Andy Townsend).  Having said that it should be noted that Atkinson came close to winning the title a couple of times when he was at Man Utd but failed, so it could be argued that 2nd/3rd was the ceiling for his teams in the league.

When you and Manchester United are going for a player, they've just won the league and the media are praising the beginning of a Thousand Year Reich, who's he going to join? As he also said, when we were in for Shearer our top player was on about £4k a week and Jack Walker's money meant Blackburn could offer him fifteen. Ron won cups with three clubs and just missed out on the title with three. That maybe says a lot about how he handles constant pressure as opposed to the one-offs.   

[saunders_heroes]

3. its a common theme, come back up under taylor and come second. drop off the radar under venglos but back again under ron. 92/93 second when we should have won the league only to fall away totally the next.

I'm sure Ron Atkinson, in one interview, listed the targets he identified to build on the runners up position in 92/93, then listed the players he had to 'settle for' (one of whom was Andy Townsend).  Having said that it should be noted that Atkinson came close to winning the title a couple of times when he was at Man Utd but failed, so it could be argued that 2nd/3rd was the ceiling for his teams in the league.

Townsend was a bloody good player for us and we were all delighted to sign him at the time. I wish we could "settle for" players like him now.

[tomd2103]

That is an excellent post from Dave Woodhall.

It's easy to forget what life was like under Doug. We did have a few success stories with him Graham Taylor, Ron Atkinson and Brian Little and very nearly John Gregory. These little glimmers of hope do help erase the bad things from your memory from those years. One other thing to remember during the Doug Ellis years is Football was a completely different animal to what it is now.

I do wish MON was not appointed the role to take us into this new era under Randy. In hindsight he was the wrong man to give all that power too. When we got MON I was over the moon and I fell into the same trap as Randy probably did with the mighty flawless reputation he carried. What we really needed to do from the beginning of Randy's reign is a probably closer to the project Lambert is trying now. To try and build something to last. However we would have been able to add the extra bits of experience and quality as well.

Which begs the question, with the benefit of hindsight, who should Randy have appointed as manager when he took over?

I remember the excitement on the evening when it was announced that O'Neill had been appointed.  I don't think many of the supporters congregated on the North Stand car park would have argued with that decision at the time.   

[dave.woodhall]

I said on here that O'Neill wasn't the great saviour he was held up as, and in one of my very rare accurate predictions I said he'd get us top six but not top four. There wasn't much point in not joining in with the general feeling, though.

Incidentally, does anyone remember the Nicholas Padfield bid and who they were going to bring in as manager?

[nigel]

I said on here that O'Neill wasn't the great saviour he was held up as, and in one of my very rare accurate predictions I said he'd get us top six but not top four. There wasn't much point in not joining in with the general feeling, though.

Incidentally, does anyone remember the Nicholas Padfield bid and who they were going to bring in as manager?

Was this the chap who was going to bring in Klinnsman?
Probably wrong, but, I do remember Klinnsman being mentioned.

[Ian.]

That is an excellent post from Dave Woodhall.

It's easy to forget what life was like under Doug. We did have a few success stories with him Graham Taylor, Ron Atkinson and Brian Little and very nearly John Gregory. These little glimmers of hope do help erase the bad things from your memory from those years. One other thing to remember during the Doug Ellis years is Football was a completely different animal to what it is now.

I do wish MON was not appointed the role to take us into this new era under Randy. In hindsight he was the wrong man to give all that power too. When we got MON I was over the moon and I fell into the same trap as Randy probably did with the mighty flawless reputation he carried. What we really needed to do from the beginning of Randy's reign is a probably closer to the project Lambert is trying now. To try and build something to last. However we would have been able to add the extra bits of experience and quality as well.

Which begs the question, with the benefit of hindsight, who should Randy have appointed as manager when he took over?

Bugger if I knows! Nowadays, outside the realms of Villa my awareness of football is very limited.  I was extremely excited with the appointment originally but when you look back on the money spent and wasted it is disappointing.

[Ads]

Laudrup.

[mattjpa]

I know it has been mentioned before but our biggest mistake of recent times was Randy not appointing an advisor at the time of taking over - someone who had experience of managing or owning a football club at the top level. The beautiful game is littered with chancers and sharks and it still irks me that at the time of our biggest ever take over and impetus of serious cash injection we gave free reign to MON - The manchester united manager in waiting.
A glorious opportunity was wasted and the shock waves are still being felt now

[yaliekins]

Slightly away from the OP, but would the Villa be as much of a lucrative prospect to buy as we think it would? We have a fantastic stadium and training facilities but unless we had an owner that would be actively trying to sell I think there are other clubs out there who may attract more interest. In terms of the attendance, we have a huge fanbase but that doesn't necessarily translate to gate receipts for a prospective owner. I'm pretty sure we're 8th in attendance league table, sat below Sunderland who had a higher average attendance than us this year despite having been bottom for pretty much the whole season. Not to mention the fact that there are clubs like Newcastle who have fanatical support and a bigger stadium, West Ham who are based in London and will be getting a glistening new stadium to move into etc. Having said all of that I don't think I'd want a Red Rom or Sheikh (or even worse, a Vincent Tan) coming in, I'd never want to go to a game expecting to win 4 or 5 and being pissed off at anything less.

As has been ponted out, I think Moscow was the big one that I can remember in my 15 years of going to the Villa. That was absolutely criminal. Of course, he could have sent his best team and had the same result but if we had progressed to even the final I believe we would have built from there and be on a par with (if not above) Everton now. Having said that, I don't think we'd have broken the top 4 since then no matter what happened due to the ineptitude of Faulkner, Lerner et al. 

[dave.woodhall]

Laudrup.

Is the one.

[Villa in Denmark]

Laudrup.

Is the one.

At the time he had "only" managed for 4 years as manager of Brøndby, winning one league championship and 3 Danish cups. His time at Brøndby was most noticeable for his culling of senior high wage players and introducing some younger home grown players.  I think he'd have been a bit of a risk at that point, but fast forward to the removal of Houllier and he would have been just what the doctor ordered.

Ego large enough to cope with the expectations of the job.
Achieved enough in the game to command some respect within the squad.
A progressive approach to the game which would have followed on from the direction Houllier had started to take us in.
A track record by then of repeating what he'd done at Brøndby with bringing younger players through - whatever he achieves in future, keeping Mallorca up in 2005/06 will be one of his best achievements.

[KevinGage]

Aside from Moyes -who was the popular choice back then, I did mention Laudrup as one to look at in 2010.  Part of the reason for that was his willingness to take the job previously.

But after Brondby, he developed a reputation for only staying with clubs for less than 12 months.  There was also a suggestion that he was offered the Blackburn job and had insisted on a release clause allowing him to move to Spain should one of the La Liga clubs come in for him.

Swansea look like a good, progressive outfit. But in fairness, he has benefited from the good work that occurred there previously.   You'd have to wonder what he would have made of players like NRC, Sidwell, Dunne and Collins though, blokes who had some very admirable qualities but who could trap a ball further than most mere mortals can kick it.