The Nearly Men

[supertom]

I remember strong rumours that we were going to sign Alan Shearer, and later Gregory saying that if he had signed for use he'd have been chasing the title.

I recall that too. Shortly after the Gullit fallout if I remember correctly. I think Gregory may have been right there too. We were solid at the back but lacked a 20 goal forward.

[Damo70]

I doubt we'd have got him. We'd spent the last four seasons either battling relegation, actually being relegated, or in the Second Division, while Spurs had just finished sixth. Add in the London factor and I suspect he wouldn't have fancied Villa much anyway.

I read a biography of Lineker written by his long time agent/manager. He fancied a move to United but they couldn't afford the fee and wages package involved. Neither could Everton who had first option to buy him back. The only clubs that were prepared to meet the demands were Spurs, Monaco and Fiorentina.

[SoccerHQ]

I'm surprised Darren Bent's not on this thread. We got a top striker (then) in his prime from a club well above us in the league at that point and doing well, every other club in the league bar maybe the top 5 would have had him in their side at that point, we made an offer that couldn't be refused, and smashed our transfer record to smithereens.
That's just not really the Villa way. Our bigger name signings tend to have been either over the hill, or out of favour, or have some sort of issue that's held them back from being a top end player.

The day we signed Benty was a good day. It took a good couple of weeks for it sink in with me that we'd actually done it.


Have we signed Benni McCarthy yet?

We were linked a couple of times with Pascal Chimbonda IIRC. Possibly when he was at Wigan and then I think a couple of worrying links maybe a couple of years ago, by which point he was well past his best.

Darren Bent was exactly the right signing but at the wrong time for the club (o.k he kept us up but not a player to sign when good attackers started leaving).

He should've been signed at some point in the MON era instead of wasting time and resources signing Heskey and Harewood. I'd have signed him ahead of Downing tbh considering they went for a similar amount that summer.

Another one from around that time would be Defoe.