Daily Mail article on Ron Saunders

[clash city rocker]

I tell my 21 year old daughter about past villa legends and I always tell her that the one I thought most highly of was Sir Ron. He feared no one or any team. Non of this 'hope to Nick a result business with him.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Sad to read how Ron is now in a care home but some wonderful reader comments made by Pompey fans here. The Ron Saunders song they had raised a smile. What a great player, manager and man.

[nigel]

Rather than Tony spunking his money on a load of old cock in the Championship, he should sink it into making the DeLorean finally serviceable.

What price a time travelling Ron Saunders on hand for when we started to wilt in Feb/March 1990, March 1993 or May 2000.

Or at any point last season, just to test his boxing theories out on Lescott, Micah and Gabby. Constantly.

The first two would never have set foot in Villa Park under Ron.
Gabby would have been fit as f**k, never allowed to bulk up as he did and would probably have been an England regular

[Damo70]

great man who built fantastic teams to play this beautiful game

i never knew he played for Everton even though he's from up that way

He was merely there on an amateur status

I believe Ron Saunders was an Everton fan as a kid. As were Kenny Swain, Tony Morley and Peter Withe.

[purpletrousers]

Sad to read how Ron is now in a care home but some wonderful reader comments made by Pompey fans here. The Ron Saunders song they had raised a smile. What a great player, manager and man.

Thank you for linking this article from yesterday, well worth a read.
Of course, devastatingly sad the decline of dementia, a peculiarly painful slow loss of the man, of quality of life and connection to the personality that was. Poignant words from Ronnie Jr.

I'm left with a fantasy of the Holte singing long and loud for him one last time while he *may* still have capacity to take in a video of it. Probably naive, but wouldn't that be special.
I so wish he had his name on a stand during his lifetime.

[wittonwarrior]

Managers have had their sayings - Saunders merely had a number which he spilled out every week 110%

[pbavfckuwait]

The one and only as far as managers go for me, lucky to see his Villa teams from the start and he really did sweep this club to a whole new level.
Also lovely story, not sure how true it is, that when he left the Jag he had at the time,  it was a club car, to annoy and piss of the board, he hid it in some barn in Warwickshire somewhere, took the drivers set out as it was one he paid for, something to do with his back, it was there for years by all accounts, as I say don't know how true the story is, but it sounds like Ron if you crossed him.

[CT]

Sad to read how Ron is now in a care home but some wonderful reader comments made by Pompey fans here. The Ron Saunders song they had raised a smile. What a great player, manager and man.

Thank you for linking this article from yesterday, well worth a read.
Of course, devastatingly sad the decline of dementia, a peculiarly painful slow loss of the man, of quality of life and connection to the personality that was. Poignant words from Ronnie Jr.

I'm left with a fantasy of the Holte singing long and loud for him one last time while he *may* still have capacity to take in a video of it. Probably naive, but wouldn't that be special.
I so wish he had his name on a stand during his lifetime.

There's some effort started in social media to make this happen. (Naming the North Stand after him)

[martin o`who??]

For me the best Manager of Aston Villa in my lifetime

Of anybody`s time i should think...

[Des Little]

I wouldn’t want to name the current North Stand after such a great man. I’m hoping we do for the new one (as and when it happens).

[steamer]

For me and I guess many of my age, Ron epitomises what Aston Villa was all about.
My Heart swells when I picture his deadpan face, staring at a commentator who had asked some dumb question, do you want to bet against us.
He was our Shankly or Busby
Probably built the best Villa teams of the modern era. Not that all was perfect and at times he took some criticism.
But as someone mentioned earlier, if we could pop him into a Tardis and bring him back, if only just.

[Damo70]

I was quite scared of him as a kid. When he did that interview (AVTV?) in more recent years, despite his age I still found him quite intimidating.

I used to drink with a bloke who had been on the end of a Ron Saunders bollocking years ago. Saunders sent his underage son into the off licence the guy worked in at the time in Solihull to get him a bottle of brandy while he waited in his car. When the guy I knew refused to serve the lad Saunders had to get out of his car to buy it himself and he wasn't a happy bunny.

[brentastonb6]

I wouldn’t want to name the current North Stand after such a great man. I’m hoping we do for the new one (as and when it happens).

This and hopefully very quickly in the faint hope he is both still alive  and has the capability to take at least some of it in . If nothing else it will give  comfort to his family and ensure people ask after this heroe of ours.

[HK Villan]

What more can I add?  Nothing except to echo all of the above.  I feel hugely privileged to have been able to see Villa during those Saunders years.   110% respect for a great man and our greatest manager.

[Damo70]

He made players run through brick walls for him and give that famous 110%. It didn't matter whether they did it out of loyalty and respect or out of spite and defiance depending on whether they loved him or hated him.