The rapid decline of the 92/93 team

[Simon Page]

I'd say the difference with McGrath, and the reason he's more often than not chosen as the greatest, is he was arguably the very best in the world in his position during large parts of his time with us. Although I wouldn't have swapped them for anyone, you can't really say the same about Little, Sid and Yorke. One thing Sid shares with McGrath is they both improved the players around them just through their brilliant awareness.

[Damo70]

I'd say the difference with McGrath, and the reason he's more often than not chosen as the greatest, is he was arguably the very best in the world in his position during large parts of his time with us. Although I wouldn't have swapped them for anyone, you can't really say the same about Little, Sid and Yorke. One thing Sid shares with McGrath is they both improved the players around them just through their brilliant awareness.

I always thought Sid was better all round than Glenn Hoddle. Despite not being as physically big as Hoddle Sid was just as skillful and more physical when need be.

[dave.woodhall]

Sid is the one player who gets better the longer he's been retired. He's gone from good, to great, to our best-ever over the past twenty years. History has definitely been kinder to him than some of his contemporaries.

[usav]

Sid is the one player who gets better the longer he's been retired. He's gone from good, to great, to our best-ever over the past twenty years. History has definitely been kinder to him than some of his contemporaries.

That's probably fair.  I would also say his game was better suited to now than 40 years ago.

[eamonn]

So...was Sid that good then, or not?

[Simon Page]

So...was Sid that good then, or not?

For me, he just got better and better. He came into a really good side at a young age, became one of the best passers of a ball in an era when most teams had one, then got injured, went abroad, but by the time he headed towards veteran status he was exceptionally good. I'd say he was the absolute focal point of the 89/90 side. Everything went through him and it allowed the wide men and Platt to shine. But whereas you'd have no argument from fans of anyone about McGrath's status, Cowans star didn't travel as far.

I think he was the most intelligent and aware player I've seen for us and I can't think of anyone I'd have rather had in that position. But it's hard to compare with a peerless centre-back or an inside-forward or winger who had all the tricks.

[brontebilly]

Graham Taylor took a lot of stick for bringing Cowans into the England team, was it for Gazza or Platt at one time in the early 90s? Perhaps Cowans reputation outside of Villa suffered for things like that.

[Exeter 77]

Graham Taylor took a lot of stick for bringing Cowans into the England team, was it for Gazza or Platt at one time in the early 90s? Perhaps Cowans reputation outside of Villa suffered for things like that.

That was for a Euro 92 qualifier in Dublin in October 1990 when SGT put Sid in for Gascoigne. It was a really awful game despite Platt scoring for England  and Cascarino equalizing for Ireland.

[SoccerHQ]

Was there any Serie A interest in God when he was here? I assume even at his age there must've been some bids we rejected. According to his wiki he was going to sign for Napoli but they pulled out before his medical and then we signed him and the rest is history. I'd imagine interest would've been rekindled after he kept Baggio in his pocket in 1994.

Interesting to me if we never had any bids for arguably our greatest post war player, guess us signing him when he was already 30 played a part if there wasn't.

[dave.woodhall]

So...was Sid that good then, or not?

Here comes the controversial bit:

Sid reminds me of Eamonn Dunphy's quote about Liam Brady - "He was a very good young player and a very good old player. In between, he was a very rich player." I don't know how rich Sid was throughout the eighties but it's a fact that at the start of that decade he was the best young midfielder in the country. He's the first to admit that he was off-form in 1980-81 and to a lesser extent the following season, before coming back in 82-83 to have his best-ever time. The next five years were lost to injury and Italy and it wasn't until 89-90 that he was back to his best.

In the next two seasons he was world-class and it's that time that has probably sealed his reputation. As I said earlier, history has been kind to him, perhaps because so many of us saw him for so long. To my mind he was a great Villa player, but not a great player. 

[brontebilly]

Was there any Serie A interest in God when he was here? I assume even at his age there must've been some bids we rejected. According to his wiki he was going to sign for Napoli but they pulled out before his medical and then we signed him and the rest is history. I'd imagine interest would've been rekindled after he kept Baggio in his pocket in 1994.

Interesting to me if we never had any bids for arguably our greatest post war player, guess us signing him when he was already 30 played a part if there wasn't.

Ferguson and United tried to retire McGrath on injury grounds before he even signed for us. Apart from his injuries, his off pitch issues were well known by then too. Somehow given all that he was playing top division football at 37. He must have been one of the greatest athletes to ever play the game considering all he had to deal with.

[Hillbilly]

For me, the standout 'classy' midfielder in the First Division in the 80's was Kevin Sheedy at Everton. I can't think of a better midfielder of the era including Sid, Hoddle, Devonshire. You can argue but his record speaks for itself.

[London Villan]

The thing that i never get about the 89-90 team is that didn’t really have a tough midfielder of any kind. In lots of ways it was 5-2-3 with the 2 being platt and cowans. How did it work?

[LeeB]

The thing that i never get about the 89-90 team is that didn’t really have a tough midfielder of any kind. In lots of ways it was 5-2-3 with the 2 being platt and cowans. How did it work?

That team played like none I've seen before or since. You couldn't really count Platt as one of the two either as he was the main goal threat.

It was more like 3-3-3-1, the three centre halves, Sid and the wing backs, Ormondroyd, Daley and Platt, with Olney up top.

[Clark W Griswold]

The thing that i never get about the 89-90 team is that didn’t really have a tough midfielder of any kind. In lots of ways it was 5-2-3 with the 2 being platt and cowans. How did it work?

It had McGrath keeping the ball out one end and Platt putting the ball in at the other, that's why it worked :-)