The rapid decline of the 92/93 team

[brontebilly]

My memory of this is somewhat hazy but top of the table with six games to go in 92/93 to barely avoiding relegation two seasons later minus Ron Atkinson. What are the explanations for this rapid decline? The squad wasn't that old, the likes of Daley, Atkinson, Staunton should have been at their peak and we had a young Yorke and Bosnich. The form and careers of so many players seemed to fall off a cliff after 1993.

[garyshawsknee]

I was there when we won at Forest and was convinced we were gonna go on to win the league. At that time Yorke was playing really well with Saunders as Dalian had been out for a while. I think Big Ron tried to shoe horn Dalian back into the side and he wasn't 100% fit, it upset the flow of Yorke and we lost momentum and ultimately the wheels came off.

[The Left Side]

This for sure, we stopped scoring goals and a bit of luck went against us and it all went with Manure, the day they beat Sheff Wed and I think we drew with Coventry.

[Richard E]

The main reason was me finishing Law School and being able to go regularly again.

[Reuben]

My memory is that there were a few players getting on a bit.  Like Ray Houghton. Then he went and bought John Fashanu...

[cdbearsfan]

As usual, we didn't bother to significantly strengthen from a position of strength, and had pretty much the same squad at the start of 1994/95 as we had at the end of 1992/93. Many of the players were ageing, and Atkinson was a declining force as he was overtaken with managers with more modern ideas. The 1993/94 League Cup allowed us to paper over the cracks but we were already in decline by then, finishing mid-table that season.

[garyshawsknee]

Never strengthening from a strong position was our downfall under Doug ( yet again ) Think we bought Townsend and Whittingham, King the following summer.

[Simon Page]

The odder one for me is the 95/6 team as we did, at least try, to strengthen that. It could be the age old Villa problem of being behind the curve. Football was changing but we still wanted to recreate the Saunders era.

[cdbearsfan]

Sadly, it seems that Sir Brian was great at getting a team winning games, but when things didn't go for him, he was unable to change things. His career seemed to keep going the same way when he left Villa good start, bad run, end.

[N'ZMAV]

I was just getting into Football at this age - I was 9...
I've watched that season review so many times - it was a good side....
I remember Yorke as a brilliant striker a few seasons later - but what was the deal with Yorke in 92/93?
I get Saunders and Atkinson were first choice strikers - so was Ron playing Yorke on the wing? I remember Parker and Richardson looking good in centre midfield - did the arrival of Townsend the season later upset things?

[cdbearsfan]

Atkinson got injured so Yorke came in. Atkinson came back and Yorke got dropped. Probably harshly. I don't think the three played together too often.

[dave.woodhall]

I was just getting into Football at this age - I was 9...
I've watched that season review so many times - it was a good side....
I remember Yorke as a brilliant striker a few seasons later - but what was the deal with Yorke in 92/93?
I get Saunders and Atkinson were first choice strikers - so was Ron playing Yorke on the wing? I remember Parker and Richardson looking good in centre midfield - did the arrival of Townsend the season later upset things?

Ron never fancied Yorke for some reason (actually there is a speculative reason but best not go into that) and when he signed Townsend he had him playing out wide. I think we declined so quickly because he realised after 92-93 that he'd never win the lerague so went for the quick fix of cup runs. Once he'd won the League Cup he took his eye off the ball totally and put his faith in his inner circle of players, who let him down in his last weeks.

[N'ZMAV]

I'm not sure the like sof Whittingham, Phil King and Fashanu were good enough to replace the players from 92/93 that needed replacing.

[Villafirst]

This for sure, we stopped scoring goals and a bit of luck went against us and it all went with Manure, the day they beat Sheff Wed and I think we drew with Coventry.

Was that the day when Manure were given 9 minutes of 'Fergie' time by the referee?

[PeterWithesShin]

For all the supposed flair and great football we played under Atkinson goalscoring was always pretty crap. Even in 92/93 we were only 8th highest scorers, Oldham who stayed up on GD scored more than us. I think it was 26 times we scored 0 or 1. In 91/92 we had that pathetic run of 1 goal in 11 league games. 93/94 we were 16th highest scorers, even bottom of the table Swindon scored more than us.