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Author Topic: The rapid decline of the 92/93 team  (Read 31016 times)

Online dave.woodhall

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Re: The rapid decline of the 92/93 team
« Reply #105 on: April 07, 2020, 08:03:09 PM »
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.

The 90s, oh, what a missed opportunity they were for Villa.

Somebody said '90 was the real missed opportunity and, maybe by a shade, we looked more like champions in '90?

I was more disappointed that Brian Little's team didn't 'kick on'. Even though we finished 5th in 1996-97, at the time, it seemed somewhat disappointing after our superb season in 95-96. We were poor in the cups in 96-97.

1997-98 was really disappointing. Nothing seemed right. Little didn't seem himself that year and the performances were poor. At the time, it seemed the signing of Collymore upset things.

Overall, as others have said, on the three occasions where we had a chance to push on and  become champions ('90, '93 and '96-'97) we just didn't buy the top player(s) that would give us that edge. I often think the summer of 1997 was a real missed opportunity. I think we were a midfielder and an upgrade on Savo away from being an exceptional side. Instead we ended up with Collymore being shoe-horned into the side with Yorke and Milosevic.

Yep.  Quite firmly established in the higher reaches of the top flight at the time, though not always finishing there, we were behind the curve bringing in top quality foreign players when we could have probably attracted them.  Arsenal were bringing in Bergkamp, Chelsea brought in Gullit, Zola, Vialli,  Newcastle signed agin ola, Asprila etc. That was the time to show some real ambition, but not to be sadly.

The next chance we got were the early years under Lerner, but not to be again. 

The big problem was that we didn't really have anything to attract them. Never was the London factor so important.

Derby attracted guys like Igor Stimac and Asanovic who were good players for Croatia in euro 96 and comfortably helped newly promoted Derby finished 12th. Think Sheff Weds signed Di Canio and Carbone in the same summer (Di Canio was at Celtic at the time actually).

I certainly take the London factor but mid range prem clubs were exploiting the market more than we were at the time.In fairness in 96/97 we were only 7 points off 2nd and dropped a fair few points in the run in so weren't miles off going into summer 1997. Ultimately we staked everything on Stanley Victor and we know what happened.

Were any of them better than we had?

Offline SoccerHQ

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Re: The rapid decline of the 92/93 team
« Reply #106 on: April 07, 2020, 08:03:11 PM »
Could you have played Juninho and Merson in the same team? Or were we linked with Juninho before we signed the latter? I've forgotten.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/1999/jan/26/newsstory.sport7.....Merson was with us from 98/02 . So not sure how they were meant to play together. We were top of the table at the time but Juninho was coming back from a broken leg at the time so it was risky enough. Juninhos career never kicked on afterwards either, flopped at Celtic under MON.

Juninho played for Boro for two spells after our near signing, was decent but didn't have the spark of his first spell there. I don't think he'd have won us the league either.

That said Carbone the next season did show the value of having a second striker who could drop off and link with midfield, he played in same 11 with Merson alright.

Offline SoccerHQ

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Re: The rapid decline of the 92/93 team
« Reply #107 on: April 07, 2020, 08:07:48 PM »
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.

The 90s, oh, what a missed opportunity they were for Villa.

Somebody said '90 was the real missed opportunity and, maybe by a shade, we looked more like champions in '90?

I was more disappointed that Brian Little's team didn't 'kick on'. Even though we finished 5th in 1996-97, at the time, it seemed somewhat disappointing after our superb season in 95-96. We were poor in the cups in 96-97.

1997-98 was really disappointing. Nothing seemed right. Little didn't seem himself that year and the performances were poor. At the time, it seemed the signing of Collymore upset things.

Overall, as others have said, on the three occasions where we had a chance to push on and  become champions ('90, '93 and '96-'97) we just didn't buy the top player(s) that would give us that edge. I often think the summer of 1997 was a real missed opportunity. I think we were a midfielder and an upgrade on Savo away from being an exceptional side. Instead we ended up with Collymore being shoe-horned into the side with Yorke and Milosevic.

Yep.  Quite firmly established in the higher reaches of the top flight at the time, though not always finishing there, we were behind the curve bringing in top quality foreign players when we could have probably attracted them.  Arsenal were bringing in Bergkamp, Chelsea brought in Gullit, Zola, Vialli,  Newcastle signed agin ola, Asprila etc. That was the time to show some real ambition, but not to be sadly.

The next chance we got were the early years under Lerner, but not to be again. 

The big problem was that we didn't really have anything to attract them. Never was the London factor so important.

Derby attracted guys like Igor Stimac and Asanovic who were good players for Croatia in euro 96 and comfortably helped newly promoted Derby finished 12th. Think Sheff Weds signed Di Canio and Carbone in the same summer (Di Canio was at Celtic at the time actually).

I certainly take the London factor but mid range prem clubs were exploiting the market more than we were at the time.In fairness in 96/97 we were only 7 points off 2nd and dropped a fair few points in the run in so weren't miles off going into summer 1997. Ultimately we staked everything on Stanley Victor and we know what happened.

Were any of them better than we had?

An international CB to step in when Ugo or Southgate weren't around instead of Scimeca or Carl Tiler would've been nice at least.

Online dave.woodhall

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Re: The rapid decline of the 92/93 team
« Reply #108 on: April 07, 2020, 08:09:32 PM »
Maybe, but you were still in the days of teams rather than squads then.

Offline PeterWithesShin

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Re: The rapid decline of the 92/93 team
« Reply #109 on: April 07, 2020, 08:13:26 PM »
Stimac was signed in 1995.

Offline Damo70

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Re: The rapid decline of the 92/93 team
« Reply #110 on: April 07, 2020, 08:30:32 PM »
Could you have played Juninho and Merson in the same team? Or were we linked with Juninho before we signed the latter? I've forgotten.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/1999/jan/26/newsstory.sport7.....Merson was with us from 98/02 . So not sure how they were meant to play together. We were top of the table at the time but Juninho was coming back from a broken leg at the time so it was risky enough. Juninhos career never kicked on afterwards either, flopped at Celtic under MON.


I had absolutely no recollection of Juninho playing for Celtic until reading that post. 14 games 1 goal apparently.

Offline SoccerHQ

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Re: The rapid decline of the 92/93 team
« Reply #111 on: April 07, 2020, 08:33:05 PM »
Could you have played Juninho and Merson in the same team? Or were we linked with Juninho before we signed the latter? I've forgotten.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/1999/jan/26/newsstory.sport7.....Merson was with us from 98/02 . So not sure how they were meant to play together. We were top of the table at the time but Juninho was coming back from a broken leg at the time so it was risky enough. Juninhos career never kicked on afterwards either, flopped at Celtic under MON.


I had absolutely no recollection of Juninho playing for Celtic until reading that post. 14 games 1 goal apparently.

MON probably played him at right back.

Offline Villan82

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Re: The rapid decline of the 92/93 team
« Reply #112 on: April 07, 2020, 09:30:32 PM »
Robbie Keane is probably the biggest 'what if' when you think of it. He could have been the one to take us on to the next level. At the very least, he would have had re-sale value to be re-invested unlike some of the older players we ended up with.

The post 2000 period was weird. We were 6th a few years in a row, League Cup semi-finalists, FA Cup finalists and all of a sudden a pile of players wanted out.

Offline brontebilly

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Re: The rapid decline of the 92/93 team
« Reply #113 on: April 07, 2020, 09:34:20 PM »
Could you have played Juninho and Merson in the same team? Or were we linked with Juninho before we signed the latter? I've forgotten.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/1999/jan/26/newsstory.sport7.....Merson was with us from 98/02 . So not sure how they were meant to play together. We were top of the table at the time but Juninho was coming back from a broken leg at the time so it was risky enough. Juninhos career never kicked on afterwards either, flopped at Celtic under MON.

Juninho played for Boro for two spells after our near signing, was decent but didn't have the spark of his first spell there. I don't think he'd have won us the league either.

That said Carbone the next season did show the value of having a second striker who could drop off and link with midfield, he played in same 11 with Merson alright.

There was no excuse for not signing a young Robbie Keane from Wolves in 1999. Coventry got him instead. Would have been ideal for that second striker role playing off Dion Dublin.

Online tomd2103

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Re: The rapid decline of the 92/93 team
« Reply #114 on: April 07, 2020, 09:39:40 PM »
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.

The 90s, oh, what a missed opportunity they were for Villa.

Somebody said '90 was the real missed opportunity and, maybe by a shade, we looked more like champions in '90?

I was more disappointed that Brian Little's team didn't 'kick on'. Even though we finished 5th in 1996-97, at the time, it seemed somewhat disappointing after our superb season in 95-96. We were poor in the cups in 96-97.

1997-98 was really disappointing. Nothing seemed right. Little didn't seem himself that year and the performances were poor. At the time, it seemed the signing of Collymore upset things.

Overall, as others have said, on the three occasions where we had a chance to push on and  become champions ('90, '93 and '96-'97) we just didn't buy the top player(s) that would give us that edge. I often think the summer of 1997 was a real missed opportunity. I think we were a midfielder and an upgrade on Savo away from being an exceptional side. Instead we ended up with Collymore being shoe-horned into the side with Yorke and Milosevic.

Yep.  Quite firmly established in the higher reaches of the top flight at the time, though not always finishing there, we were behind the curve bringing in top quality foreign players when we could have probably attracted them.  Arsenal were bringing in Bergkamp, Chelsea brought in Gullit, Zola, Vialli,  Newcastle signed agin ola, Asprila etc. That was the time to show some real ambition, but not to be sadly.

The next chance we got were the early years under Lerner, but not to be again. 

The big problem was that we didn't really have anything to attract them. Never was the London factor so important.

True Dave and suppose it has been a perennial problem. 

Offline SoccerHQ

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Re: The rapid decline of the 92/93 team
« Reply #115 on: April 07, 2020, 11:10:47 PM »
Robbie Keane is probably the biggest 'what if' when you think of it. He could have been the one to take us on to the next level. At the very least, he would have had re-sale value to be re-invested unlike some of the older players we ended up with.

The post 2000 period was weird. We were 6th a few years in a row, League Cup semi-finalists, FA Cup finalists and all of a sudden a pile of players wanted out.

They were all getting on and wanted one last payday. IIRC Southgate, Ugo, James and Merson all put in transfer requests. Perhaps Boateng aswell although he stayed a few more years.

Oh yes not signing Keane for another 500k was a major mess up aswell.

Offline eamonn

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Re: The rapid decline of the 92/93 team
« Reply #116 on: April 08, 2020, 09:31:15 AM »
Jules Joachim also handed in a transfer request (does any player do that anymore?!) which Gregory just took the piss out of.

Offline in exile

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Re: The rapid decline of the 92/93 team
« Reply #117 on: April 08, 2020, 09:49:45 AM »
Jules, eh? How cosy  ;)

Offline Mister E

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Re: The rapid decline of the 92/93 team
« Reply #118 on: April 08, 2020, 11:05:47 AM »
Jules Joachim also handed in a transfer request (does any player do that anymore?!) which Gregory just took the piss out of.
Eastie!!!! - welcome back!

Offline SoccerHQ

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Re: The rapid decline of the 92/93 team
« Reply #119 on: April 08, 2020, 12:37:34 PM »
Jules Joachim also handed in a transfer request (does any player do that anymore?!) which Gregory just took the piss out of.

Quite right. Was excellent in 98/99, got a new deal and was then on easy street for most of 99-00 (eventually scored a few goals towards end).

The fact a year later he ended up at Coventry in the swop with Hadji shows how rated he was in the wider football world.

 


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