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Author Topic: The rapid decline of the 92/93 team  (Read 31131 times)

Offline KevinGage

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Re: The rapid decline of the 92/93 team
« Reply #165 on: April 15, 2020, 06:48:43 PM »
Didn't Richardson get a good offer from abroad? He played for Big Ron 18 months later at Coventry so wasn't anything personal between the two. I imagine with Townsend coming in he just needed to be moved on.


We (Big Ron ) bought both Richardson and Dalian from Real Sociedad (they had both spent a season there along with John Aldridge who spent two seasons there). Richardson was one of the first of BFR's 92/93 Villa team to leave when he followed BFR to Coventry.

Our transfer business in 94/95 was very strange (cheers wiki). Only King and Fashanu joined in the summer with Daley, Froggatt, Kubiciki and Cox leaving. Left us very light on the wings anyway.
 

How could you forget Nil Lamptey.  There was a fair bit of excitement about that signing IIRC.   

Daley was never the same after his injuries with us. Froggatt made the England squad a few years after leaving us, so that was one to persist with.  But maybe the player himself wanted out at that stage, with more chance of first team football a grade down. A guarantee we couldn't give him after lomgstanding fitness issues. 

 A fit and firing Atkinson and Daley in 92/93 - as well as Froggatt to call upon - and it wouldn't have mattered about Yanted signing Cantona. In retropsect, we prob did well to push them as far as we did with that trio missing for long periods.

Offline Villan82

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Re: The rapid decline of the 92/93 team
« Reply #166 on: April 15, 2020, 07:37:26 PM »
I enjoyed that Villa v Utd clip. Thank you.

I cannot now remember, did Yorke immediately become our top striker after Little came in? BFR favoured Atkinson and Saunders to the end. Yorke probably should have been the star striker earlier than he was (based on that clip!)

It was initially Saunders and one of Fashanu or Atkinson  up until the signing of Tommy Johnson. Yorke featured in most games as a right winger with Staunton on the left and Taylor and Townsend in the middle. It was only the last few games of the season where Dwight featured up front with Saunders, Little has said he knew after Leeds away and Liverpool at home that Yorke would be his no 1 long term.

Thank you. Your post has caused me to wonder how we would have done in the early 90s if we had adopted the same approach to Dwight Yorke as Liverpool did with Michael Owen when he broke through in 1997? Maybe Yorke wasn't quite ready until 1995. But when you look at clips of him in 91/92 and 92/93 you sort of scratch your head to think that he only became the main man in mid 1995.

Offline Deano's Mullet

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Re: The rapid decline of the 92/93 team
« Reply #167 on: April 15, 2020, 09:27:27 PM »
I honestly think had Yorke not been dropped at end of 92-93 we may have won it. Let's not forget he actually got seventeen in all comps the year before. Dalian came right back into the side and made no impact while Saunders and Parker's goals dried up. He wasn't super prolific but Yorke was still doing well that latter part of the season. Big Cyrille didn't play much around then either and both he and Yorke did well together the season before. Think he might have been injured?

Offline eamonn

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Re: The rapid decline of the 92/93 team
« Reply #168 on: April 15, 2020, 10:01:37 PM »
Was Cyrile still involved in 92/93? Really weird to think we had Frank McAvennie making appearances at the start of the season. I guess he was a stop-gap prior to Saunders' arrival.
Ate there any podcasts that Ron has contributed to, discussing his seasons in charge?  Would be interesting to see how he looks back at it now with hindsight.

Offline mcgrath_85

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Re: The rapid decline of the 92/93 team
« Reply #169 on: April 15, 2020, 10:18:44 PM »
I enjoyed that Villa v Utd clip. Thank you.

I cannot now remember, did Yorke immediately become our top striker after Little came in? BFR favoured Atkinson and Saunders to the end. Yorke probably should have been the star striker earlier than he was (based on that clip!)

It was initially Saunders and one of Fashanu or Atkinson  up until the signing of Tommy Johnson. Yorke featured in most games as a right winger with Staunton on the left and Taylor and Townsend in the middle. It was only the last few games of the season where Dwight featured up front with Saunders, Little has said he knew after Leeds away and Liverpool at home that Yorke would be his no 1 long term.

Thank you. Your post has caused me to wonder how we would have done in the early 90s if we had adopted the same approach to Dwight Yorke as Liverpool did with Michael Owen when he broke through in 1997? Maybe Yorke wasn't quite ready until 1995. But when you look at clips of him in 91/92 and 92/93 you sort of scratch your head to think that he only became the main man in mid 1995.

I’ve been thinking this after watching the 91-92 review. He was out top goal scorer that year. It seems a massive cock on Big Rons part that he signed a load of duds to play in front of him. 

Offline Damo70

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Re: The rapid decline of the 92/93 team
« Reply #170 on: April 15, 2020, 10:23:39 PM »
Didn't Richardson get a good offer from abroad? He played for Big Ron 18 months later at Coventry so wasn't anything personal between the two. I imagine with Townsend coming in he just needed to be moved on.


We (Big Ron ) bought both Richardson and Dalian from Real Sociedad (they had both spent a season there along with John Aldridge who spent two seasons there). Richardson was one of the first of BFR's 92/93 Villa team to leave when he followed BFR to Coventry.

Our transfer business in 94/95 was very strange (cheers wiki). Only King and Fashanu joined in the summer with Daley, Froggatt, Kubiciki and Cox leaving. Left us very light on the wings anyway.
 

How could you forget Nil Lamptey.  There was a fair bit of excitement about that signing IIRC.   

Daley was never the same after his injuries with us. Froggatt made the England squad a few years after leaving us, so that was one to persist with.  But maybe the player himself wanted out at that stage, with more chance of first team football a grade down. A guarantee we couldn't give him after lomgstanding fitness issues. 

 A fit and firing Atkinson and Daley in 92/93 - as well as Froggatt to call upon - and it wouldn't have mattered about Yanted signing Cantona. In retropsect, we prob did well to push them as far as we did with that trio missing for long periods.


If I remember correctly, on his arrival Nil Lamptey arrived with title of 'The Ghanaian Pele'. I don't think many people were still calling him that on his departure, unless they were taking the piss.



Offline PeterWithesShin

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Re: The rapid decline of the 92/93 team
« Reply #171 on: April 15, 2020, 10:28:56 PM »
Lamptey was a highly rated young player, the story of his life and reasons why he never fulfilled his potential is pretty sad.

Offline Damo70

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Re: The rapid decline of the 92/93 team
« Reply #172 on: April 15, 2020, 10:29:46 PM »
Was Cyrile still involved in 92/93? Really weird to think we had Frank McAvennie making appearances at the start of the season. I guess he was a stop-gap prior to Saunders' arrival.
Ate there any podcasts that Ron has contributed to, discussing his seasons in charge?  Would be interesting to see how he looks back at it now with hindsight.


I think Cyrille played most of the games in his first season '91-92. I seem to recall he became very much a bit part player the following season '92-93.

Offline Damo70

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Re: The rapid decline of the 92/93 team
« Reply #173 on: April 15, 2020, 10:35:58 PM »
Was Cyrile still involved in 92/93? Really weird to think we had Frank McAvennie making appearances at the start of the season. I guess he was a stop-gap prior to Saunders' arrival.
Ate there any podcasts that Ron has contributed to, discussing his seasons in charge?  Would be interesting to see how he looks back at it now with hindsight.

I always thought BFR bringing in McAvennie as a stop gap was a message to Doug to pull his finger out. Then he upped the ante with his on pitch speech about signing Deano. The only surprise being BFR with a microphone on the pitch in front of tens of thousands and resisting the opportunity to break into song.

Offline PeterWithesShin

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Re: The rapid decline of the 92/93 team
« Reply #174 on: April 15, 2020, 10:37:24 PM »
Quote
Even Pelé himself said it. Nii Odartey Lamptey, player of the tournament ahead of Alessandro Del Piero and other future stars in the Under-17 World Cup of 1991, would be 'the next Pele'. The world's most famous footballer had first seen him play in the Under-16 finals in 1989 and after two sightings gave his verdict: 'Lamptey is my natural successor.'

With 38 senior caps for Ghana by the age of 21, a sensational first season in Europe after making his debut aged 15, and an even better season as top scorer for PSV Eindhoven while still a teenager, Lamptey looked as though he might prove Pelé right. It was not to be, though, and surely Pelé would never have said any such thing had he known of the horrors the boy had already suffered in his childhood. And nobody could have predicted that, far from becoming a world-class superstar, Lamptey would suffer personal tragedy as he was shunted from country to country, continent to continent, in his unfulfilled career. Only now, at the age of 33 and with new goals in his life, is Lamptey prepared to talk about the pain and sorrow he has endured.

Back home where it all started in Accra, the capital of Ghana, Lamptey invites Observer Sport to the thriving junior school that he has founded and which, in three years, has become hugely successful. The Glow-Lamp International School in Hospital Lane started with one pupil and now has nearly 400, including Lamptey's three surviving children. His wife works there, too, and at last Lamptey has found fulfilment. It has been a long and harrowing journey, with stopovers in 10 countries on four continents. Here, in brief, is the sad life story of 'the next Pelé':

Lamptey was neglected and abused by both parents during his childhood in Accra and Kumasi, the two biggest cities in Ghana. Whenever he could, he played football and cannot even remember the name of his school. At times he was too scared to go home, sleeping under a car or in a kiosk on the streets to avoid a beating or worse. 'I did not have a family relationship. It was bad,' he says.

His alcoholic father burned him with cigarettes - 'I still have the marks on my body' - lashed him with his belt and, when he finally became aware of his son's talent at football, he would stand on the touchline and shout abuse at him.

His mother, whom he left aged eight when his parents divorced, also beat him. She remarried without Lamptey having met his new stepfather. When his father remarried, he was effectively thrown out of the house and was offered the chance to stay 'in camp' with a Muslim football club. This meant he had to convert to Islam, which he happily did to escape his new stepmother. His father would come to the mosque and threaten his son and other Muslims. There were frequent fights.

As soon as Lamptey had a little money - a bonus after playing in the Under-16 World Cup in Scotland in 1989 - he fled his homeland, and told no one, not even his parents, until he was in Belgium. Ghana's FA wanted him to stay in order to build a team around him. They confiscated his passport. So Lamptey hid in the back of a taxi and illegally crossed three borders (Ghana-Togo, Togo-Benin, Benin-Nigeria) to reach Lagos, where he met the agent of Nigeria's captain, Keshi, who was then playing in Belgium for Anderlecht. He was one of the few people Lamptey trusted. Keshi had never met him, but knew of his reputation and had spoken to him by phone. 'When the agent phoned to tell him I was in Lagos, I heard Keshi shout with joy,' says Lamptey, who was then 14 years old.

He waited in Lagos for Keshi to fetch him, then flew to Belgium on a fake Nigerian passport - which he discarded as soon as he got there - posing as Keshi's son (such was the player's influence). Nobody at Anderlecht really believed it was Lamptey, so they tested him at training with older boys. 'Everyone was there, even the club president,' he says. 'After the first two or three touches they knew I was the real Lamptey.'

Lamptey signed a contract for five years as soon as he was 16, but did not know what he was doing. He could not read or write, and was exploited mercilessly by football's money men. 'I was cheated so much,' Lamptey says. At one point in 1997, after being loaned to four clubs, he discovered his registration was owned not by Anderlecht, as he thought, but by his agent, Antonio Caliendo, who also represented Roberto Baggio and Dunga. Some years before, Caliendo had secured Lamptey as a client by flying to Accra and paying him a cash lump sum to sign on the dotted line. 'I didn't know the details of the contract,' he says.

In 1997, Lamptey moved to Argentina, dreaming of playing in the same Boca Juniors team as his hero Diego Maradona. Boca had too many foreign players and loaned him out to Union Santa Fe. Lamptey's son Diego - named after Maradona - fell ill and the whole family had to relocate to a Buenos Aires hotel while the infant was in intensive care for two-and-a-half months. Diego died, unable to breathe, and Lamptey and his wife Gloria later lost another child, Lisa, also at four months to the same lung disease. That was in Germany.

In 1996, Lamptey, still only 21, was discarded by his national team and has not played for them since. Other players were unhappy when he criticised them for a poor showing in the 1996 Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa. He breaks down in tears when he talks about it and believes he should have played in the 2006 World Cup and could even still be playing now, in the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations. He even hints at dark forces at work, believing there may have been two spiritualist curses put on him, one because he left his Muslim team to go to Europe, the other because he chose a wife from what his own family deemed the 'wrong race'. 'It was taken from me. It is really, really painful. Sometimes I'll be in my room and just cry,' he says.

Lamptey cannot bear even to go to the stadium to watch the Black Stars, as Ghana are known, during the tournament his country is hosting, preferring to watch on TV at home. He has had a big falling-out with Abedi Pelé, former African footballer of the year and Ghana's biggest star. He will not say why. 'But Abedi knows, he knows.'

Both his parents are now dead. Lamptey attempted to reconcile with them and he acceded to his father's dying wish to reconvert to Christianity, but he was pained at the funerals when he 'had to bury them both alone'. His brothers were never happy that he married a woman from another people - the Lampteys are Ga, Gloria is Fante - and do not speak. They refused to pay towards the burial expenses.

'I have been through hell, through so much pain,' he tells Observer Sport in the school office, sitting underneath a framed Chinese proverb that reads 'If life does not give you all that you want, rejoice that you are alive'.

'If I could write a book about it, it would be something else, I tell you. But how can I do that, when I can't even write a letter?' he says.

When he spoke of his ex-agent, Caliendo, I asked Lamptey, as a check, to spell the man's surname. 'I think it is C-O-L-E-H-D,' he says. Lamptey's lack of education, to which he constantly refers, often with some bitterness, is clearly something that eats away at him.

An hour or so from the Glow-Lamp School, up in the Aburi hills north-east of Accra, is a football school that, had such a thing existed 20 years ago, could have made life so much more bearable for Lamptey.

Osei Kwame is a 14-year-old footballer of great promise, just as Lamptey was all those years ago. Poorly educated, he, too, is from Kumasi. 'The first time I had to speak to a white man I was scared,' he says. 'I could not speak English.'

Kwame is under pressure to contribute more to the family taxi business: his father wants to take him from the school, but has been persuaded to let him stay and learn.

Before arriving at the academy, Kwame, like Lamptey, spent all his time playing football. He neglected his schooling and lived on the streets. 'When he was 10 he would go out one day and not return for three months,' says Tom Vernon, who founded the Right to Dream Academy, a registered charity in Ghana, Britain and the United States. 'When we went to his house to offer a place here his mother burst into tears. She thought we were the police, because Osei was always in trouble for stealing. Left to his own devices he would have snapped up any offer to play football.

'Our philosophy is simple - to make sure every boy leaves with a positive opportunity to build a better life.

'Boys should not leave Africa at the age Lamptey was when he left. They just cannot cope. Imagine how tough it must be at that age. They should stay and complete their schooling, wait until they are 18, 19, and decide for themselves what to do.'

The first batch of 16 graduates from Right to Dream have come through their schooling and coaching, and five have taken scholarships in America. Three more are at university in Gloucester, two are about to sign for clubs in Portugal and France, and two have joined Fulham. They all have qualifications, and a chance in life.

By the age of 19 Lamptey's best years were already behind him. World champion and player of the tournament at the Under-17 World Cup in 1991, an Olympic bronze in 1992, a runners-up medal in the Under-20s in 1993, that sensational season at PSV. One man who remembers him well from that era is here in Ghana scouting for one of Europe's top clubs. 'He was so good, a fantastic player,' says Nick Neururer, who was then working for the Austrian FA and is now Celtic's Africa scout. 'That year at PSV, sensational. But he could not cope. Too much, too young. Too many expectations, too much trouble with agents.'

What went wrong, in Lamptey's view? 'The expectations on me were very, very huge, even after that tournament in Scotland [in 1989]. It had never happened like that in Ghana, it was me going outside [to Europe] and opening the door for so many Ghanaians, the first one to do it, and many players still thank me for that,' he says.

'It wasn't easy, but I just wanted to play. I didn't know about money. I was unable to have a proper education and because of that I was cheated in so many ways in my career.

'When Diego died I couldn't stay in Argentina. I called Anderlecht and said, "This is the situation, I want to come back." The vice-president said, "You don't belong to us, you belong to Caliendo." Caliendo was selling me without me knowing it. After Diego died I wanted to come home, and this guy was forcing me to sign a contract with him.

'I refused. I was so lucky, otherwise I'd still belong to him up to I don't know when.

'I did not have any big quarrel, I just said, "No, I won't sign." He had to send people to come and talk to me, I still refused. Since then I have not had any contact with him.' Shortly before that, Lamptey had averted another rip-off, of his signing-on fee for Aston Villa, when the then Villa manager Ron Atkinson intervened. 'Ron gave my account number to the office and they paid it in direct. I hadn't even been told I was due a fee. The manager [agent] was very upset. Big Ron has been a good man in my life.

'There are other players whose agents have been even worse, one man who tried to destroy me because I would not sign for him. I know players who would gladly kill that one.

'Another problem was I couldn't express myself. There were certain things I just couldn't do. I remember watching one of my tapes from 1991 when I went to Belgium and looked at myself speaking English. Jesus Christ! I couldn't say what I wanted to say.

'Meeting my wife was another thing, so many people were against it. My parents were against it. I don't know why. Football-wise it was fighting against me, and family-wise it was fighting against me. It was hell.'

Every class in the Glow-Lamp School is named after one of the countries where Lamptey played either for a club or in a big tournament. On the ground floor, where his toddler Malaika attends pre-school play sessions, are China (Shandong), Germany (Greuther Fürth), Portugal (União Leiria), Dubai (Al Nasr), Australia (U20 World Cup) and Brazil (where he earned his last Ghana cap in 1996).

On the next floor, where Latifa (13) and Kadija (12) study, and where the library features hundreds of pictures of his playing career plastered all over the walls, are Belgium (Anderlecht), Argentina (Santa Fe), England (Aston Villa, Coventry), Holland (PSV), Turkey (Ankaragucu), Italy (Venezia), and the venues of memorable international matches, Switzerland, Russia and Sweden.

All those clubs, and yet he was touted to play for Real Madrid or Barcelona. 'Do I have regrets? I don't know. Perhaps you have to explain more from the dictionary what is regret. I won't say regret. I know if it was me alone and people had left me, for sure I should have been playing for Madrid now. But people want your downfall, too many things.

'But even through those things I'm able to stand firm. Whatever a footballer is supposed to achieve, I've done it, I've seen it. Maybe as Pelé put it that I'm going to step in his shoes, that one did not happen. That's a bit painful now, but I have to take it like that.

'I'm OK but because of my educational background I'm not comfortable. I don't want my own children to go through this pain. The best gift you can give your child is education.

'It all comes to education, that's why I decided to use my money for this school. This school makes me happy.'

Offline brontebilly

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Re: The rapid decline of the 92/93 team
« Reply #175 on: April 15, 2020, 11:01:40 PM »
There's a clip on YouTube from 93/94 where Colin Hendry or one of those Blackburn cloggers went through poor Lamptey for a shortcut after he had just come on as a sub. He was stretchered off.

Offline KevinGage

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Re: The rapid decline of the 92/93 team
« Reply #176 on: April 16, 2020, 01:06:05 AM »
If I remember correctly, on his arrival Nil Lamptey arrived with title of 'The Ghanaian Pele'. I don't think many people were still calling him that on his departure, unless they were taking the piss.

Scored a blinder of a goal against Fourth Division Wigan (who were decked out in Inter Milan colours oddly).

Did very little else of note during his time with us.

A shame, I used to get the World Soccer magazine early to 90s and he was regularly mentioned in it. As was Simon Inglis of this parish, with his reviews of football grounds around Europe.


Offline Simon Page

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Re: The rapid decline of the 92/93 team
« Reply #177 on: April 16, 2020, 01:37:58 AM »
BFR never seemed to take to Yorke. He was nearly sold to Man City for £1.5m, I think during 92/3. I had a drunken (me not him) chat with Yorke at an end of season event and he was quite happy to say he just wanted to play. He was definitely frustrated at the lack of opportunities. I'm pretty certain it was the 92/3 player awards and he mentioned the Man City approach.

Offline WarszaVillan

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Re: The rapid decline of the 92/93 team
« Reply #178 on: April 16, 2020, 07:18:14 AM »
If I remember correctly, on his arrival Nil Lamptey arrived with title of 'The Ghanaian Pele'. I don't think many people were still calling him that on his departure, unless they were taking the piss.

Scored a blinder of a goal against Fourth Division Wigan (who were decked out in Inter Milan colours oddly).

Did very little else of note during his time with us.

A shame, I used to get the World Soccer magazine early to 90s and he was regularly mentioned in it. As was Simon Inglis of this parish, with his reviews of football grounds around Europe.



Highlights of that match are on youtube, Lamperty was outstanding.

Offline SoccerHQ

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Re: The rapid decline of the 92/93 team
« Reply #179 on: April 16, 2020, 01:41:46 PM »
I enjoyed that Villa v Utd clip. Thank you.

I cannot now remember, did Yorke immediately become our top striker after Little came in? BFR favoured Atkinson and Saunders to the end. Yorke probably should have been the star striker earlier than he was (based on that clip!)

I think the first few games of 94/95 showed Ron's preference was for Fashanu and Saunders. I remember Andy Gray saying after a couple of games that it certainly made a difference to Saunders' game having a big man up front to win the aerial battles. Then Fashanu got injured around the time of the away leg with Inter and Dalian/Whittifngham/Fenton/Yorke  all interchanged as Saunders' partner up until Ron was sacked. Lamptey made the odd cameo too.

Wasn't Fashanu about 33 at that point? I just thought he came as back up rather than regular first choice. Bit like if Grant Holt had come in and regularly started when we loaned him in that January.

 


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