If you’ve read the book or seen the film ‘The Damned United’ you will know that the story of Brian Clough’s short reign at Leeds United is told alongside flashbacks to his time at Derby County, cherry-picking certain events that provide a contrast between earlier success and current failure. This shifting of narrative timeframes is a device that, when done well, is incredibly potent – highlighting the significance of seemingly incidental details that are only revealed when the whole storyline has unfolded. So this morning, basking in the glow of one of the most remarkable results of my lifetime, I am being drawn to put pen to paper about a nagging feeling I’ve had for a while now - that we are living through an era that resonates with a whole host of the most important moments in Villa’s last 60 years. Bear with me and I will explain why.
In the late 60’s Villa were about to be relegated to the Third Division, in disarray on and off the pitch. Land around Villa Park, including our training ground, had been sold in order to keep the club financially solvent, and there appeared to be a real danger to our very existence. The subsequent takeover of the club by a consortium of wealthy businessmen started the return of the club to an even keel. Whilst we never sunk to the depths of the old Division Three in 2017-18, there is something remarkably similar to the parlous state of our affairs when a certain poorly-shoed individual was selling off parcels of land to pay the bills, before passing on the responsibility of ownership to two exceedingly wealthy businessmen before the start of 2018-19.
Once our new owners got their feet under the table, as well as stabilising the financial position of the club they were quickly able to identify major weaknesses on the playing side. Realising that the former captain of one of Britain’s most successful club sides in an earlier era might not be the man for the manager’s job, they appointed someone who had a largely unremarkable playing career. Dean Smith had forged a strong reputation as a manager with a suburban London club, building a side that seemed greater than the sum of their parts – not unlike another manager who was appointed the last time we were in the Second Division in 1987-88. Building his Villa team around a talented young English midfielder, results improved and whilst promotion was never a clear-cut certainty, it was achieved at the first time of asking.
In another parallel with a more distant promotion season, we appeared at Wembley. Whilst there were no play-offs in 1975, a League Cup Final victory saw us lifting a trophy under the Twin Towers in much the same way we would celebrate under the Wembley arch 43 years later. Anwar El Ghazi might be no Ray Graydon, but as a goal-scoring winger in a cup-final you have to admit that there is a certain resemblance.
Our first year back at the top table would be a difficult one, with safety only being secured on the final day of an elongated season. As in 1988-89, we finished one place above the trapdoor, with the presence of one of the most talented young English midfielders of his generation being pivotal. Mere survival not being good enough for Villa, the search was on to supplement the individual talents in the existing squad with under-recognised and under-valued players from elsewhere. Amongst the signings were an attacking right-back from a Championship side and a prodigiously talented midfielder who had lost his way at a Top-4 club. These might not have been the most obvious of solutions, but looking back it seemed to work in 1989-90.
And so to the events of 4th October 2020. Liverpool, all-conquering champions of England swaggered into town fully confident of victory over little old Aston Villa. A remarkable performance and a result that stunned the nation – where have we heard that one before? Even from the typically biased Sky commentary box, the parallel with December 17th 1976 was noted. What wasn’t picked up on, however, was one of the driving forces behind this defining victory was a midfield that contained a tough, tenacious Scottish ex-Hibs player, an athletic, box-to-box dynamo hailing from Liverpool, and a generational genius born close to home. It might have been a midfield from a few years after the 1976 result, but it looks and sounds like something that is etched into the consciousness of every Villa fan.
I know that there are people a lot more articulate and well-versed in our history than I am who could tell us the full story behind the snippets I’ve picked to back-up my claims. I’m not old enough to have seen or remember much of the history I’ve outlined – Graham Taylor’s time was the beginning of my life as an attending supporter, and I was a pre-schooler when we were winning the League and sweeping all before us in Europe. Everything I’ve described can be easily attributed to confirmation bias – cherry-picking of convenient facts to suit a pre-determined narrative.
Wouldn’t it be a great story though? The greatest hits of the last 60 years of our history being condensed into a 5-10 year period to suit the shorter attention spans of the YouTube Generation? Not so much The Damned United, more like The Blessed Villa. I can’t wait to see how it all turns out.
