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Author Topic: John Gregory Interview.  (Read 12633 times)

Offline tony scott

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Re: John Gregory Interview.
« Reply #15 on: June 07, 2021, 10:29:57 PM »
Just a good listen, Matt Kendrick has said he’s got David Platt in his sights for an interview but he can’t see the real biggie Martin O’neill happening

Offline eamonn

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Re: John Gregory Interview.
« Reply #16 on: June 08, 2021, 12:26:47 PM »
Watched/listened to this yesterday. I think Gregory still has huge regrets about how he left the Villa both as a player and manager. He covers his departure as a player very honestly. All for the sake of £25 quid a week in 1979. Casting envious glances from his new club, Brighton to the midlands as we soon won the league and European Cup.

In terms of leaving the Villa as a manager - well very few go on to bigger things and so it proved with him. He was a mixed bag of a manager. The performances and results for the calendar year 1998 when he took over would have seen us win the league if it ran Feb-Dec. The following three years were bad cover versions.

The swagger he cultivated from the outset, within himself but also as a cheerleader for the club, was great to listen to when the results went well but made it all the more galling when we were going through long spells of turgid football, struggling to score.

That he still clutches to not being given the money to sign the mighty Muzzy Izzet...Doug may have penny-pinched but Gregory struggled to get value on a fair few of his (English - MON prototype...don't be like them, Dean...please) signings - the Geordie trio of Watson/Thompson/Stone all underwhelmed at an average of £5m a pop. Bosko Balaban was a....bung(?). I'd have liked Kendrick to challenge him a bit more on the transfers and seeing things from Doug's perspective but I guess that's the thing with these podcasts. Fantastic to hear ex-players/managers of the Villa talk at length and uncensored but the host is generally going to feed them nice "buddy" questions rather than difficult ones.

Respect for JG in how he stalked Ollie Mellberg into signing for us though.
And I hope all those Muller yoghurts didn't leave stains on his sofas - a fcuking nightmare to remove.

Offline Risso

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Re: John Gregory Interview.
« Reply #17 on: June 08, 2021, 12:41:01 PM »
It was an interesting interview and good to hear from Gregory as I still have a lot of happy memories of his time. But Kendrick dodged asking a few trickier questions, such as the Balaban transfer as eamonn rightly mentions.

That period when he first took over from Sir Brian though, what a blast that was. And topping the table twice was pretty decent as well, it's just sad that it petered out as it always seems to do when we have good periods (see O'Neill from March onwards every year, and Smith this season just finished for other examples.)

Offline Duncan Shaw

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Re: John Gregory Interview.
« Reply #18 on: June 08, 2021, 01:28:06 PM »
I still find it hard to forgive the negative way we played in 2000, with a side full of attacking flair,  where an average Chelsesa side where there for the taking!

Offline SoccerHQ

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Re: John Gregory Interview.
« Reply #19 on: June 08, 2021, 01:53:08 PM »
Just a good listen, Matt Kendrick has said he’s got David Platt in his sights for an interview but he can’t see the real biggie Martin O’neill happening

O'Neill's done a few interviews online in last year, don't know how much he talks about us or if it's just 90% Brian Clough stories.

Offline SoccerHQ

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Re: John Gregory Interview.
« Reply #20 on: June 08, 2021, 01:57:29 PM »
It was an interesting interview and good to hear from Gregory as I still have a lot of happy memories of his time. But Kendrick dodged asking a few trickier questions, such as the Balaban transfer as eamonn rightly mentions.

That period when he first took over from Sir Brian though, what a blast that was. And topping the table twice was pretty decent as well, it's just sad that it petered out as it always seems to do when we have good periods (see O'Neill from March onwards every year, and Smith this season just finished for other examples.)

Surprised he wasn't asked about Angel either. I got his book that came out in 2001 (?) and he mentioned we played in London and he got to Heathrow just in time to make the flight on a motorbike and went to watch him play, think he wanted Pablo Aimar and Diego Forlan from around that time aswell.

He actually answered the Balaban question in a Q&A he did with the club website years back, joked it would be on his gravestone and he'd never seen him play live although felt he'd come good eventually given it took JPA a good six months to get going:

https://www.avfc.co.uk/news/2012/09/11/askgregory-part-two-john-on-doug-bosko-and-fa-cup-regrets

Offline SoccerHQ

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Re: John Gregory Interview.
« Reply #21 on: June 08, 2021, 02:00:20 PM »
Also was waiting for them to touch more on Collymore but guess that was off limits! JG alluded to what it was like working with him, brilliant v Liverpool on his debut, then had the issue with Harkness allegedly abusing him and then useless in first leg v Atletico Madrid on the Tuesday.

I would assume he massively regrets that comment now about how can you be depressed on 20k a week, can understand why he said it in 1999 but completely unacceptable nowadays.

Offline SoccerHQ

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Re: John Gregory Interview.
« Reply #22 on: June 08, 2021, 02:03:41 PM »
I still find it hard to forgive the negative way we played in 2000, with a side full of attacking flair,  where an average Chelsesa side where there for the taking!

We really didn't have a squad full of attacking flair though....our sub options that day were Jloyd, Steve Stone, Joachim and Hendrie. Hendrie only one of those who arguably should've started.

Could understand the logic of playing the first half like we did....but we just stuck with the negativity right up to the last 10 minutes so terrible second half was the issue and Chelsea did eventually step it up and dominate for a good twenty minutes before the scrappy goal.

Had a team of graft and solidity in those days bar Merse and Carbone who could come up with magic so there was always a limit in how on the front foot we could be.

Quote
Q] If you could play the 2000 FA Cup final again, would you do anything different?

A] Yes, I'd win it!

I would do lots of things differently. That game haunts me. There have been times in my life where I've sat there and thought: "Why didn't I play a more offensive style on the day and really go for it!"

I just feel tactically I got it all wrong on the day.

I thought if we could keep Chelsea quiet for an hour we'd start imposing our game.

We were always a very strong second half team. I always thought 0-0 at half-time was a good score because we were very strong after the break. There was a lot of energy and the lads were fit and in that situation we generally won games.

I just wanted to keep them quiet but we didn't, they nicked one and the rest is history. It was very poor after that and we never really had a go until the last 10 minutes.

Had it been a good game and we had lost 4-3, 3-2, even 2-1, you could draw some comfort from it.

But no, I got it wrong and I have to live with it.
« Last Edit: June 08, 2021, 02:05:49 PM by SoccerHQ »

Online Drummond

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Re: John Gregory Interview.
« Reply #23 on: June 08, 2021, 03:04:16 PM »
Yep, he does have to live with it.

I've never been so disappointed in anything.

Offline eamonn

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Re: John Gregory Interview.
« Reply #24 on: June 08, 2021, 03:37:28 PM »
Villa beat Chelsea Spring 1998 at Stamford Bridge a fortnight after he took over (might have been in between the two Atletico ties) pretty comfortably. It was only 1-0 but we did most of the running. There was such an attacking swagger about us in Gregory's first three months in charge. Scoring for fun, winning nearly every game, never drawing! (shades of how we started this season, perhaps)
 
We then lost Yorke at the end of the following summer and Savo/Stan departed too after their own problems but I compare that Spring 1998 flair-filled team to the one who rocked-up against Chelsea at Wembley barely two years later and didn't even lay a glove in a desperately disappointing display.
Lee Hendrie probably the best contrasting example - in 1998, he's a precocious Grealish-lite thriller of a player. Two years on, his time has been and gone with the international team, he's lost confidence and fitness and struggles to get in a fairly workmanlike midfield.

I guess it mainly shows that it's a lot easier to perform when the pressure is off and a new manager has just come in (especially a likeable one who has coached the players before). *sigh* They do make us hope and dream...don't they?

Online Stinkin_Thinkin

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Re: John Gregory Interview.
« Reply #25 on: June 08, 2021, 05:29:01 PM »
Shame he didn't talk about Robbie Keane either. I remember thinking at the time if we got him we would be serious contenders. As I recall it rattled Man utd, Alex Ferguson went public sticking his nose in, which I believe put Gregory/Ellis off.
Great interview he really is a character.

Offline Damo70

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Re: John Gregory Interview.
« Reply #26 on: June 08, 2021, 09:17:48 PM »
I really enjoyed watching this .It answered a few things i had always  wondered  about over the years like Doug's penny pinching and the no show against Chelsea in the cup final and JG admitting it will always haunt him how we just never turned up .The thing that really  interested  me was how frank he was about Yorke  and how he had told JG that he just did'nt want to play for Aston Villa anymore and how he did'nt lift a leg at Everton .To me he is up there with Steve Hodge as someone i will always have utter contempt  for

I was there that day at Everton, it was clear that something was up. I loved Yorke, and players move on, it's their career etc but it left such a sour taste, and then the badge kissing nonsense was pure twattery.
He got what he wanted and was proven correct with the treble win, but I've got to say I quite enjoyed it when he was disposed off unceremoniously and spent the rest of his days jobbing around at crap clubs.

Maybe because I'm a bit older and wiser, but I never had the same issue with Young or even Benteke, both of whom I'd have had back in a heartbeat.


*Fun Fact* That Yorke Manure badge kissing day was the day my wife and I moved into our house.

Online LeeB

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Re: John Gregory Interview.
« Reply #27 on: June 08, 2021, 09:19:41 PM »
My condolences pal, truly a dark day.

Offline Jon Crofts

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Re: John Gregory Interview.
« Reply #28 on: June 08, 2021, 09:36:54 PM »
Yep, he does have to live with it.

I've never been so disappointed in anything.

What not even the 2015 Final?

Offline brontebilly

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Re: John Gregory Interview.
« Reply #29 on: June 08, 2021, 09:44:32 PM »
Shame he didn't talk about Robbie Keane either. I remember thinking at the time if we got him we would be serious contenders. As I recall it rattled Man utd, Alex Ferguson went public sticking his nose in, which I believe put Gregory/Ellis off.
Great interview he really is a character.

Keane would have been a great signing at the time. The right age and profile. But I always felt Gregory, like MON, preferred the older pro and was generally a bit risk averse when it came to team selection and transfers. Juninho and Izzet wouldnt have changed things too much and the Geordie trio were dreadful.

 


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