John Gregory Interview.

[eamonn]

There was the timewarp interview and from then on his days were numbered. With flotation and the NTL money Villa could compete with almost any other club in the transfer market but as a couple of people whose judgment I trust said, for what he spent we should have done better. He signed a lot of average players on above-average wages.

Paying the British premium. Just like his "emulator", Martin O' Neill. Why look across the continent when Steve Stone or Steve Sidwell are proven Premier League players and good pros.... no wonder both managers' style of football flattered to deceive

[Percy McCarthy]

Yeah, he basically called Ellis a dinosaur. Bodymoor Heath was really outdated, and Gregory said that Ellis thought that it was still the best in Europe.

One of my favourite Ellis quotes came from that piece (I think).

“What do you think they’re having at Leicester John? Beans on toast?”

[dcdavecollett]

Thanks for putting up the video -a long watch but I really enjoyed it. In fact, I wish it had been even longer and included his thoughts on his time at Brighton, QPR and Derby and England and how he felt about missing out on the glory years here.

In his first summer, we lost Staunton, Yorke, Savo and Nelson despite already having a threadbare squad, only signed Thompson initially, yet were top of the Prem for three months!! Incredible, really. When the injuries kicked in, we had no chance.

Thought his first two and a third seasons were great but after that he seemed to lose his drive to win matches. The big 'if only'? What if Luc Nilis had never had that shocking injury?

Thanks for some good memories, John.

[brontebilly]

Wasn't that more at Derby? They suspended him first and the accusations were settled out of court (I think). He then managed QPR a year or two later.

He was in with Paul Stretford at the time. The Schmeichel move certainly came about because of that. But then loads of British managers are close with agents and indeed in the years since we've seen them pretty much buying players for clubs, Mendes at Wolves and think Joorbachin had a spell when he was placing 3-4 at Arsenal in a six month period.

Edit; I did laugh at that revelation he went up and sat next to Doug when we won the Intertoto to remind him he was getting a bonus for qualifying for the Uefa cup!

Letting a 31 year old David James go to be replaced by a 38 year old Schmeichel kind of summed up where we were going as a club at the time.

[dcdavecollett]

Yep.

Hadn't James fallen out with Ellis over the latter's failure to talk about extending his contract?

[SoccerHQ]

He's done another one with the Under the Cosh guys (Jon Parkin, Chris Brown and the host) :

The usual stories in this about Steve Stride talking to him in hotel car park when he was Wycombe manager and not signing Muzzy Izzet but he talks more about Collymore in this than all the other interviews he's done in recent times put together.

40 minutes in his time as manager starts.

[garyellis]

There was the timewarp interview and from then on his days were numbered. With flotation and the NTL money Villa could compete with almost any other club in the transfer market but as a couple of people whose judgment I trust said, for what he spent we should have done better. He signed a lot of average players on above-average wages.

it did not take us long to become uncompetitive. By the time O’Leary was in charge we couldn’t afford to keep a past it midfielder on loan. The appointment of Gregory for me encapsulated the small time thinking of Ellis (no relation).

[eamonn]

He's done another one with the Under the Cosh guys (Jon Parkin, Chris Brown and the host) :


The usual stories in this about Steve Stride talking to him in hotel car park when he was Wycombe manager and not signing Muzzy Izzet but he talks more about Collymore in this than all the other interviews he's done in recent times put together.

40 minutes in his time as manager starts.

Re the Collymore content, is that cos it's a Forest podcast?

As for Muzzy Izzet, fuck me, £8.5m on another British (yeah, ok with a Turkish daddy) run of the mill midfielder. Gregory always acts as if this missing piece of the jigsaw was going to be the difference in us being winners instead of (brief) contendas.

[Meanwood Villa]

This is a good point. How much difference would Izzet really have made?

[SoccerHQ]

This is a good point. How much difference would Izzet really have made?

Muzzy Izzet was a decent hardworking player but would've probably made impact of Steve Stone, been a regular for us and solid without ever being the sort to elevate us into the CL spots or win a trophy.

SHA signed him a year or two later and he had to retire injured after a few months.

For how we played at the time Neil Lennon would've been a better signing as Ian Taylor was well into his 30s by then.

[JUAN PABLO]

JG interview , sorry If already posted

[Percy McCarthy]

This is a good point. How much difference would Izzet really have made?

Quite a bit I think. People thought I was mad when we were struggling under DOL and I said signing Solano and Izzet in January would get us into the Champions League. We signed Solano and just missed out by not very much.

[BC Villain]

He's done another one with the Under the Cosh guys (Jon Parkin, Chris Brown and the host) :


The usual stories in this about Steve Stride talking to him in hotel car park when he was Wycombe manager and not signing Muzzy Izzet but he talks more about Collymore in this than all the other interviews he's done in recent times put together.

40 minutes in his time as manager starts.

Re the Collymore content, is that cos it's a Forest podcast?

As for Muzzy Izzet, fuck me, £8.5m on another British (yeah, ok with a Turkish daddy) run of the mill midfielder. Gregory always acts as if this missing piece of the jigsaw was going to be the difference in us being winners instead of (brief) contendas.

Gregory's downfall I always felt was down to him spending the last 12 months in office trying to take on Ellis - a battle he was never going to win.

[Stinkin_Thinkin]

If he's got the robbie keane deal over the line I'm sure things would have worked out better for Gregory and Villa.
Look at the career Keane had compared to Izzet. Muzzy got his big move to chelsea and hardly played, I expected a similar out come if he'd moved to B6. I distinctly remember at the time even Fergie was so rattled at Villa getting KEane he leaked some stuff to his friends in the press saying he wasn't worth the money. Fair play to Cov for paying the extra 500k, they more than doubled their money a few years later.
I've watched a couple of interviews with Gregory and he's mentioned Muzzey izzet but it surprises me he never mentioned Keane and it was a long "will he wont he" saga at the time especially when red face stuck his nose in. Keane was definatly the one who got away more than izzet and Junhinio.

[PeterWithe]

Didn't Izzet come through at Chelsea rather than move there for big money?