Villa seasons where nothing much happened.

[Rory]

2003/2004 aside, the first half of the 2000s were a bit meh. The attendances were down on what they were in the 90s.

2002/03 and 2004/05 would've been very forgettable seasons but for the SHA games which stick in the mind for all the wrong reasons.

2003/04 was pretty good though, full of highs and lows and us getting closer to top 4 at the end than any of the O'Neill seasons.

This is a bit of a controversial one, and has never occurred to me before until this very minute, I wonder if O'Leary had had MON's type of backing in 2004/05 would he have cracked the top four?

I don't remember it being a solidified 'Sky 4' at that point, more like Man Utd & Arsenal, what I thought would be flash-in-the-pan Chelsea, then Liverpool competitive in the cups but not particularly in the league.

Difficult, but I don't recall it feeling quite the Herculean effort it became around 2006 onwards.

[Deano's Mullet]

I would probably vote for 00-01 as well. O'Neill's first season was fairly dull too but needed after the trauma of the year before, a lot of draws and a winless run sandwiched in between an unbeaten  start and an unbeaten finish.
The first season in the championship was like a breath of fresh air to me at least,  we were only 13th but we actually started to win games and it felt like fun going again. The first home game v Rotherham was great after such a long long winless run and I honestly thought we would piss the division with McCormack, Gestede and Kodjia up front. Kodjia did something interesting  most weeks and Jack scored some blinders too.

[Meanwood Villa]

2003/2004 aside, the first half of the 2000s were a bit meh. The attendances were down on what they were in the 90s.

2002/03 and 2004/05 would've been very forgettable seasons but for the SHA games which stick in the mind for all the wrong reasons.

2003/04 was pretty good though, full of highs and lows and us getting closer to top 4 at the end than any of the O'Neill seasons.

This is a bit of a controversial one, and has never occurred to me before until this very minute, I wonder if O'Leary had had MON's type of backing in 2004/05 would he have cracked the top four?

I don't remember it being a solidified 'Sky 4' at that point, more like Man Utd & Arsenal, what I thought would be flash-in-the-pan Chelsea, then Liverpool competitive in the cups but not particularly in the league.

Difficult, but I don't recall it feeling quite the Herculean effort it became around 2006 onwards.

My recollection from when ITV had the highlights show around that time was that it was very much Man U, Liverpool and Arsenal featured games and then the rest. So I guess you could say the fourth berth was up for grabs but Abrahamovich blew that out of the water.

[Meanwood Villa]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Cup_and_UEFA_Champions_League_records_and_statistics

This has got some interesting stats on Champions' League appearances

[Meanwood Villa]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Champions_League_clubs_performance_comparison

This is probably better link

[SoccerHQ]

2003/2004 aside, the first half of the 2000s were a bit meh. The attendances were down on what they were in the 90s.

2002/03 and 2004/05 would've been very forgettable seasons but for the SHA games which stick in the mind for all the wrong reasons.

2003/04 was pretty good though, full of highs and lows and us getting closer to top 4 at the end than any of the O'Neill seasons.

This is a bit of a controversial one, and has never occurred to me before until this very minute, I wonder if O'Leary had had MON's type of backing in 2004/05 would he have cracked the top four?

I don't remember it being a solidified 'Sky 4' at that point, more like Man Utd & Arsenal, what I thought would be flash-in-the-pan Chelsea, then Liverpool competitive in the cups but not particularly in the league.

Difficult, but I don't recall it feeling quite the Herculean effort it became around 2006 onwards.

Liverpool were pretty poor that season even though they won the european cup, finished about 7th. Spurs were hit and miss as usual. That was the season Everton finished 4th of course.

From memory it was a bit like a Gregory season. We started off fine between August-December and were actually unbeaten at VP up to mid December. But losing to SHA in manner we did messed things up and we were poor for the rest of it and lost key players to injury. And Angel picking up leg injury at end of 03/04 meant he was never the same force (Vassell also broke his fit in the October if I've got that right Eamonn......)

Our star January signing was Eric Djemba Djemba of course so where we were as a club in those times. Ellis era only had 18 months to run at that point

[curiousorange]

Basically, if we were supplied by Diadora or post-Millennial Hummel, I've largely forgotten it.

[sid1964]

79-80 season - remember seeing us lose to Middlesbrough on a Wednesday night in April? - I think there were 16000 in attendance

It seemed at that point we were a million miles away from what we went on to achieve over the next few seasons

[WarszaVillan]

The years between the league cup win and championship season were pretty uneventful. A mid-table team in transition, losing its best players, interrupted by the odd spectacular win (e.g. Spurs) and cup run. Then what seemed out of nowhere it all suddenly came right.

[Richard]

The years between the league cup win and championship season were pretty uneventful. A mid-table team in transition, losing its best players, interrupted by the odd spectacular win (e.g. Spurs) and cup run. Then what seemed out of nowhere it all suddenly came right.

Yep ! Those 3 seasons between the great ones of 76/77 and 80/81 were fairly non descript - I do remember we started to beat Blues more often after a pretty bad run against them, also the 3-1 v Liverpool when Deehan had a stormer and when we took over Highfield Road to see a league cup replay (3-0) v Palace I think.

[wittonwarrior]

79-80 season - remember seeing us lose to Middlesbrough on a Wednesday night in April? - I think there were 16000 in attendance

It seemed at that point we were a million miles away from what we went on to achieve over the next few seasons

should have won the cup though - bottled it at Upton Park (okay injuries played a part) but negative tactics as well

[Chris Harte]

1984-85. We had Didier Six on loan who impressed as we hammered Manyoo 3-0 but then achieved very little else. And Tony Daley made his debut towards the end of the season, but aside from that the season was very unremarkable. Not even a cup run.