Players who have no particular reason to love us - but do

[Rotterdam]

Brian Clough during the EC final.

[Villan For Life]

Brian Clough during the EC final.

I always thought that Cloughie saw the Villa as a potential job. If he’d not had the success that he had at Forest in the early years then there would have been an inevitability about him rocking up at Villa. Doug’s ego allowing of course.

[dcdavecollett]

Doug's ego was why it could never have happened.

One martinet at the club was enough to be going on with.

[Rory]

Brian Clough during the EC final.

I always thought that Cloughie saw the Villa as a potential job. If he’d not had the success that he had at Forest in the early years then there would have been an inevitability about him rocking up at Villa. Doug’s ego allowing of course.

I agree, I think we're a 'Clough' kind of club, albeit we're bigger than any of the clubs he did manage.

[dr.chekov]

Wasn’t Clough linked with us before Saunders was appointed? And didn’t he say he wanted the job, something like: ‘I don’t think Peter Taylor and I would do a good job for Villa, I know we would’?

[Dave P]

Tricky Trevor F was always very knowledgable and complimentary about the Villa when he was doing punditry years ago, almost as if he was trying to overcompensate.

I agree with this.  In a way that BFR and McInally always seem complimentary about blues.

[Exeter 77]

Was it in Doug's book (one of them anyway) that Clough and Taylor went to his house and tried to badger him into giving them the job(s) at Villa? It might have been a figment to our erstwhile chairman's imagination though.

[ez]

I thought Jimmy Greaves had a soft spot for us.

[Villa Lew]

I thought Jimmy Greaves had a soft spot for us.

I think Jimmy and Doug used to fishing together.

[JB1811]

Elmo always loves us.

[dcdavecollett]

Apparently, Clough and Taylor were fishing for the Villa job in December 1972, during the talks over us signing John Robson.

In the summer of '74, Clough gave an exclusive interview to a rookie reporter (Jim Waters?) saying how he and Taylor would transform Villa. The interview appeared in the Brum Mail.

He subsequently made his disastrous move to Leeds.

[dcdavecollett]

More recently, I recall Ashley Westwood, at the end of the 2-2 draw with Burnley, clapping the fans.

Perhaps he felt bad about being part of our relegation team.

[LeeB]

More recently, I recall Ashley Westwood, at the end of the 2-2 draw with Burnley, clapping the fans.

Perhaps he felt bad about being part of our relegation team.

Despite his limitations one of the very few that could hold his head up after that debacle. Always felt a bit sorry for him, like he had to carry the midfield in a shit team for years when he'd just arrived from fourth division football himself.

[Simon Page]

He was the last decade's Mings/Watkins/McGinn.

[cdbearsfan]

I think I've heard Tony Cascarino and Guy Whittingham say how honoured they were to have been Villa players, which is mildly surprising as neither of them exactly had the happiest times here.