Question for more mature Villans re: 1982

[LeeB]

Beautiful Dave.

[castlefields_villan]

I genuinely didn't believe we'd win the league right up until we met Arsenal on that Saturday and nothing in that first twenty-five minutes or so convinced me I was wrong.  I didn't even want to go to the match, it was my long-time mate and Villa travelling companion that convinced me to go on the Friday for which I shall be eternally grateful.  I think my negativity stemmed from the fact that Ipswich had that game in hand and the other fact that to balls it up would be such a Villa thing to do.

Me and my mate were also work colleagues and he was on nights and he came down to see me on the Friday lunch time to see what we were doing and I will never forget the sentence he said that convinced me to go, he said 'C'mon Chap, we've gotta go, think of all the years and the shit holes we've been to and all the shit football we've seen, we can't not go now when it's within touching distance'.  That did it for me, the rest as they say is history.  I've posted before that I attach more importance to that achievement than that of Rotterdam.

At almost seventy-four years of age, I love this club as much now as I did when I was ten.

[/b]

I'm 9 years younger - and I only thought exactly the same thing as we well and truly put Man Utd in their place on Sunday.  And I did think "should I really be taking it this seriously at 65 years old!"

Yes, I was there through all those tremendous days and fully agree with a few things you've all said :

1977 - Really thought the treble was on ("we're gonna win the lot" and all that) - After a slightly disappointing start to 77-78 (lost at home first 2 games to Man City 1-4 and Everton 1-2 after scoring first in both games if I remember correctly - I thought we'd missed the bus for winning the league - although we only lost narrowly to Barcelona in EUFA quarters.

The 78-79 and 79-80 seasons were obviously full of Ron's master strokes for building the team bit by bit - but I still say nobody gave us much chance for league as 80-81 kicked off.  I think the game that finally convinced me we could do it was the 2-0 against Liverpool and from then on it was pretty much just between us and Ipswich.  The Highbury day was just amazing because like others have already said - maybe there wasn't quite so much to the european cup with the format it was played in back then and also we were just following on from where Liverpool and Nottingham Forest had left off.  Like so many - the real follow up for me would have been to have won the title again or I think what most of us wanted was that FA Cup win.  However despite everything - who could ever forget that moment as Tony Morley played the ball across Bayern's 6 yard line for Peter Withe to put it in.  I still feel we couldn't have beaten much stiffer opposition than we did in the tournament as with the exception of Rejkovic all the other teams had been seasoned campaigners in one or other of the european competitions for as long as I could remember.

Can those days return ?  Well yes I think they can
UTV

[LeeB]

Dynamo Berlin were the definition of a sadly long lost phrase:

"Crack Eastern European outfit"

[cdward]

I think it is probably still harder to win the League than the EC. Although both feel like light years away right now.

English clubs have done well in Europe for a few years now, as they did in the 70's and 80's and we probably have a healthier budget compared to say Villarreal.
We just need to get there first.

[Rory]

I think it is probably still harder to win the League than the EC. Although both feel like light years away right now.

English clubs have done well in Europe for a few years now, as they did in the 70's and 80's and we probably have a healthier budget compared to say Villarreal.
We just need to get there first.

Absolutely it is, which is why the 'Champions League' should only include the winners and (maybe) the runners up from each league.

But that would spread the talent too thinly and mean that, say Tottenham, with their inexplicable fanbase in Asia, would no longer have an advantage when it comes to attracting players over, say Ajax, or Benfica, or any of the number of other bigger and more successful clubs who worked to win their league, because sixth-placed Tottenham are a better option.

[LeeB]

I think it is probably still harder to win the League than the EC. Although both feel like light years away right now.

English clubs have done well in Europe for a few years now, as they did in the 70's and 80's and we probably have a healthier budget compared to say Villarreal.
We just need to get there first.

Absolutely it is, which is why the 'Champions League' should only include the winners and (maybe) the runners up from each league.

But that would spread the talent too thinly and mean that, say Tottenham, with their inexplicable fanbase in Asia, would no longer have an advantage when it comes to attracting players over, say Ajax, or Benfica, or any of the number of other bigger and more successful clubs who worked to win their league, because sixth-placed Tottenham are a better option.

The single act of making the Champions Cup a straight knockout featuring only the winners would do more to correct the problems in football than anything else

[Simon Page]

Amen brother.

[Brend'Watkins]

Agreed.  Pandora's Box is now open and there'll be no going back.  We'll do well to keep the European league out of the way for the next 10 years I feel.

[ChrisVilla52]

Winning the league and European Cup seemed fantastic after being down in the 3rd division a few years before. Still got my travel pass for the day

[astonvilla82]

Winning the league and European Cup seemed fantastic after being down in the 3rd division a few years before. Still got my travel pass for the day

still got the travel pass for train and ferry to Anderlecht, only cost £28

[Border villan]

Winning the league and European Cup seemed fantastic after being down in the 3rd division a few years before. Still got my travel pass for the day

still got the travel pass for train and ferry to Anderlecht, only cost £28

Still have my travel pass and match ticket. Both framed and hung next to my father’s ‘57 cup final ticket.

[London Villan]

I think it is probably still harder to win the League than the EC. Although both feel like light years away right now.

English clubs have done well in Europe for a few years now, as they did in the 70's and 80's and we probably have a healthier budget compared to say Villarreal.
We just need to get there first.

We've probably got more of a chance of winning the Champions League rather than the Premier League - both very slim admittedly. But a couple of seasons of European experience and with Emery's know-how, there would be a chance.

[Martin Carruthers]

How full was the ground at Rotterdam? It always looks quite sparse from the footage, but anyone I've spoken to that was there says we were packed in.

[castlefields_villan]

I can't remember exactly what the attendance was now - was it something like 39,000+?  Yes when you see it on tv there's certainly empty seats on the side opposite where the cameras were - however as I remember we were nicely packed in behind the goal at our end and from where I was it looked the same in the Bayern end.

[London Villan]

How full was the ground at Rotterdam? It always looks quite sparse from the footage, but anyone I've spoken to that was there says we were packed in.

It was nowhere near full. 36,000 is what I remember it to be. But our terrace was packed.