Another new era

[dave.woodhall]

Richard Keeling looks forward to it all starting again.

https://heroesandvillains.info/2022/11/04/another-new-era/

[Rory]

Not keen on that article, sorry.

Felt a bit like a MOTD preamble but with some questionable points:

The bit about us being unfortunate with Houllier's health problems. The first issue is that his heart troubles were widely known, so we took an unnecessary risk; the second is that he was doing a pretty shit job anyway.

I don't like Gerrard, but his appointment was not 'the most bizarre since Gregory'. McLeish and RDM made far less sense - and arguably SGT2 & Garde.

This may be more of a personal point, but I never gave Smith more latitude than anybody else, and I'm not sure that many others did. There was plenty of criticism of him. I wasn't impressed with his appointment, but he got us up in his first season, kept us up in his second and we were mid-table in his third, but his legacy as the only Villa manager in a quarter of a century who has achieved his objectives is minimised with talk about it being all down to Grealish, as if getting an exceptional player to perform is a negative for a manager.

But yeah, apologies to the author, but the bits I don't disagree with are truisms.

[Ger Regan]

The main difference between the Houllier and Emery appointments is that Houllier was in semi-retirement at the time, whereas Emery is near the top of his game. That's why this feels like the MON appointment for me, albeit i hope for a better outcome than that ultimately became.

[brontebilly]

The bit about us being unfortunate with Houllier's health problems. The first issue is that his heart troubles were widely known, so we took an unnecessary risk; the second is that he was doing a pretty shit job anyway.

I don't like Gerrard, but his appointment was not 'the most bizarre since Gregory'. McLeish and RDM made far less sense - and arguably SGT2 & Garde.

Agreed on Houllier, there is quite a degree of revisionism at play about his time in charge at Villa Park. Falling out with a core of senior players almost immediately and having us anywhere near a relegation battle was dreadful management. Not to mind being backed heavily in signing Bent and Makoun in January. If MON had been given those funds by Lerner a few months previously it's likely we would still have been very competitive even without Milner.

I suspect the author has simply forgotten about the idiotic decision by Lerner to bring in McLeish, despite the rancid football I thought he suffered a surreal amount of bad luck with injuries/illness to key players. RDM had a recent promotion under his belt at West Brom, so there was logic there. Same for Remi Garde who did a fine job at Lyon in trying circumstances before us and was a somewhat logical choice to get the best out of some young talented French players. SGT2 was a poor decision for sure, some misty eyed romanticism at play from Ellis.

Gerrard was an unnecessary gamble and Purslow should have paid for it with his own job (and might yet do shortly).

[PeterWithesShin]

If MON had spent that money we'd have carried on signing shit British players, Aiden McGeady for starters. And GH created space on the wages for those by moving out a bunch of players, something MON didn't do in the summer.

[dave.woodhall]

Yippee, another Houlier debate.

[Ian.]

Yippee, another Houlier debate.

How about a MON one?

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

A potted history of Villa managerial appointments in the last 50 years.
Yet no mention of the last one to win a proper trophy for us or the one that won the biggest of all.

[dave.woodhall]

A potted history of Villa managerial appointments in the last 50 years.
Yet no mention of the last one to win a proper trophy for us or the one that won the biggest of all.

That's because it was new eras rather than continuations, which Tony Barton definitely and Brian Little probably were.

[Rory]

Sorry for being a bit harsh in my post above. It's a better article than I could manage, and I wasn't very fair. My apologies to the author.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

A potted history of Villa managerial appointments in the last 50 years.
Yet no mention of the last one to win a proper trophy for us or the one that won the biggest of all.

That's because it was new eras rather than continuations, which Tony Barton definitely and Brian Little probably were.

Point taken with Tony Barton. But Brian Little built a fine new team generally signing young but proven players. Wright, Southgate, Taylor, Draper, Milosevic, Joachim, Johnson all had varying degrees of success. Curcic was his stand out duff signing. If only Collymore had come off we could have had something really special.

[Brazilian Villain]

Point taken with Tony Barton. But Brian Little built a fine new team generally signing young but proven players. Wright, Southgate, Taylor, Draper, Milosevic, Joachim, Johnson all had varying degrees of success. Curcic was his stand out duff signing. If only Collymore had come off we could have had something really special.

Agree with all that, remember being particularly excited going into the 95-96 season after the summer's business.

[dave.woodhall]

A potted history of Villa managerial appointments in the last 50 years.
Yet no mention of the last one to win a proper trophy for us or the one that won the biggest of all.

That's because it was new eras rather than continuations, which Tony Barton definitely and Brian Little probably were.

Point taken with Tony Barton. But Brian Little built a fine new team generally signing young but proven players. Wright, Southgate, Taylor, Draper, Milosevic, Joachim, Johnson all had varying degrees of success. Curcic was his stand out duff signing. If only Collymore had come off we could have had something really special.

When he arrived Little wasn't a massive upheaval in the same way that, say Docherty or O'Neill were. There'd been an inevitability about it for years and he moved in seamlessly, but it's all about opinions.