Aston Villa v Olympiacos - UECL Semi Final First Leg Pre Match

[PeterWithesShin]

Just wish him good luck against our U21s next season in the EFL Trophy.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport-columnists/arid-41386384.html

Can anyone un-paywall this column on us? Not sure how it works on archive.org

It's a long one, Eamonn, just keep pressing Esc as it loads.

[Brazilian Villain]

Confidence is going a bit now. Don’t fuck this up villa

Still feeling confident, but it's only hitting home now that we're in a European semi-final. Yeah Baby! Yeah!!

[Brazilian Villain]

https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport-columnists/arid-41386384.html

Can anyone un-paywall this column on us? Not sure how it works on archive.org

It's a long one, Eamonn,

Not a phrase he hears often.

[Steve67]

I'm wondering if Unai will send them out to go hell for leather in the first half, hope for a positive half-time scoreline and then take a bit off for the weekend, ready for Sunday's game.

[pauliewalnuts]

https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport-columnists/arid-41386384.html

Tommy Martin: Aston Villa fans walk among us. This is their time

These are heady days for Aston Villa fans, that small but statistically significant section of society who are preparing for their first European semi-final since 1982.

They walk among us.

You may be looking at one now and you don’t know it. They dress like us, act like us and appear just like the rest of us, aside from the wistful look of those who dream often of Gordon Cowans in his prime.

These are heady days for Aston Villa fans, that small but statistically significant section of society who are preparing for their first European semi-final since 1982. That was the year Villa won the European Cup, their title-winning manager Ron Saunders having left mid-season over a contract dispute, chief scout Tony Barton the caretaker with his name etched in history.

This time around it is the Europa Conference League that offers Villa a glimpse of glory. The tournament is UEFA’s version of the welfare state, a vessel for redistribution to those less fortunate while the petrostates and hedge funds blast off into the distance.

So far it has allowed Roma and West Ham the taste of European silverware, demonstrating a knack for giving storied but trophy-shy outfits a share of the end-of-season wealth. Enter Aston Villa.

You know Aston Villa fans – you probably have to think about it for a few seconds, but you do. Here in Ireland, they bear the greying temples and telltale dadbods of 1990s kids who fell in love with Ron Atkinson’s green-tinged team of the era. They came for Paul McGrath, Steve Staunton and Ray Houghton but stayed for the wing wizard Tony Daley, the goals of Dean Saunders and the hint of the dissolute already apparent in a young Dwight Yorke.

Villa were tremendous fun back then, finishing second in 1990 under Graham Taylor, 17th a season later under Jozef Venglos, before taking a ride on the Big Ron rollercoaster. Ron had them runners-up again in 1992-93 and League Cup winners a year later but was sacked in November 1994 with Villa on the way to 18th, one spot above the relegation zone.

After that came Brian Little and another League Cup, the zeitgeisty back three of McGrath, Gareth Southgate and Ugo Ehiogu, the club transfer record smashed for an eye-watering £3.5million on Savo Milosevic, Yorke dazzling all the while. Then it was John Gregory, fast-talking Cockney hardman who presided over a cup final appearance, regular UEFA Cup runs and a squad that featured the mercurial talents of Stan Collymore, Paul Merson and David Ginola at one stage or another.

How different, when compared to the wage-bill bound certainties of today, the idea of supporting a football club must be for Villa fans formed in that era, when any upcoming season for a middle-ranking club could as easily bring an unlikely title challenge or a nail-biting relegation struggle? What would the Opta supercomputer have made of Deadly Doug Ellis?

Think wider than your immediate circle and there are the famous Villa fans, from minor media personalities to actual royalty. Superstar violinist Nigel Kennedy loves McGrath more than Vivaldi; Tom Hanks has been known to pop into Villa Park when on location in the UK; on the posher end, there’s Prince William and former prime minister David Cameron, whose support of the club was not at all a cynical manoeuvre to curry favour with the proles, even though he once got them mixed up with West Ham in a campaign speech.

Prince William claims to support Villa because all his chums at Eton followed either Manchester United or Chelsea (Liverpool presumably being a little to sedition-adjacent for the future rulers of Britain) and it is within the outsider mindset that the soul of Irish Villa supporters also lies.

As a child growing up in Ireland you have life-defining and character-revealing decision to make. Most Irish playgrounds are divided between the red armies of Manchester and Merseyside, with Arsenal and latterly Chelsea offering alternative caucuses in which to assemble.

But there are those who choose to stand alone and pick from that subset of middle-ranking English giants – the quirky Spurs fan, the Everton oddball, the Leeds kid loyal to his poor old dad and, always, one seduced by the lovely claret and blue. In these increasingly stratified times in elite football, these youngsters are often dooming themselves to a lifetime of association with on-field underachievement, boardroom shenanigans and solitary misery.

And it is amazing how enduring that association is. I can picture in my head now a guy I met in college nearly 30 years ago. I don’t remember his name or anything else about him other than the fact that he was a Sheffield Wednesday fan. If his face appeared on the news tonight as that of the leader of a terrorist organisation that had committed a mass atrocity costing the lives of thousands, I would point at the screen and say, “he’s a Sheffield Wednesday fan!”

For their part, Villa fans have chosen quite well. If you are going to be indelibly tied to something beyond the glory-hunting mainstream, it may as well be Villa, constantly either challenging for Europe or hurtling towards relegation. Things are never dull, and if all else fails you have the gorgeous Archibald Leitch-designed environs of Villa Park to enjoy, a proper football ground in a fast-dwindling list of them.

And now, one of their periodic highs, heading for the Champions League and in a European semi-final. Unai Emery suits Villa, in that his successes are bite-sized and neatly presented, like footballing tapas, but don’t necessarily mean sustained eras of prolonged glory. Emery’s Europa League victories with Sevilla and Villarreal showed him as a master of the two-legged struggle, able to tweak and squeeze and nudge and shimmy his teams through European ties even against seemingly stronger opposition.

Therefore, you’d fancy Villa to end a 28-year wait for a trophy, given that they face Olympiacos in their Conference League semi-final and potentially Fiorentina or Club Brugge in the final. But having been relegated five years after winning the European Cup 1982, their supporters won’t be getting carried away.

If you pass someone today with just the merest hint of a smile, beware, it might be a Villa fan.

I observe with interest he makes that relatively common Leitch mistake.

[PeterWithesShin]

Looks good in Villa Park

https://twitter.com/europacnfleague/status/1786087370221035594

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Eamonn, there's the usual bit about our history since 82.

This is the more interesting part..

Think wider than your immediate circle and there are the famous Villa fans, from minor media personalities to actual royalty. Superstar violinist Nigel Kennedy loves McGrath more than Vivaldi; Tom Hanks has been known to pop into Villa Park when on location in the UK; on the posher end, there’s Prince William and former prime minister David Cameron, whose support of the club was not at all a cynical manoeuvre to curry favour with the proles, even though he once got them mixed up with West Ham in a campaign speech.

Prince William claims to support Villa because all his chums at Eton followed either Manchester United or Chelsea (Liverpool presumably being a little to sedition-adjacent for the future rulers of Britain) and it is within the outsider mindset that the soul of Irish Villa supporters also lies.

As a child growing up in Ireland you have life-defining and character-revealing decision to make. Most Irish playgrounds are divided between the red armies of Manchester and Merseyside, with Arsenal and latterly Chelsea offering alternative caucuses in which to assemble.

But there are those who choose to stand alone and pick from that subset of middle-ranking English giants – the quirky Spurs fan, the Everton oddball, the Leeds kid loyal to his poor old dad and, always, one seduced by the lovely claret and blue. In these increasingly stratified times in elite football, these youngsters are often dooming themselves to a lifetime of association with on-field underachievement, boardroom shenanigans and solitary misery.

And it is amazing how enduring that association is. I can picture in my head now a guy I met in college nearly 30 years ago. I don’t remember his name or anything else about him other than the fact that he was a Sheffield Wednesday fan. If his face appeared on the news tonight as that of the leader of a terrorist organisation that had committed a mass atrocity costing the lives of thousands, I would point at the screen and say, “he’s a Sheffield Wednesday fan!”

For their part, Villa fans have chosen quite well. If you are going to be indelibly tied to something beyond the glory-hunting mainstream, it may as well be Villa, constantly either challenging for Europe or hurtling towards relegation. Things are never dull, and if all else fails you have the gorgeous Archibald Leitch-designed environs of Villa Park to enjoy, a proper football ground in a fast-dwindling list of them.

And now, one of their periodic highs, heading for the Champions League and in a European semi-final. Unai Emery suits Villa, in that his successes are bite-sized and neatly presented, like footballing tapas, but don’t necessarily mean sustained eras of prolonged glory. Emery’s Europa League victories with Sevilla and Villarreal showed him as a master of the two-legged struggle, able to tweak and squeeze and nudge and shimmy his teams through European ties even against seemingly stronger opposition.

Therefore, you’d fancy Villa to end a 28-year wait for a trophy, given that they face Olympiacos in their Conference League semi-final and potentially Fiorentina or Club Brugge in the final. But having been relegated five years after winning the European Cup 1982, their supporters won’t be getting carried away.

If you pass someone today with just the merest hint of a smile, beware, it might be a Villa fan.

[dave.woodhall]

https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport-columnists/arid-41386384.html

Can anyone un-paywall this column on us? Not sure how it works on archive.org

It's a long one, Eamonn, just keep pressing Esc as it loads.

Copy the URL, go to archive.ph, paste and search.

[Steve67]

Great article Mr Shin, thanks for posting that.  Lovely read and the Gordon Cowans sentiment at the top makes me proud to be a Villa fan.

COME ON YOU VILLA BOYS.   

[eamonn]

Thanks, all!

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Thanks, all!

He sounds like a Man United fan. Wish I hadn't bothered now! Oh well, bollocks to him.