Aston Villa – Alternative History, Club Records & information

The club’s name actually comes form a Shakespeare poem.  The Bard sauntered up form Stratford-Upon-Avon to view the building work in Aston Park, close to the area Spaghetti Junction (which didn’t exist in his day, but was called Spaghetti Crossroads then),  The poem read : – 

“The sight of such labours and burgeoning construction,
Beauteous result of that exquisite function,
As ton and as ton of brick
From deepest sunset orange to plain manilla,
Were assembled forsooth,
To createth a villa.”

The colours chosen by the new club reflected their attitude to the game. The claret picked to reflect the colour of the red wine quaffed by the carafe after playing and the blue, the sky behind as they raised their glasses high in celebration. And celebration figured large in the early days. They became the second team to complete the League and FA Cup “double” when men were men and footballers wore bloomers. Indeed, despite the success, they were labelled as “The Villains” of the piece, when in 1895, as holders of the FA Cup, they put the trophy on display in the window of a sports shop. The Cup was stolen and was never recovered. The Villa were fined £25 and had to pay an equivalent amount to replace the FA Cup. Luckily, they were insured and so was one of their players, Charles Athersmith, who played the whole of one match under an umbrella when it was raining. Anthony Smythe once played a match pursued by his butler carrying cucumber sandwiches and Tobias Larman wore the full regalia his position of Chair of the Cradley Heath Chamber of Commerce allowed during a game against Glossop NE. 

The club have, since the Second World War, fallen upon comparatively barren times. Villa did win the first ever League Cup, when only a few teams entered and won again in 1977, which is a little known fact, because the Final against Everton went to so many replays, most people forgot who took part, let alone who came out on top. This final had to be played on a neutral ground and after the initial game at Wembley, toured the country playing on 58 of the 92 League grounds at that time. A First Division championship in 1981 was achieved with an unbelievably low number of players (9, in fact) and then the following season, took the European Cup, despite losing their goalie very early in the match and hairy monster, Peter Withe, almost missing the winning goal from two feet out, but managing to guide it in off his shin pad. Unfortunately, Villa have slipped into a cycle where they appoint managers in rotation, on their personality or lack of it (Venglos, Atkinson, Taylor, Little, Gregory).  An excellent ground (a regular venue for FA Cup semis) needs a successful side to do it justice.  The successful sides at Villa Park these days are too often the visitors.

Villa did perk up in 1999-2000, by reaching their first FA Cup final for thirty-odd years, but lost to Chelsea and have now installed David O’Leary in the manager’s job, but his battles are mainly off the pitch to get money out of the chairman to buy new players.  All that changed when Randy Lerner took over and lo, he installed Martin O’Neill as the pop up in the dug-out, lavishing money on the Irishman to spend in a manner unseen in these parts since rationing ended.  However, that all ended in acrimony with the Irishman walking out on the club on the eve of the 2010-11 season, to be replaced with Gerard Houllier, who had heart problems and had to step down, eventually being succeeded in the summer of 2011 by former Birmingham City boss Alex McLeish, who had taken the Blues down the previous season.  Disgruntled Villa fans protested and with results and performances less than inspiring, it looked like the Villa supporters would be suffering with the Blues in more ways than one.

Having just avoided relegation after one season with McLeish, Villa brought in Paul Lambert – another dour Scot, to try and reinvigorate their fortunes.  When he failed, they turned to self-publicist Tim Sherwood, who suffered the same fate after just 28 games (20 of which were lost) and Villa were pinned to the bottom of the table.  Lerner decided to bring in the Old Garde in the shape of Remi, the former Arsenal player, but his failure to change the fortunes of the side saw the fans turn against the team and the owner, as his team headed down to the Championship.  A sad state of affairs for what was a big club.

A little name – Tony Xia, a Chinese businessman – bought into the Villa dream and wanted them to be in the Champions League within five years, but while money talks in China, in the West Midlands, it didn’t make as big a noise.  Sneaking back into the top flight through the play-off managed by Villa fan Dean Smith, the club scrapped survival in their first season and looked to push on up the table in subsequent years.

FAMOUS PLAYERS :- Gary Penrice, Ian Olney, Pongo Waring (who had his own dressing room), Brendan Ormsby, Perry Barr, Ian Ormondroyd, Amos Moss.

FAMOUS FANS : – Nigel Kennedy (Violinist), Floella Benjamin (Children’s TV presenter), Mark Williams (Actor – The Fast Show (TV), One Hundred and One Dalmatians (Film), John Taylor (Musician – Duran Duran), Jane Sixsmith (England Ladies Hockey player), Sir Norman Fowler (Former MP and Chairman of the Conservative Party); Tom Hanks (Film Actor – Castaway; Big; Philadelphia); Prince Harry, David Cameron (Conservative MP).

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