I sit here still pondering on just how Villa got to its current state. Reflecting even further, I also wonder if anything has really moved on since 1945, nearly 70 years ago. We can point to short periods of success of different qualities in the 1970s/80s and mid-1990s, and one or two other good blips, but the really good years only amount to some 15 years out of 70 years. Okay, I’ll be generous and say 18 years to include the 3 x 6th-placed years under O’Neill.
That’s 25% (mixed and flitting) worthwhile results since World War Two. Boy, this “sleeping giant” has certainly slumbered! And slumbered so much that it’s mostly been out of touch with the rest of football development, particularly since 1961, the year when football was turned upside down. Even the year itself could be turned upside-down (to read the same)! It was the year when modern football really started.
It was in 1961 that a professional footballers’ strike was threatened. At the 11th hour, the authorities climbed down and agreed to remove the fixed wage structure that had been operating for 60 years. Aston Villa opposed that move, but that was a bit rich as Villa opposed the introduction of the fixed wage structure in the first place (in 1901), and chairman Fred Rinder was always an ardent opponent of the system. He fought for years to have the system abolished. After all, Villa had carried all before them in the 1890s partly because they were paying their players higher wages than pretty well any other club.
Villa, after all, was the first Superclub.
For those that are interested, some of Villa’s top players got £6 per week in 1900 – an income that in those days was on a par with what the best people people were earning in the traditional professions. The typical players’ wage in the top-flight, however, was then £3 or £4 per week.
Villa had to develop different methods to find success in the early 1900s, as they did in the 1960s. The difference in the 1960s was that Villa did not have a board that was properly football-savvy nor commercially aware; they had somehow dragged Villa through the years since 1945 and were unable to bring in sufficient extra revenue to pay the higher wages to attract top players from 1961. The likes of Liverpool, Man U, Chelsea and Spurs thrived and also made sure they had effective youth development schemes while Villa effectively dropped theirs (in 1962) to keep costs down! Even the training ground went to save on expenditure. In 1964 Villa managed to sell star youngster George Graham to Chelsea for £5,000. He thrived at Chelsea (under Tommy Docherty) and then Arsenal, and for Scotland. Villa could have claimed at least £25,000 for him (which was then a going fee for such a young and talented player) but the board did not seem to have a clue.
Villa was known to be a homely club, but the custodians had become too comfortable in their seats. They sat and gloried in the fame of times past. Well, the chairman (Chris Buckley) had played in the 1910 championship team.
After Rinder died in 1938, Villa seemed to go to pot. Stories of financial wastage and lack of foresight were common at Villa Park from the 1940s to the 1960s. After manager Joe Mercer was sacked from Villa in 1964 for no fault of his own and after being very ill, he said “We always seemed to be worried about money at Villa.” Properly backed, Mercer led Man City to the championship in 1968 and the Cup the following year.
In the years to 1961 and after, Villa’s board believed in their version of the old way of doing things, even to the extent that after Villa suddenly and unexpectedly won the Cup in 1957, Eric Houghton (then the team manager) was not even invited to the head table at the club’s subsequent celebration dinner. And they didn’t even pay him the bonus that had been promised to him by the previous (late) chairman if he won a trophy.
Houghton said afterwards: “We won the Cup, but the board then didn’t seem to know what to do”.
We all know about the wonderful revolution at the club in late 1968 and the remarkable recovery that saw the League championship and the European Cup being won by 1982, but then Doug Ellis took over (again) and caution ruled once more as the club was substantially in debt and was suffering decreasing ‘gates’ because of the recession of the time. Miopic vision again became entrenched when Doug Ellis brought in his own henchmen onto the board. The promise of the 1990s now seems to have been an accident and probably only came around as a result of Graham Taylor’s work, quickly followed by the extra cash being available in the then newly-established Premier League. The appointment of Ron Atkinson and then Brian Little as managers helped to work some wonders.
More money became available after Villa was floated on the Stock Exchange in 1997, but despite the additional income obtained from Yorke’s sale, substantial player investment seemed to be difficult for Ellis, despite his stated ambition to win the League. By 2001 the gravy-train had largely come to a halt, although money had somehow been found to re-build the Trinity Stand.
Forty years on from 1961, in June, 2001, The Times (in writing about the then-big Gareth Southgate dilemma at Villa) declared: “Many believe that his stance reflects [the fans'] own disillusionment with a nondescript club.”
Nowt changes much, does it? That Villa could be referred to as “a nondescript club”, I mean. Thirteen years on and that description can still be applied, though Villans would not use that term. Villans, understandably, prefer to use more positive terms like “a sleeping giant” rather than use a term that might seem derogatory.
Yet, within that often very sad and often mis-managed most recent 70-years-worth of history, there have been the moments that remain with us and will for as long as we live. These moments have been enough to sustain us and cause us to believe that Aston Villa is a football club that is worthy of regeneration and is able to act as a standard bearer for Midlands football. And – I have to say it; it’s the bottom line after all – we love the club.
Wanted: one custodian with empathy and ability to put it all right. Financial rewards: none.
That’s 25% (mixed and flitting) worthwhile results since World War Two. Boy, this “sleeping giant” has certainly slumbered! And slumbered so much that it’s mostly been out of touch with the rest of football development, particularly since 1961, the year when football was turned upside down. Even the year itself could be turned upside-down (to read the same)! It was the year when modern football really started.
It was in 1961 that a professional footballers’ strike was threatened. At the 11th hour, the authorities climbed down and agreed to remove the fixed wage structure that had been operating for 60 years. Aston Villa opposed that move, but that was a bit rich as Villa opposed the introduction of the fixed wage structure in the first place (in 1901), and chairman Fred Rinder was always an ardent opponent of the system. He fought for years to have the system abolished. After all, Villa had carried all before them in the 1890s partly because they were paying their players higher wages than pretty well any other club.
Villa, after all, was the first Superclub.
For those that are interested, some of Villa’s top players got £6 per week in 1900 – an income that in those days was on a par with what the best people people were earning in the traditional professions. The typical players’ wage in the top-flight, however, was then £3 or £4 per week.
Villa had to develop different methods to find success in the early 1900s, as they did in the 1960s. The difference in the 1960s was that Villa did not have a board that was properly football-savvy nor commercially aware; they had somehow dragged Villa through the years since 1945 and were unable to bring in sufficient extra revenue to pay the higher wages to attract top players from 1961. The likes of Liverpool, Man U, Chelsea and Spurs thrived and also made sure they had effective youth development schemes while Villa effectively dropped theirs (in 1962) to keep costs down! Even the training ground went to save on expenditure. In 1964 Villa managed to sell star youngster George Graham to Chelsea for £5,000. He thrived at Chelsea (under Tommy Docherty) and then Arsenal, and for Scotland. Villa could have claimed at least £25,000 for him (which was then a going fee for such a young and talented player) but the board did not seem to have a clue.
Villa was known to be a homely club, but the custodians had become too comfortable in their seats. They sat and gloried in the fame of times past. Well, the chairman (Chris Buckley) had played in the 1910 championship team.
After Rinder died in 1938, Villa seemed to go to pot. Stories of financial wastage and lack of foresight were common at Villa Park from the 1940s to the 1960s. After manager Joe Mercer was sacked from Villa in 1964 for no fault of his own and after being very ill, he said “We always seemed to be worried about money at Villa.” Properly backed, Mercer led Man City to the championship in 1968 and the Cup the following year.
In the years to 1961 and after, Villa’s board believed in their version of the old way of doing things, even to the extent that after Villa suddenly and unexpectedly won the Cup in 1957, Eric Houghton (then the team manager) was not even invited to the head table at the club’s subsequent celebration dinner. And they didn’t even pay him the bonus that had been promised to him by the previous (late) chairman if he won a trophy.
Houghton said afterwards: “We won the Cup, but the board then didn’t seem to know what to do”.
We all know about the wonderful revolution at the club in late 1968 and the remarkable recovery that saw the League championship and the European Cup being won by 1982, but then Doug Ellis took over (again) and caution ruled once more as the club was substantially in debt and was suffering decreasing ‘gates’ because of the recession of the time. Miopic vision again became entrenched when Doug Ellis brought in his own henchmen onto the board. The promise of the 1990s now seems to have been an accident and probably only came around as a result of Graham Taylor’s work, quickly followed by the extra cash being available in the then newly-established Premier League. The appointment of Ron Atkinson and then Brian Little as managers helped to work some wonders.
More money became available after Villa was floated on the Stock Exchange in 1997, but despite the additional income obtained from Yorke’s sale, substantial player investment seemed to be difficult for Ellis, despite his stated ambition to win the League. By 2001 the gravy-train had largely come to a halt, although money had somehow been found to re-build the Trinity Stand.
Forty years on from 1961, in June, 2001, The Times (in writing about the then-big Gareth Southgate dilemma at Villa) declared: “Many believe that his stance reflects [the fans'] own disillusionment with a nondescript club.”
Nowt changes much, does it? That Villa could be referred to as “a nondescript club”, I mean. Thirteen years on and that description can still be applied, though Villans would not use that term. Villans, understandably, prefer to use more positive terms like “a sleeping giant” rather than use a term that might seem derogatory.
Yet, within that often very sad and often mis-managed most recent 70-years-worth of history, there have been the moments that remain with us and will for as long as we live. These moments have been enough to sustain us and cause us to believe that Aston Villa is a football club that is worthy of regeneration and is able to act as a standard bearer for Midlands football. And – I have to say it; it’s the bottom line after all – we love the club.
Wanted: one custodian with empathy and ability to put it all right. Financial rewards: none.
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