William McGregor

December will see the 100th anniversary of the death of William McGregor, a major officer at Aston Villa in the 1880s and founder of all football leagues.

A celebration of this great man's life (his biography) has just gone to the printers and is scheduled to be available by October. It is a hardback with illustrations and dust jacket (artwork by the celebrated football artist Nick Oldham), retailing at 9.99 sterling.

There will be a Foreword by Kevin Moore, Director of the National Football Museum.

The authors are Peter Lupson and myself. Peter became well known for his book "Thank God for Football" (2006) and I was the author of "The Aston Villa Chronicles (1874-1924 and after)" (2009).

Peter’s book sparked two significant responses in Liverpool. Firstly, Across the Park (published by Sport Media, 2009) was commissioned by Liverpool Football Club on the strength of Thank God for Football! It celebrates the historic links between Liverpool FC and Everton FC. Secondly, Peter was elected Vice-Chairman of the Everton FC Heritage Society in 2010.

Further details about this new publication can be found at http://www.lerwill-life.org.uk/astonvilla/mcgregor.htm 

.

Getting Just a Tad Bit Nervous...

A bit too early for doom-mongering ... but ...Villa were playing a Championship side yet could not even score.

It seems that Villa put out a fairly inexperienced side last night at Derby, especially in defence. On the plus side, it sounds as though Bannan and Delph both performed well. But this side also contained Albrighton, Clark, Makoun and Bent. And, importantly, Ireland.

I am really worrying that it's backs to the wall this season, particularly if any injuries play a part - where is the cover going to come from?

Thank goodness Villa have chance to ease into their fixture list.

.

History Repeating Itself?

It now appears that investment in new players is coming to a premature halt. What happens this coming season (at least) will be left essentially to those players left over following the departure of Ashley Young, Downing, Friedel, Reo-Coker and several others. Cuellar is another who might leave.

What is alarming is that the players that are left leave precious little cover for the full-back department and there are two main groups of players - those that are rapidly approaching pensionable age and those that are still too young to be considered for permanent first team selection. Players falling in-between those categories (such as Agbonlahor, Ireland and Delph) have questions hanging over their heads, though another (Bent) should be considered as 'safe'.

The situation now seems rather akin to where we stood in the 3 years preceding each of 1934, 1954, 1964, 1984 and 2004. In each case a peak had been passed and the club then went into deep depression culminating in disaster in 1936, 1967 and 1987. It was a too-close-for-comfort call in 1956, and 2007 could easily have been a disaster year if Randy Lerner had not stepped in the year before. It did not happen in the 1970s nor the 1990s as the club was positively investing in the team during those times.

In 2011 we are moving towards 2014 and a potential disaster in 2016/17.

I have lived through all the decades and troubles since 1950 and feel that history can easily repeat itself the way things are. I hope not.

.