Ron Atkinson Return

As we prepare for our 10th new Villa arrival of the summer it's certainly interesting times down the Villa. It reminds me of the start of the 1991/92 season and the return of Ron Atkinson to Villa Park. Ron had played in the Youth Team and had now left Sheffield Wednesday to take to the job he had always wanted, manager of our great club.

Now Ron had a major rebuild on his hands. Firstly he had to take on the running of a team that under Josef Venglos had very narrowly avoided relegation.

To make matters worse towards the end of July the star Villa player David Platt had been sold for a record £5.5m to Bari. Platt had scored 19 league goals and was probably the reason we weren't relegated in the Venglos
season. All sound  familiar?

Ron Atkinson spent all the Platty money and the £1.1m from the sale of record signing Tony Cascarino (a player whose heading was as good as Rudy Gestede) on buying a brand new side. By the first game of the 1991/92 season (an amazing, never to be forgotten 3-2 win at Sheff Wed) the team contained 6 debutantes (the same as last Saturday).

Before the end of August 'Big Ron' had purchased the following;

Date	Pos	Name	From	Fee
2 July 1991	FW	Cyrille Regis	Coventry City	Free transfer
11 July 1991	FW	Dalian Atkinson	Real Sociedad	£1,600,000
12 July 1991	DF	Ugo Ehiogu	West Bromwich Albion	£40,000
19 July 1991	GK	Les Sealey	Manchester United	Free transfer
24 July 1991	MF	Paul Mortimer	Charlton Athletic	£350,000
25 July 1991	MF	Shaun Teale	Bournemouth	£300,000
6 August 1991	MF	Kevin Richardson	Real Sociedad	£450,000
7 August 1991	DF	Steve Staunton	Liverpool	£1,100,000
28 August 1991	DF	Dariusz Kubicki	Legia Warsaw	£200,000

  
Another similarity was that on that first away win of the season the winner was scored by a player who had only signed the week before.

The new players in 1991 were mostly British the only difficult new name to master was probably Ugo Ehiogu. Although at least on Friday we can just shout 'Jordan' if in doubt.

The brand new Ron Atkinson team finished 7th that season and even qualified for Europe. Proving that there was life after David Platt. An improvement of 10 places. The same again would do very nicely, thank you.

One last similarity/co-incidence was that the first home game (second game of the season) saw Manchester United arrive at Villa Park. Hopefully the similarities end there and that we don't lose 1-0 this time.

This is my 35th consecutive season ticket season and I really can't wait. Come on you Lions!!!

My Villa book 'Just 14' celebrating the 1980/81 season is selling well and can be ordered direct for just £9.95 at https://andy-dale-writes.myshopify.com/products/just-14 are at Amazon for £10.95.

The Curse of the Aston Villa Calendar

Start of July and it's time to turn-over my Aston Villa 2015 Calendar. Who's it going to be this month?

It's Christian Benteke and Libor Kozak. What has happened to Libor? Tune into Talk Sport and they are suggesting that within 48 hours, Benteke will be a Liverpool player. Has the curse of the  Aston Villa Calendar struck again?

Sadly, Christian will probably leave us this summer if a club offers the £32.5m buyout figure. It'll be sad because he's a fantastic talent and his 1 in 2 goal ratio is something Villa fans have not seen since the days of David Platt.

Benteke really is the complete forward; brilliant in the air, skillful on the ground and can play the perfect pass. If I'm honest (just between Villa fans) he's too good for the team we currently have. He's also too good for both Liverpool and Tottenham. If I had to pick an English team for him to fit right into it would probably be  Chelsea. With 'Tekkers linking up with Hazard they would be unstoppable.

But this isn't a goodbye tribute to Christian Benteke becasue I would still love one more season out of the big man. Benteke is destined for the very top. One day I'm sure we will see him score in a Champions League Final. We must make sure we include a 'sell-on' clause. He is that good. The only Villa forward I can think of that came close to Benteke was Juan Pablo Angel.

Don't panic though, a big money sale of Benteke does not necessarily mean bad news for Villa though. History teaches us that.

Growing up I was heart broken when Andy Gray left us to join my brother's team Wolves for a British record of £1.5m.

But with that money with in three years Ron Saunders had given us our first league title for 71 years (it's all in my new book 'Just 14' ) and put us on the brink of European glory. Players like Tony Morley, Des Bremner and Peter Withe bought with the Gray money. Wolves in contrast in 1982 went into Receivership, although Gray did win them the League Cup in 1980.

Shoot forward to the summer of 1989, when leading goalscorer Alan 'Rambo' McInally joined Bayern Munich for £1.3m. The following  season Graham Taylor took a near relegation team to Runners-up (we should have won the league, but gambled a million on Tony Cascarino instead).

Then July 1991, David Platt (50 goals in 121 appearances) was sold to Bari for a staggering £5.5m. Two years later Ron Atkinson had taken a struggling team to Runners-up in the first ever Premier League. A year later 1994 our first trophy for 11 years.

So if Benteke does go for mega money it might just kick-start Aston Villa.

Still hope Benteke stays.