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.

  

We Must Deliver

A disappointing result and performance against Spurs on Sunday. Sorry Mr Lambert but it was flat and predictable. Only the arrival of Benteke put the sparkle into us. Sadly just as we had got on top Spurs scored the second. Maybe I am being too harsh but I felt it was a below par performance that had worrying signs.

The slick passing of the end of last season has gone. I remember purring at the passing against Chelsea and Liverpool even though the results went against us. But Sunday was bland. Westward tried but many other players seemed happy just to lump it. A policy that can work when you have CB leading the line but for Kozak and Gabby it was just a waste. I was also very disappointed with the performance of Gabby. Maybe he isn't fit, but surely he needs to realise that there is a place on the plane to Brazil if he just puts his mind to it. On his day he is simply unstoppable and let's just hope we see one of those days against Everton.

A win against Spurs and everything in the garden would have been rosy. Especially considering we have played all the big boys except Man U already. However, after another home failure we are already starting to look towards the bottom of the table. So we need a result on Saturday so let's all get down Villa Park and get right behind the lads. We saw at the end of last season the kind of football this team are capable of so come on the Villa.

Memory Match 3 : August 1995 Villa 3 Manchester United 1
For many this is the game made famous by the Alan Hansen comment 'You don't win anything with kids!' but for me it was one of the most optimistic starts ever to a Villa season. That day Brian Little's Villa team were magnificent and the first half display was just mind-blowing.

A Villa side who had narrowly avoided relegation the previous May, thanks to the terrific appointment of former Holte End favourite Brian Little, were suddenly potential title contenders. Little had already signed Ian Taylor and 'little' Alan Wright last season, but it was three new signings that made a big impression that Saturday afternoon. Gareth Southgate, Mark Draper and Savo Milosevic were the new trio that shone. By half time the Man U fans were feeling as grey as their teams shirts. Goals from Taylor, Draper and Yorke within 36 minutes had many of us dreaming of double figures. That is just how good the Villa were that day. Savo was unplayable and Mark Draper was running midfield.

Maybe we took our foot off the gas but that was the end of the Villa goals. Some young kid called Beckham did score a late wonder goal for United. His first one apparently. But it was Villa's day.

That season ended up as one of our best in recent times. Destroying Leeds at Wembley to win League Cup, losing FA Cup Semi Final to Liverpool (mainly because they took the lead when Gareth Southgate was off field receiving treatment) and finishing fourth in the Premier League. It probably should have been better but this team certainly entertained us.

As for United that year with their youngsters Scholes, Giggs, Butt, Beckham, Neville brothers and Lee Sharpe. Well, they won the league and became household names. But for 90 minutes Villa simply tore them apart.

Thanks to Brian Little a true Villa legend.