Villa Fans Want John Gregory Back!

Vital Villa asked, in a snap poll, your opinion on John Gregory.

Seems the majority are in favour of the former Aston Villa boss. I must admit towards the end of his reign, a lot of fans, including myself, had become bored of the negative tactics. It wasn’t until he left and said he was in fear of his job every day that you started to see some of the reasons for that. We also moaned when the FA Cup final v Chelsea became an anti-climax and probably missed the point that WE GOT TO AN FA Cup final!

My stance was that he should possibly be moved on BUT WHAT IF? What if he had been given that bit extra finance, what if we had bought Juninho (who got as far as the board room only for ‘someone’ to mess the transfer up), what if, when we were top of the league (I repeat, top of the league) Doug had chosen to invest fully to keep us there???

The counter argument is he spent the most money, but we’ve shown in figures before now that John Gregory only had the same sort of funds – after sales – as all other managers. John Gregory himself said his net spend was only £4-5million a season and yet he kept us in the top seven consistently. I guess you don’t always know what you have got until it has gone. My respect for Gregory has gone up by the season since he has left. The one thing you can say for him is he bleeds claret and blue. When he is on sky he usually has a claret and blue tie on, he talks of ‘we’ not ‘I’ or ‘them’. I’d take him back to replace O’Leary, I wonder what he might have built if not for the frustrations of working for Doug? Who can forget the classic ‘Doug is in a time-warp’ quote?

Anyway! 64% said Gregory was ‘a real Villa man, I’d love him back’. A further 11% said he should be brought back. 5% said he was a great manager but shouldn’t return, 1% can’t believe he isn’t already in a top job and only 19% said ‘no thanks, he had his chance.

If the board of Newcastle United had any sense, they would be grabbing him and funding him to make them champions. I would certainly put a few quid on him achieving it. If our board had any sense they’d have brought him back a few weeks ago and seen him shoot us up the league once again. That said, would he really return to work with Doug?!

(If anyone has a counter argument/or an argument in support, you can submit an article via the drop down Vital Membership menu at the top)