Vital Villa Summer Interview: Danceoftheshamen
Danceoftheshamen steps up for the Vital Villa members interviews.
Q: When did you become a Villa fan and why?
I started supporting Villa at the age of 6 back in 1972 when they were in the old 3rd division if i remember correctly & the reason was that when my school friends asked me who i supported, bearing in mind i literally knew nothing at all about football at the time, i really did not know what to say. After being pressured for an answer for what seemed like ages all i knew was i didn’t want to support Wolves or West Brom like the rest of them did as at the time i was at school in Dudley. I really did not know what to say until i remembered my best friends surname was ‘Aston’..the rest as they say……
Q: The season just gone, good bad or ugly? What did you think of it?
I thought it was a better season to the previous 3 Lerner/Mon years which with the loss of Gareth Barry, emergence of Manchester Sheikhty & Spurs finally displaying some form too, was a pretty good effort. We also overtook Liverpool of course for the 1st time in years, won at Old Trafford, Anfield & reached Wembley twice & still maintained 6th place & all that in spite of the above!! So has to be seen as good solid progress.
Q: Best and worst moment of last season?
Best moment has to be the win at Old Trafford closely followed by the destruction of Liverpool at Anfield & the semi win over Blackburn..what a game that was!
Worst was the Final against Man Utd.. not for Villa’s performance however but for the disgraceful display by the official.. Phi Dowd…I actually think we were completely outplaying Utd, who should have been down to 10 men of course, until he started booking our players whilst not booking theirs for identical tackles..that was what deflated us for me rather than the ‘Non’ sending off. Possibly the most ‘Influenced by a ref’ game i have ever witnessed.. disgraceful.
Other than that the home form was our biggest consistent failure.
Q: James Milner… is he off do you think? If so, what price (realistically) should Villa hold out for? If off to Man City, which – if any – of their players would you want in exchange?
I do think he will be off…. if we get the 30m for him & not a penny less. However you simply cannot blame the club for this as it would be too much to turn down. I love Milner to bits for the passion he displays which has been missing at Villa Park for too long & he will be very difficult to replace of course but 30m?! you could get 2 or 3 very good players for that & for the overall good of Aston Villa FC i don’t see how, with the current state of affairs, we could refuse it. I would like to see Stephen Ireland or Shaun Wright Philips come the other way.
Q: What signings (type of player or specific name/s if you wish) would you like to see Villa buy this summer?
Well assuming Milner goes i would like to see Stephen Ireland or Shaun Wright Philips, a real creative attacking midfielder who can vary the play more also some cover for Petrov & a goal scorer.. A real poacher mind you.. Robbie Keane may be worth a punt but we also need some real quality like MON had at Celtic in Henrik Larrson.
Q: Where do you stand on Martin O’Neill (I don’t mean literally, that would be assault) ?
I think he has done a fantastic job in the face of some serious money rich opposition.. I mean Chelsea, Man City & Spurs are awash with cash & make buying players extremely difficult so to still be in the mix (with of course Arsenal & Man Utd as well) is pretty good going when you consider our position a few years ago under Doug Ellis.
Main weakness for me is our awful home form so for me this is where Martin needs to show what he is made of & sort it out.
Q: Your opinion of Randy and the board?
I think they have been awesome! Still some way to go but it’s a marathon not a sprint & as long as your heading in the right direction at some point you will get there…(Just need to run slightly quicker now though to keep up with the aforementioned Man City & Spurs lol)
Q: Favourite current player and favourite all time player/s
My favourite at the moment is actually Carew (when he’s on it) Gabby & Milner for his passion.
All time i have plenty but Paul Mcgrath & Alan Evans as defenders, Gordon Cowans, Tony Morley, David Platt as midfielders, Gary Shaw & Peter Withe as strikers.
Q: Do you expect progress next season, difficult to answer before the transfer window closes I know?
Difficult as you say with no knowledge of what the starting 11 will be! I have faith though & i will say Man City Spurs & Chelsea we cannot really compete with on the purchases front, Man Utd, Arsenal & Liverpool, the old guard if you like, may be catchable however. Liverpool of course we have already caught but i do think 5th place would be a good achievement as things stand. If we can overhaul Arsenal or Spurs & keep ahead of Liverpool that would be progress.
Key for the season? Without doubt is our home form.
Q: Right, lets lower the tone… which celebrity would you most like to bang and which (male I would think) celeb would you most like to thump!?!
Jovovich Milla out of The Fifth Element.
Most like to thump Graham Norton the guy who hosted & ruined the Eurovision song contest this year with his catty comments.
With thanks to Danceoftheshamen
For how to submit yours see: Click Here
Other summer interviews:
Benham
Lee Barnett
Kasad Ali
BeardMasterFlex
randy.stand
I am a Villan
Simon Bird
ExpatVillaShirt
Stephen Jay Hawkings
Oscararc
Stig
Parkez17
claretandbluearmy
Young Jonah
Kainga
James06
Trekker
odowdk5
clhbelbin
Callum_ws
Joe Whitticase
Cheshire Villan
MASON_PARKER
jaceavfc
SirDennis
Munk AVFC
Nimmo
Deanovilla
Villan Of The North
coeur_de_lion
Adbo9
Mattyslost
Mike Field
Previous interviews: Click Here
