Legends Ireland
Aston Villa Legends – Profiles of the major players and managers of Aston Villa Football Club
So many great players represented Aston Villa in their illustrious history that compiling a list of twelve or so great is virtually impossible. Yet we have seen it a go. With apologies to the great players we have excluded here is our list of Aston Villa Legends. (Current Aston Villa players are not included).
George Ramsay
Position: Striker (later secretary of the club)
Aston Villa career: (as player) 1976-1884
(As Secretary) 1884 -1926
The oldest legends of Aston Villa, Ramsay served the club both as a player and secretary (a actually his role of team manager).
He was responsible for transforming the team of kick and rush an unorganized group play, an effective unit for playing the passing. And he was a skillful player to Villa with people who just see him play games.
Ramsay retired from the play June 1882, but took the role of secretary which he held from 1.884 to 1926. During this time Villa won the League and FA Cup six times each, and establishing themselves as the most important club in England.
Archie Hunter
Position: Striker
Aston Villa Career: 1878-1890
Appearances: 367
Goals: 150
first large villas Captain, Hunter joined the club in 1878, ten years before the start of the League, and remained until the premature end of his career in 1890.
Assured his status as a legend by being the first Aston Villa Villa captain to win the FA Cup and also the first player to score in every round of the cup during the victorious Villa's 1887 campaign.
Tragically, during a league match against Everton in 1890, he had a heart attack and collapsed. He would never play, and four died years later at the age of only 35.
Billy Walker
Position: Striker
Aston Villa Career: 1920-1933
Appearances: 531
Goals: 244
Aston Villa legend, Billy Walker joined the club in 1914 and spent his entire playing career at Villa Park.
A skilful striker, he made 531 appearances and scored 244 goals, and the club all-time leading scored.
He is also second on the list of top performances and was a member of the 1920 FA Cup winning side.
After his retirement, Walker had a successful management career, leads to both Sheffield Wednesday and Nottingham Forest to FA Cup success.
Eric Houghton
Position: Forward / Manager
Aston Villa Career: 1927-1946
Appearances: 392
Goals: 170
A Aston Villa legend that is often referred to as "Mr Aston Villa". Houghton played for the club for two decades and 170 goals in 392 matches. He was something of a dead ball specialist with a powerful shot that yielded 58 goals from the penalty spot and 30 direct free kicks.
After his playing career with Notts County he went to Aston Villa manager and led them to become an FA Cup win in 1957.
He had a spell as Notts County manager before returning to Villa Park again, this time as director.
Trevor Ford
Position: Striker
Aston Villa Career: 1947-1950
Appearances: 128
Goals: 61
A prolific striker, Villa Ford had a relatively short career, playing 128 games over three seasons and scored 61 goals. Yet he was the hero of the Holte End for a British record transfer fee of 30,000 pounds took him to Sunderland. At Sunderland he was even more productive, hitting 67 goals in just 108 appearances before another big money move, this time to Cardiff City.
Ford retired in 1956, but returned one year later to play for PSV Eindhoven in the Netherlands. He returned to the Football League and played his last season with Newport County in 1960-61.
Peter McParland
Position: Winger
Aston Villa Career: 1952-1962
Appearances: 340
Goals: 120
Perhaps the greatest player Villas of the year 1950, McParland was signed from Dundalk in 1952 for a sum of £ 3,880. He spent 10 years at the club, making 293 appearances and scoring 98 goals.
During this time he won the FA Cup in 1957 (scoring twice in the finals), the second division title in 1960 and League Cup in 1961.
He later played for Wolves and Plymouth before the end of his career in the North American Soccer League with Atlanta Chiefs.
Charlie Aitken
Position: Defender
Aston Villa Career: 1959-1976
Appearances: 660
Goals: 16
A Aston Villa legend who is the club's all-time record appearance holder with 659 appearances spread over an incredible 17 seasons from 1959 to 1976.
He was a member of the 1975 League Cup winning team and also won the third division title in his time at Villa.
Spent the last two seasons of his career playing for New York Cosmos in the nasl.
Brian Little
Position: Forward / Manager
Aston Villa Career: (as a player) 1970-1979
(As an administrator) 1994-1998
Appearances: 301
Goals: 82
Little played his entire career at Aston Villa, making 247 appearances and scoring 60 goals, many of them in a fruitful collaboration Andy Gray.
Membership on school jongen terms when the club had just been erected in the third division, he was part of a successful youth setup, and following a path through the ranks, he helped Villa back to the First Division in the early seventies.
He was also part of the League Cup winning teams of 1975 and 1977, in front of a knee injury brought his career to a premature halt at the age of just 26.
Moving into management, he coached the Wolves, Darlington and Leicester City before being Aston Villa handed the job in 1994. He led the team to fourth place in the Premiership in 1995-96 and also won the League Cup. In February 1998, with the club in the bottom half of the table He resigned after three years in charge.
He has since held senior positions at Stoke, West Brom, Hull, Wrexham and Tranmere with little success.
Ron Saunders
Position: Manager
Aston Villa Career: 1974-1982
A free-scoring center-forward during his playing career, Saunders had spells as manager of Yeovil Town, Oxford United, Norwich City and Manchester City before taking over at Aston Villa – a second division side – in 1974.
In his first season He led Villa to promote and also won the League Cup. He won the League Cup again in 1977, and in 1981, Villa led the league title for the first time in 71 years.
In January 1982, with Villa in the quarter-finals of the European Cup, Saunders surprisingly resigned due to a contractual dispute. His assistant Tony Barton took over and led the club to European Cup glory four months later.
Subsequent moves to rivals Birmingham City and West Bromwich Albion not tarnish his status as an Aston Villa legend
Denis Mortimer
Position: Midfielder
Aston Villa Career: 1975-1985
Appearances: 405
Goals: 36
Villas Europe Cup winning captain began his career at Coventry City, where he has more than 200 appearances before moving to Villa Park in 1975. He made 403 appearances in Villa colors, scoring 39 goals and winning the League, League Cup and the pinnacle of his career Villa, European Cup in 1982.
After leaving Aston Villa, Mortimer moved to Brighton and then blotted his copybook somewhat by joining Birmingham City. Yet he remains an Aston Villa legend and one of the greatest ever captains of the club.
Gordon Cowan
Position: Midfielder
Aston Villa Career: 1976-1985, 1988-1991, 1993-1994
Appearances: 528
Goals: 59
A product of the Aston Villa youth system of Gordon Cowan joined the club as an apprentice in 1974 and was part of a successful team that won the FA Youth Cup. He signed as professional in 1976 and made his first debut as a 17-year-old.
Cowan had three spells with Villa broke through stints with Bari and Blackburn Rovers. During his career at the club won the First Division title, European Cup, European Super Cup and League Cup.
After leaving the club for the last time in 1994 he played for Derby, Wolves, Sheffield United, Bradford City, Stockport County and Burnley before retiring in 1997.
Peter Withe
Position: forward
Aston Villa Career: 1980-1985
Appearances: 182
Goals: 90
Something of a late bloomer in the game, Withe had spells in South Africa and the USA before signing for Nottingham Forest in 1976, where he won the league title. He then spent two seasons at Newcastle United, and in 1980 moved to Aston Villa for a club record £ 500,000.
It was an inspired signing as evidence Withe and Gary Shaw delivered the goals that Villa rode to the League title in 1981.
Overall scoring Withe 74 goals in 182 appearances for Villa but his status as an Aston Villa legend is secure thanks to a strike – the winner in the 1982 European Cup final against Bayern Munich.
Paul McGrath
Position: Defender
Aston Villa Career: 1989-1996
Appearances: 321
Goals: 10
Aston Villa legend McGrath began his professional career with League of Ireland club St Patrick's Athletic. In his first season he won the PFAI Player of the Year Award and attracted the attention Manchester United.
He moved to Old Trafford in 1982 but his time at United was disappointing, plagued by knee injuries and an alcohol problem, although he helped the club to an FA Cup win in 1985.
In 1989 he signed for Aston Villa, where he would play some of the best football of his life, helping them to two second places and two League Cup triumphs. He also received the PFA Player of the Year award in 1993.
McGrath left Aston Villa in 1996, and short spells with Derby County and Sheffield United had before his retirement in 1998.
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What can you tell me about Triston and Isolde?
Conwall of Triston and Isolde of Ireland. Stories written and Triston and Isolde, well, where they both in love and never lose any other site. If deceased Triston Isolde bearied him and his grave disappeared over the centuries. Im not referring to the movie. The story was true or just another legend.
I might add that one of the Tellings of the story, Isolde's maid, Bronwyn Isolde drink a drink, she would love king Mark prepared. She drank it on the boat and instead falls in love with Tristan. A very good book to read is White Raven by Diana Paxton. Is a pretty telling as the legend. White Rave This haunting retelling of the story of Tristan and Isolde (here called Drustan and Esseilte according to Celtic legend and language) goes back to the early versions, for Mallory and Wagner, the nature of love, duty and loyalty to explore. The story is told by Branwen, cousin and companion of Esseilte, daughter of the High King of Eriu (Ireland). The two young women to save the life of a seriously injured Harper, later discovered to be Drustan, who had slain beloved uncle Esseilte and Branwen's father, Morholt, in battle. Drustan searches Esseilte hand for his uncle, Marc'h king of Kernow (Cornwall), an alliance arranged for political reasons. On the way to Cornwall, trying to poison Esseilte Drustan, but they both drink a drink show love filtration and prepared for Esseilte Marc'h. So the story is set in motion, with passion and hatred to bind the lovers together. Supported Branwen, they are able to cheat on their wedding night Marc'h: Branwen, close in appearance to the Queen, sleeps with the king and falls in love with him. For a while Esseilte and Drustan detected, but ultimately they are caught in circumstances that can not be ignored, leading to the tragic denouement. This is a complex story, intertwining the political and religious conflicts of the sixth century, when the old Druid religion still had a strong grip. Paxson (Paradise Tree and White Mare, Red Stallion) breathes life and wonder in one of the most romantic of the Celtic / Germanic legends.
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