Aston Villa F.C.

Clubname	Aston Villa
Fullname	Aston Villa Football Club
Nickname	The Villa, The Villans, The Lions
Founded	1874
Ground	Villa Park Aston Birmingham B6 6HE England
Capacity	42,788
Owner	Randy Lerner
Manager	Gérard Houllier
League	Premier League
Season	2009–2010
Position	Premier League, 6th
Current	2010–11 Aston Villa F.C. season
Website	http://www.avfc.co.uk/
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Aston Villa Football Club (; also known as Villa, The Villa and The Villans) is a professional English Football league club based in Aston, Birmingham. The club was founded in 1874 and have played at their current home ground, Villa Park, since 1897. Aston Villa were founder members of The Football League in 1888. They were also founder members of the Premier League in 1992. The club was floated by the previous owner and chairman Doug Ellis, but in 2006 full control of the club was acquired by Randy Lerner.

They are one of the oldest and most successful football clubs in England, having won the First Division Championship seven times and the FA Cup seven times. Aston Villa has the fourth highest total of major honours won by an English club.

They have a fierce local rivalry with Birmingham City. The Second City derby between Aston Villa and Birmingham City has been played since 1879. The club's traditional kit colours are claret shirts with sky blue sleeves, white shorts and sky blue socks. Their traditional crest is of a rampant gold lion on a light blue background with the club's motto "Prepared" underneath; a modified version of this was adopted in 2007. Aston Villa's first match was against the local Aston Brook St Mary's Rugby team. As a condition of the match, the Villa side had to agree to play the first half under rugby rules and the second half under football rules. Villa soon established themselves as one of the best teams in the Midlands, winning their first honour, the Birmingham Senior Cup in 1880, under the captaincy of Scotsman George Ramsay.

The club won its first FA Cup in 1887 with captain Archie Hunter becoming one of the game's first household names. Aston Villa were one of the dozen teams that competed in the inaugural Football League in 1888 with one of the club's directors, William McGregor being the league's founder. Aston Villa emerged as the most successful English club of the Victorian era, winning no fewer than five League titles and three FA Cups by the end of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1897, the year Villa won The Double, they moved into their present home, the Aston Lower Grounds. Supporters coined the name "Villa Park"; no official declaration listed the ground as Villa Park.

Aston Villa won their sixth FA Cup in 1920, soon after though the club began a slow decline that led to Villa, at the time one of the most famous and successful clubs in world football, being relegated in 1936 for the first time to the Second Division. This was largely the result of a dismal defensive record: they conceded 110 goals in 42 games, 7 of them coming from Arsenal's Ted Drake in an infamous 1–7 defeat at Villa Park. Like all English clubs, Villa lost seven seasons to the Second World War, and that conflict brought several careers to a premature end. The team was rebuilt under the guidance of former player Alex Massie for the remainder of the 1940s. Aston Villa's first trophy for 37 years came in the 1956–57 season when another former Villa player, Eric Houghton led the club to a then record seventh FA Cup Final win, defeating the 'Busby Babes' of Manchester United in the final. The team struggled in the league though and were relegated two seasons later, due in large part to complacency. However, under the stewardship of manager Joe Mercer Villa returned to the top-flight in 1960 as Second Division Champions. The following season Aston Villa became the first team to win the Football League Cup.

Mercer's forced retirement from the club in 1964 signaled a period of deep turmoil. The most successful club in England was struggling to keep pace with changes in the modern game, with Villa being relegated for the third time, under manager Dick Taylor in 1967. The following season the fans called for the board to resign as Villa finished 16th in the Second Division. With mounting debts and Villa lying at the bottom of Division Two, the board sacked Cummings (the manager brought in to replace Taylor), and within weeks the entire board resigned under overwhelming pressure from fans. After much speculation, control of the club was bought by London financier Pat Matthews, who also brought in Doug Ellis as chairman. In 1974 Ron Saunders was appointed manager. His brand of no-nonsense man-management proved effective, with the club winning the League Cup the following season. By 1977 he had taken them back into the First Division and Europe.

Villa were back amongst the elite as Saunders continued to mould a winning team. This culminated in a seventh top-flight league title in 1980–81. To the surprise of commentators and fans, Saunders quit halfway through the 1981–82 season, after falling out with the chairman, with Villa in the quarter final of the European Cup. He was replaced by his softly-spoken assistant manager Tony Barton who guided the club to a 1–0 victory over Bayern Munich in the European Cup final in Rotterdam courtesy of a Peter Withe goal. The following season Villa were crowned European Super Cup winners, beating Barcelona in the final. This marked a pinnacle though and Villa's fortunes declined sharply for most of the 1980s, culminating in relegation in 1987. This was followed by promotion the following year under Graham Taylor and a runners-up position in the First Division in the 1989–90 season.

Villa were one of the founding members of the Premier League in 1992, and finished runners-up to Manchester United in the inaugural season. For the rest of the Nineties however Villa went through three different managers and their league positions were inconsistent, although they did win two League Cups and regularly achieved UEFA Cup qualification. Villa reached the FA Cup final in 2000 but lost 1–0 to Chelsea in the last game to be played at the old Wembley Stadium. Again Villa's league position continued to fluctuate under several different managers and things came to a head in the summer of 2006 when David O'Leary left in acrimony. After 23 years as chairman and single biggest shareholder (approximately 38%), Ellis finally decided to sell his stake in Aston Villa due to ill-health. After much speculation it was announced the club was to be bought by American businessman Randy Lerner, owner of NFL franchise the Cleveland Browns. The arrival of a new owner and manager Martin O'Neill marked the start of a new period of optimism at Villa Park and sweeping changes occurred throughout the club including a new crest, a new kit sponsor and team changes in the summer of 2007. The first Cup final of the Lerner era came in 2010 when Villa were beaten 2–1 in the League Cup Final. Villa made a second trip to Wembley in that season losing 3–0 to Chelsea in the FA Cup Semi Final. Just five days before the opening day of the 2010–11 season, O'Neill resigned as manager with immediate effect. Reserve team manager Kevin MacDonald took over as caretaker manager, before the club appointed Gérard Houllier as permanent manager in September 2010.

Colours and crest

Current players

In the 2010–11 season the Premier League introduced new rules on squad lists. The rules included a cap on the number of players at 25; players under the age of 21 on 1 January of the year in which the season starts are exempt from the list of 25. A "home-grown rule" also requires clubs to name at least eight players in their squad of 25 players that have been registered domestically for a minimum of three seasons prior to their 21st birthday.

Current squad

is the club's vice-captain.]] Players under 21 do not need to be named and can still be used

Out on loan

Trialists

Notable players

There have been many players who can be called notable throughout Aston Villa's history. These can be classified and recorded in several forms. The Halls of Fame and PFA Players of the Year are noted below. For all players with over 100 appearances for Aston Villa, see List of Aston Villa F.C. players and for those players that only played for Aston Villa see One-club man. Aston Villa have provided more England internationals than any other club, 69 to date, with the most recent being Stephen Warnock. In 1998, to celebrate the 100th season of League football, The Football League released a list entitled the Football League 100 Legends that consisted of "100 legendary football players." There were seven players included on the list who had played for Villa at some point: Danny Blanchflower, Trevor Ford, Archie Hunter, Sam Hardy, Paul McGrath, Peter Schmeichel and Clem Stephenson.

Three Aston Villa players have won the PFA Players' Player of the Year award. At the end of every English football season, the members of the Professional Footballers Association (PFA) vote on which of its members has played the best football in the previous year. In 1977 Andy Gray won the award. In 1990 it was awarded to David Platt, whilst Paul McGrath won it in 1993. The PFA Young Player of the Year, which is awarded to players under the age of 23, has been awarded to four players from Aston Villa: Andy Gray in 1977; Gary Shaw in 1981; Ashley Young in 2009 and James Milner in 2010. The National Football Museum in Preston, England administers the English Football Hall of Fame which currently contains two Villa teams, two Villa players and one manager. The 1890s team and 1982 team were inducted into the Hall of Fame in July 2009. Joe Mercer was inducted into the Hall of Fame at the same time for his career as a manager including his time at Aston Villa. The only two Villa players in the Hall of Fame are Danny Blanchflower and Peter Schmeichel.

In 2006, Aston Villa announced the creation of an "Aston Villa Hall of Fame." This was voted for by fans and to this date there has been one induction of 12 players in 2006.}} , the current manager of Aston Villa.]] {| class="wikitable" |- !Name !Nationality !Role |- |Gérard Houllier||||Manager |- |Gary McAllister||||Assistant Manager |- |Gordon Cowans||||First Team Coach |- |Robert Duverne||||First Team / Fitness Coach |- |Rafa González||||Goalkeeping Coach |- |Jeff Vetere||||Chief Scout |- |Roddy McDonald||||Club doctor |- |Alan Smith||||Head Physiotherapist |- |Kevin MacDonald||||Reserve Team Manager |- |Bryan Jones||||Academy Director |- |Steve Burns||||Assistant Academy Director |- |Tony McAndrew||||Youth Team Manager |- |}

Notable managers

The following managers have all won at least one trophy when in charge or have been notable for Villa in the context of the League, for example Jozef Vengloš who holds a League record. {| class="wikitable" style="text-align: left" !rowspan="2"|Name !rowspan="2"|Nationality !colspan="2"|Period !rowspan="2"|Played !rowspan="2"|Win !rowspan="2"|Draw !rowspan="2"|Lose !rowspan="2"|Win% !rowspan="2"|Honours |- !From !To |- |align=left|George Ramsay | |align=left|August 1884 |align=left|May 1926 |align=left|6 FA Cups, 6 Division One championships. Also in 2006 was inducted into the Aston Villa Hall of Fame. |- |align=left|Jimmy Hogan | |align=left|November 1936 |align=left|September 1939 |align=left|Division Two Champions |- |align=left|Eric Houghton | |align=left|September 1953 |align=left|November 1958 |align=left|FA Cup winner. Also in 2006 was inducted into the Aston Villa Hall of Fame. |- |align=left|Joe Mercer | |align=left|December 1958 |align=left|July 1964 |align=left|Division Two Champions, League Cup winner
Inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame |- |align=left|Ron Saunders | |align=left|June 1974 |align=left|February 1982 |align=left|2 League Cups, Division One champions. Also in 2006 was inducted into the Aston Villa Hall of Fame. |- |align=left|Tony Barton | |align=left|February 1982 |align=left|June 1984 |align=left|European Cup, European Super Cup |- |align=left|Jozef Vengloš | |align=left|July 1990 |align=left|May 1991 |align-left|First manager not from Britain or Ireland to take charge of a top-flight club in England. |- |align=left|Ron Atkinson | |align=left|July 1991 |align=left|November 1994 |align=left|League Cup winner |- |align=left|Brian Little | |align=left|November 1994 |align=left|February 1998 |align=left|League Cup winner. Also in 2006 was inducted into the Aston Villa Hall of Fame. |- |align=left|John Gregory | |align=left|February 1998 |align=left|January 2002 |align=left|Intertoto Cup winner |}

In popular culture

A number of television programmes have included references to Aston Villa over the past few decades. In the sitcom Porridge, the character Lennie Godber is a Villa supporter. In the first episode of Yes Minister Jim Hacker MP says he needs to get off early to watch Aston Villa play. However, in a later episode, he launches a campaign to save his local team, the fictional "Aston Wanderers". When filming began on Dad's Army, Villa fan, Ian Lavender was allowed to choose Frank Pike's scarf from an array in the BBC wardrobe, he chose a claret and blue one—Aston Villa's colours. The character, Nessa in the BBC sitcom Gavin and Stacey was revealed as an Aston Villa fan in the episode screened on 10 December 2009.

Aston Villa has also featured on several occasions in prose. Joseph Gallivan's book "Oi, Ref" is about a referee who is a Villa fan who conspires to turn an FA Cup Semi-Final in his team's favour. Stanley Woolley, a character in Derek Robinson's Booker shortlisted novel Goshawk Squadron is an Aston Villa fan and names a pre-war starting eleven Villa side. Together with The Oval, Villa Park is referenced by the poet Philip Larkin in his poem about the First World War, MCMXIV.

Footnotes

References

; Specific ; General

External links

Aston Villa News – Sky Sports

Aston Villa statistics

Category:Aston Villa F.C. Category:English football clubs Category:Sport in Birmingham, West Midlands Category:Association football clubs established in 1874 Category:Football League founder members Category:Premier League clubs Category:Football League clubs Category:FA Cup winners Category:Football League Cup winners