The ups and downs of the 1980s
The 1980s was another mixed era in the history of Aston Villa football club. Villa won the Football League Championship, fighting off competition from Liverpool and Nottingham Forest, in 1981 under the managership of Ron Saunders. Saunders quit halfway through the following season (1981-82) and was replaced by his assistant manager Tony Barton. In May 1982, just three months after being appointed manager, Barton guided Villa to a 1-0 victory over Bayern Munich in the European Cup final. Key players in this side included Des Bremner, Peter Withe and Gordon Cowans. Barton remained in charge until the summer of 1984, when he was sacked after a disappointing season which had seen the club finish 10th in the First Division. His successor was Graham Turner who had taken Shrewsbury Town from being Fourth Division strugglers into being an established Second Division side. Turner was sacked in September 1986 and his successor Billy McNeill was unable to save the club from finishing bottom of the First Division and being relegated - just five years after Villa had been champions of Europe.
McNeill left in the summer of 1987 to become manager of Celtic. Villa chairman Doug Ellis gave the manager's job to Graham Taylor, who had transformed the fortunes of Watford in 10 years of management. A significant addition to the Villa squad was attacking midfielder David Platt, a 21-year-old signing from Crewe Alexandra for £200,000. Platt was instrumental in getting Villa back into the top flight at the first time of asking as they finished Second Division runners-up in 1988.
Villa narrowly avoided relegation from the First Division in 1989 but in 1990 they surprised everyone by finishing runners-up to Liverpool in the First Division. Taylor left shortly afterwards to replace Bobby Robson as England manager, but Taylor would eventually be villified by the British press for his failures as national coach. Villa meanwhile appointed Czech coach Jozef Venglos as their new manager - the first time that a foreign manager had taken charge of a top division club.
The 1990s: more mixed fortunes
Jozef Venglos spent one season as manager of Aston Villa (1990-91). He stepped down after they finished just two places above the First Division relegation zone and David Platt was sold to Italian side Bari for £5 million. Aston Villa's new manager was Ron Atkinson, who had achieved considerable success with West Bromwich Albion, Manchester United and more recently Sheffield Wednesday. He spent heavily, making expensive additions to the squad including Earl Barrett, Dean Saunders, Dalian Atkinson, Kevin Richardson, Ray Houghton and Shaun Teale. The policy nearly paid off in 1993 when Aston Villa finished runners-up to Manchester United (Atkinson's old club) in the inaugural Premier League. Villa gained their revenge over United with a 3-1 League Cup final victory the following season (which prevented United from winning a unique domestic treble) but Villa's league form slipped and they finished tenth in 1994.
Atkinson was sacked in November 1994 with Villa battling relegation, just 18 months after they had almost won the league. His successor Brian Little did well to keep a demoralised team in the Premiership and in the summer of 1995 reshaped the squad by selling most of the club's older players and buying in many younger players. New arrivals included Alan Wright, Gary Charles, Ian Taylor, Mark Draper, Savo Milosevic, Gareth Southgate and Tommy Johnson. Several home grown players were also progressing well, especially striker Dwight Yorke and defender Ugo Ehiogu.
Aston Villa made huge progress in 1995-96 under Brian Little. They won the League Cup, reached the FA Cup semi finals and finished fourth in the Premiership. Dwight Yorke was now established as a world class striker and other players like Ugo Ehiogu and Gareth Southgate were already gaining international recognition. Villa qualified for the UEFA Cup in 1996 and again in 1997, without making any real progress, and Little resigned in February 1998 with Villa 15th in the Premiership and with relegation looking a real possibility.
Little's successor John Gregory, a former Aston Villa coach who had left to take charge of Wycombe Wanderers 18 months earlier, revitalised the club's fortunes and they finished seventh in the Premiership and qualified for the UEFA Cup; due to the progress of other teams in the top seven it was the first time that a seventh placed club has automatically qualified for the UEFA Cup.
Despite the £12.6million sale of Dwight Yorke to Manchester United in August 1998, John Gregory had guided Aston Villa to the top of the Premiership by the middle of the 1998-99 season. New signings Paul Merson and Dion Dublin were proving to be worth the money, while 18-year-old defender Gareth Barry was easily the most competent young player in the Premiership that season. But Villa's form slipped during the final weeks and they finished sixth - not even enough for a UEFA Cup place.
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