H&V 51, April 1997.
It’s obvious that we’re going to be in the market for a new forward in the summer. The candidates are many and the arguments will rage until our new record signing (as he will surely be) puts pen to paper. Here to make you help up your mind is our guide to the leading candidates.
Stan Collymore: Fans favourite and the man we’ve been on the verge of signing for what seems like every week for the past three years. We’ve been about to buy Collymore as often as we were going to sign Steve Bull, but it seems there might finally be some substance in the stories. Villa certainly had as bid turned down last year, there have been all sorts of ‘gentlemens agreements’ and deals that were done until injures changed the circumstances. So why should he be joining the Villa?
His style of play would undoubtedly complement Dwight Yorke, and both men have said they’d like to play alongside each other. Collymore’s strength and running from deep positions would be tailor-made for Yorke’s ball control and goalscoring ability. He hasn’t settled at Liverpool, yet has still scored 34 goals in 65 appearances. there’s also the fact that Stan Collymore was supposedly a Villa supporter as a kid and would like nothing more than to play for the team. So Collymore it is then?
Well, let’s look at the drawbacks, shall we? There’s no doubt that Stan Collymore on top form could have won the Villa the title this season. He’s got a tremendous amount of talent, which is why he cost Liverpool £8.5 million. There’s just one problem. Wherever he goes, Collymore is possibly the most disliked footballer in the world. I hate the phrase ‘attitude problem’ but it sums up Stan Collymore perfectly. Crystal Palace and Southend players were reported to hate him, there was the famous occasion when he scored for Forest and his team-mates ignored him, he’s saved Liverpool a fortune in wages as a result of club fines. If he’s not playing he sulks, if he is playing he sulks and if things are going wrong watch any prams in the vicinity carefully for flying dummies. To sum him up Stan Collymore would be the second coming of Dalian Atkinson. And as we’ve said before, all the talk of him being a Villa supporter is camouflage. I doubt he ever attended Villa Park as a kid.
if Brian thinks he can tame Stan Collymore then I’ll be happy to see him join the Villa. He’s the one the supporters want and would probably do most for season ticket sales during the summer. But I’m not convinced.
Duncan Ferguson: Strongly fancied in the last few months, a ludicrous £7 million has been quoted for his services, but if he was moving to the Villa it would probably be as part of a player exchange.
Ferguson’s main strength is that he’s good in the air and at his best there isn’t a defender in the country who could mark him out of a game. Which beggars the question, who is there in our team who could put over a decent cross? A return to bBrian’s Leicester days of a more direct style? I hope not. Doubts also abound about Ferguson’s ability to get through a full season. He’s a thirty games and a dozen goals a season at best man, and that’s no good to anyone.
There’s also the Collymore Factor, which in Ferguson’s case can be multiplied by ten. Put simply, the bloke is a twenty four carat prick. In court several times at Dundee United, once for assaulting a man on crutches, imprisoned for headbutting a player at Rangers, hounded out of Scotland, arrested for drink driving at Everton – on the night before a derby – Ferguson is an accident which looks for somewhere to happen. He can’t blame the stupidity of youth anymore, either. He’s 25 and shows few signs of growing up.
And his goalscoring record isn’t that hot. In fact Ferguson reminds me of Dean Saunders, the sort of player who arrives in a big money transfer, just does enough to stay popular without being a real success and moves on a couple of years later. Not the sort of player to base your team around. No thanks.
Andy Cole: Another one who would be moving for around £7 million, which is plainly ridiculous for a player whose claim to fame is a good season and a half for Newcastle. At least we should be free of the off-field publicity that follows Ferguson and Collymore. A possibility, but I don’t think Cole will ever recapture his Newcastle form and his value won’t hold up if his next move doesn’t work out.
Emile Heskey: Best bet of the outsiders, not least now that Leicester are speaking to us again. At nineteen Heskey is a big sod for his age and God knows what he’s going to be when he grows up. The potential’s there and in the League Cup semi-final he shows he has the ability every Villa centre-forward needs by playing on the wing. Strong, fast and has an eye for goal. The obvious drawback is that he’s only nineteen and we don’t know what he will end up like. It’s also wrong to expect a player of his age to cope with the pressure that will be heaped upon our close-season signing. In fact, you shouldn’t even expect him to play a full season yet. But another year like this one will see Heskey’s value rocketing towards Shearer levels so he’s worth the gamble.
Daniel Fonseca: Uruguayan international who currently plays for Roma and reportedly isn’t very happy there. The obvious problem is that like Savo, he might have trouble coping with the place of our game. Thinking about the other South Americans who’ve played in England isn’t exactly a great confidence booster – Mirandhina, Emerson, Juninho, Asprilla, it’s hardy a roll of honour. Brian went over to see him a couple of weeks ago and he was a sub, coming on early on to replace a midfielder and not scoring in a 4-3 victory. It doesn’t seem an auspicious worthiness, but maybe the boss saw something there he can work on. Anyway, the story seems to have disappeared so maybe he isn’t interested after all.
Roy Makkay: Latest Continental rumour. Twenty years old, plays for Vitesse Arnhem and would cost in the region of £3 million. Main problem is that he’s also attracting interest from PSV Eindhoven and Ajax as well as Villa, and I’ve got a suspicion who even I would choose from these three.
Fabrizio Ravanelli: Why not? He’s got undoubted talent and has scored goals, even if only against Hereford. In fact he started the season off well until he realised that nobody else was arsed about playing for Middlesbrough so why should he. It’s obvious he’s moving at the end of the season whether they stay up or not, so why not go in for him? he might be willing to take a pay cut if he doesn’t have to move house and I’m sure the commercial department could soon come up with a load of silver wigs to get some of the expense back.
Maybe the man hasn’t been listed here. Brian’s probably made up his mind already, the deal’s been done and it’s somebody who will surprise us all. I hope, though, that for once it’s done with a bit of dignity. I hope there’s none of the haggling that seems to mar every big money Villa signing. Just for once I’d like to see the club capture the imagination of the world, to make them pay attention and realise that the Villa mean business. And when the deal’s been done, I hope above all that we don’t have any of that stupidity about balancing the books by selling now that we’ve bought. Big clubs don’t have to.
And which of the above would get my vote? None of them. In a straight choice I’d go for Sean Dundee of Karlsruhe. He’s powerful, good in the air and scores goals. Raised in South Africa so there’s no language problem, plays in Germany where the style of play’s similar to ours. The money’s there to buy a player of Dundee’s quality. But is the ambition?
Heroes and Villains 