Shropshire Star

Ron Atkinson: Managing Aston Villa and Paul McGrath

Ron Atkinson has launched his book The Manager, which is being serialised this week on Shropshirestar.com. Today he reveals all about his time at Aston Villa.

Published

I was at Sheffield Wednesday when I got wind that Paul McGrath's time at Old Trafford was coming to an end.

I had just sold Ian Cranson to Stoke for £400,000, the kind of deal that makes you think you can swim the Channel, which meant I had some money.

I phoned Alex and told him I would be interested in Paul for £100,000, which could go up depending on how he did at Hillsborough.

Fergie told me he'd think about it and the next day I got a call from Graham Taylor at Aston Villa, whose opening words were: 'Ron, tell me about Paul McGrath.'

I probably should have said, 'Don't touch him. He's useless.' But I couldn't help myself. I told Graham what I thought and he joined Aston Villa for £450,000.

The deal worked out pretty well for me because within two years I was his manager once more.

If any other Manchester United player had done off the field what Paul did, they would not have tolerated it, but because it was Paul and because they knew he had a problem, they let it go.

The opportunity too good to turn down

If I had a club, a team I supported, it would be Aston Villa.

I had been offered the chance to manage them three times before and I thought that if I turned them down once more, the opportunity would never come again.

For my first game as manager of Aston Villa, I had eight players making their debuts, and after half an hour of that match you would have thought I'd picked six of them up on the motorway coming to the game.

To my disbelief, that game was away to Sheffield Wednesday.

Doug insisted on coming on the coach with us and as we approached Hillsborough he moved away, joking he didn't want to be hit by a stray sniper's bullet. There were a few 'Judas' chants but that kind of thing has never bothered me.

These days, however, there seems to be a lot more vitriol added to the chants.

After 10 minutes Villa were two down and the way it was going we were going to be 10 down by half-time.

Just before the interval, we won a corner. Chris Woods was making his debut in goal for Sheffield Wednesday and Andy Gray, who had watched a lot of Scottish football for BSkyB, turned to me and said, 'He had a bad injury at Rangers and he's not as brave as he used to be.'

The corner is delivered, Big Cyrille goes in and clashes with the keeper, the ball goes out for another corner. The corner goes in again, Cyrille is there but Chris Woods isn't and the deficit is 2-1.

In the dressing room at Hillsborough, I told the lads, 'You'll win this now because they won't know whether to stick or twist – whether to hold on for 2-1 or hit us for six.'

In the second half Dalian equalised and then from their corner we broke away and Steve Staunton, from left-back, found himself clean through to strike the winner. A mate of mine, a Sheffield man, turned to me and said, 'Who writes your scripts?'

The pain in his knee and the drink were intertwined. He used one to deal with the other. When I became manager of Aston Villa, Gordon Cowans came up to me and said, 'Listen, gaffer, we don't mind Macca. We want him in the team.'

In the first four years of the Premier League he barely missed a game and, if you ask an Aston Villa fan who's been at the club for 30 years to name the best player they have seen, some might say Gordon Cowans but most would probably tell you it is Paul McGrath.

He didn't train; he couldn't train because his knee simply wouldn't allow it. He would come into the gym at Bodymoor Heath and just use the bikes or the static weights.

He worked very closely with the Aston Villa physio, Jim Walker, and one day Jim said it would be worth increasing the load on the bike.

Paul McGrath barely trained under Atkinson.

'It is as if you're pedalling uphill,' he said, adjusting the weight, which prompted Paul to get off. When Jim asked why, he said, 'Well, outdoors, I always push the bike when I am going uphill.'

By the summer of 1992, I'd brought Dave Sexton into the coaching set-up at Villa and we'd gone on a pre-season tour to Germany.

Paul had done virtually nothing bar sessions on the bike but we were playing Dynamo Dresden, they had a big centre-forward, Alexander Zickler, who was to play for Germany, the Premier League was beginning in a week and I thought McGrath should play.

Deadly Doug's 'fit of pique'

I have never in my managerial career had a vote of confidence, not even from Doug Ellis when I was at Aston Villa, although he did give an interview to Football Focus on Saturday afternoon naming me as one of the three best managers in the country. He fired me on the Thursday.

Doug sacked me in November 1994. Like my dismissal at Manchester United, I hadn't seen it coming.

Aston Villa were in trouble, we had taken one point from nine games and, after beating Inter Milan, we had managed to get ourselves knocked out of the UEFA Cup by Trabzonspor.

We were in the bottom four now but there was no panic, no clamour for my dismissal from the Holte End. When my sacking was announced, there was a campaign by the local radio station in Birmingham to have me reinstated.

Doug did it in a fit of pique – the meeting to dismiss me lasted precisely four minutes. Years later, I said to him, 'You lost your temper, didn't you, Doug?' 'I'm afraid I did, Ron.'

When I told Dave he said, 'I cannot believe you are even contemplating playing him.'

The first cross came in and, bang, McGrath won it. He won the second and he won the third. He scored the opening goal. Dave turned to me and said, 'I don't believe what I'm seeing.'

'You'd better believe it,' I said, 'and, what's more, he will be doing that for another 40 games this season.'

Stairs that led to heartbreak

The season swung on Manchester United's desperately late goals to beat Sheffield Wednesday that ended with Alex Ferguson leaping into Brian Kidd's arms on the pitch.

It was April 10, 1993, Easter Saturday, and Aston Villa were top of the Premier League.

We had just drawn 0–0 at home to Coventry in an absolutely terrible game and, as we walked off, I heard shouts of 'They're getting beat.' That meant that we were still two points clear.

The dressing rooms at Villa Park were then at the top of a flight of stairs and by the time we'd got to the top, which must have been five minutes after the final whistle, there was a groan and someone said, 'They've equalised.'

I looked at my watch and it was five to five. 'It will be one of those games,' I said. 'United will play until they win.'

The Manager is available now.

Just before the end of normal time, Carlton Palmer, who was in midfield for Sheffield Wednesday, went over to the linesman and asked how much stoppage time there would be. He was told two minutes. He remarked to me ruefully afterwards, 'Six minutes later we were still playing.'

As Trevor Francis said, 'They scored in the second leg.'

Although Manchester United were a better side than Aston Villa, my belief had always been that the astonishing pressure to win the title would drag them down.

Now, as their late victory over Sheffield Wednesday took them top with five games to go, I wasn't so sure.

We went to Blackburn and in the opening 15 minutes we absolutely buried them, but didn't take our chances; Blackburn did and we lost 3-0. That was the match that cost us the championship.

By the time we played Oldham – the result that guaranteed Manchester United their first title in 26 years – we were looking at snookers.

n Ron Atkinson: The Manager is available from www.decoubertin.co.uk/BigRon – the retail price is £20 but it is currently available for £17.99 on the website.

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