Aston Villa Football Club General Info
Aston Villa Football Club (The Villa and The Villans, The Lions) is an English professional football club that plays in the Premier League. This club is based in Aston, Birmingham.Since 1897 home of the Villans is Villa Park. The former name is Aston Lower Grounds. It is a UEFA four-star football stadium that consists of four parts: Holte End, Trinity Road Stand, North Stand and the Doug Ellis Stand. Now the capacity of Villa Park is 42,700 places, but it will be increased to 50, 000. This home ground has its own record - it was the first English stadium to stage international football in three different centuries. Villa Park is the most used stadium in FA Cup semi-final history, having hosted 55 semi-finals. The chairman of Aston Villa football club is Randy Lerner. He is an American businessman and sports team owner. Randy Lerner is proprietor of the Cleveland Browns. Martin O'Neill is a manager of the team. He is a former player of such clubs as: Distillery F.C. (1971), Nottingham Forest (1971–1981), Norwich City (1981), Manchester City (1981–1982), Norwich City (1982–1983), Notts County (1983–1985). Martin O'Neill previously managed: Grantham Town (1987–1989), Shepshed Charterhouse (1989–1990), Wycombe Wanderers (1990–1995), Norwich City (1995 ), Leicester City (1995–2000) and Celtic (2000–2005). Throughout its history Aston Villa had a lot of managers:
- 1884-1826 - George Ramsey
- 1826-1834 - W.J. Smith
- 1934-1935 - Jimmy McMullan
- 1936-1944 - Jimmy Hogan
- 1945-1950 - Alex Massie
- 1950-1953 - George Martin
- 1953-1958 - Eric Houghton
- 1958-1968 - Joe Mercer
- 1964-1967 - Dick Taylor
- 1967-1968 - Tom Cummings
- 1968-1970 - Tommy Docherty
- 1970-1974 - Vic Crowe
- 1974-1982 - Ron Saunders
- 1982-1984 - Tony Barton
- 1984-1986 - Graham Turner
- 1986-1987 - Billy McNeill
- 1987-1990 - Graham Taylor
- 1990-1991 - Dr J Venglos
- 1991-1994 - Ron Atkinson
- 1994-1998 - Brian Little
- 1998-1902 - John Gregory
- 2002-2003 - Graham Taylor
- 2003-2006 - David O'Leary
- 2006 - present Martin O'Neill
Aston Villa is one of the oldest and most successful football clubs in England. The club was formed by four players from the Villa Cross Wesleyan Chapel cricket team: Jack Hughes, Frederick Matthews, Walter Price and William Scattergood. Villa is among four clubs that won the European Cup, the First Division Championship seven times and the FA Cup seven times. Also Aston Villa is the fourth most successful club in English football history, having won 21 major honours:
| Premier League | Division 1 | Division 2 | Division 3 | FA Cup | League Cup | European Cup | European Super Cup | World Cup Championship | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Runners-Up |
Champions |
Runners-Up |
Champions |
Runners-Up |
Champions |
Winners |
Runners-Up |
Winners |
Runners-Up |
Winners |
Winners |
Runners-Up
|
1992-93 |
1893-94 |
1888-89 |
1937-38 |
1974-75 |
1971-72 |
1887 |
1892 |
1961 |
1963 |
1982 |
1983 |
1982 |
1895-96 |
1902-03 |
1959-60 |
1987-88 |
1895 |
1924 |
1975 |
1971 |
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1896-97 |
1907-08 |
1897 |
2000 |
1977 |
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1898-99 |
1910-11 |
1905 |
1994 |
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1899-00 |
1912-13 |
1913 |
1996 |
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1909-10 |
1913-14 |
1920 |
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1980-81 |
1930-31 |
1957 |
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1932-33 |
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1989-90 |
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During the history The Lions have many notable players. Andy Gray, David Platt, Paul McGrath won the PFA Players' Player of the Year award. Andy Gray, Gary Shaw won the PFA Young Player of the Year title. In 2003 Danny Blanchflower inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame (it is based in the The National Football Museum in Preston). The present squad of Aston Villa includes such players as:
- Scott Carson
- Thomas Sorensen
- Stuart Taylor
- Olof Mellberg
- Martin Laursen
- Curtis Davies
- Wilfred Bouma
- Stiliyan Petrov
- Patrik Berger
- Nigel Reo-Coker
- Isaiah Osbourne
- Gareth Barry
- Craig Gardner
- Moustapha Salifou
- Ashley Young
- Shaun Maloney
- John Carew
- Gabriel Agbonlahor
- Marlon Harewood
- Luke Moore