Last year marked 40 years since the magnum opus of Aston Villa Football Club. The celebrations of that famous night in Rotterdam have brought the legendary team together once again.
European Cup winner Tony Morley recently joined the UTV Podcast again to discuss the phenomenal achievement and his stellar Villa career four decades on.
ANNIVERSARY BEERS
It is not the first time that the esteemed member of the Class of 82 has sat down for a chat with our team. When left winger Morley spoke to Ryan McKeown before the release of the acclaimed ‘Super Villans’ documentary last year, he stated that the team would enjoy “quite a few beers” to mark the occasion.
When asked whether the squad made good on this promise, Tony, with a mischievous smirk across his face, declared that “Oh yes, we had quite a few!”
A hallmark of that famous group of players was their togetherness, camaraderie and never-say-die attitude, and the band of brothers, who Morley describes as “a great bunch of lads” are still as close as ever in the wake of last year’s celebrations.
MAGNIFICENT VILLA FANS
Assembled by Ron Saunders, the group came from a variety of walks of life with Merseysider Morley making his way down to the Midlands via Preston and Burnley. It was with the Lilywhites that Morley got a real sense of the “massive club” Aston Villa and their “magnificent fans”.
The teenage winger was wowed by away trips to Villa Park in the Third and Second Division in the early 1970’s, with 28,000 fans turning up to roar on a third tier side. Morley had also previously been impressed by the 18,000 attendance for an England youth side game against a Villa youth team just a couple of years before.
After departing from Preston in 1976, Morley got his first brief taste of First Division football with Lancashire rivals Burnley. This would not be the last time that the star would transfer between two local foes, but this was a natural move for footballers of the time. Being settled both on and off the pitch was important, whilst wages were often similar and so moves between Lancastrian or Midland sides were commonplace.
VILLA BOUND
Morley became a key man for Burnley after they fell into the Second Division and his dynamic performances down the wing piqued the interest of Villa manager and fellow Merseysider Ron Saunders, who was causing quite a stir in Birmingham.
Villa had regained their place at the top table of English football and added two League Cups to their collection under the stoic leadership of Saunders and the addition of Morley strengthened the team further.
As Saunders blended experienced stalwarts of British football with young, exciting talents, Villa became a force of nature. With a well-oiled defensive set-up, a metronomical engine room in midfield and a selection of match winning mavericks up top, Saunders’ stars set their sights on European football.
Morley played off the left and off the cuff in an inside forward role that has recently been taken on by Eden Hazard, Franck Ribéry and even former Villa captain Jack Grealish.
Morley was predominantly right footed and admits he only ended up playing on the left under Saunders because the industrious Des Bremner had become a mainstay on the right flank. The former number 11, who speaks with incredible fondness of every one of his former Villa teammates, recalls a conversation with Everton great Howard Kendall, who described Morley, Mortimer, Cowans and Bremner as “the best four midfielders in the country by far,” something which Morley himself, as well as many football fans of the era, would attest to. Morley would have played “any position” for Villa “as long as we’re winning!”
EUROPEAN ROYALTY
The years that followed marked the Golden Age of Aston Villa Football Club with a First Division title, European Cup and European Super Cup triumph in quick succession. As these legendary feats are read out to Morley, the cheeky Villan interjects to make sure we do not forget his European Goal of the Season award. The wideman won the award with a wonderful solo goal away at Dynamo Berlin, to add to his English Goal of the Season award for a magical strike against his boyhood club Everton the previous year.
Of the many individual awards the skilful winger picked up, there is no question as to what his favourite is. Morley told us how he felt “lucky to be voted into the European Team of the Year by rival coaches,” including beaten finalist Pál Csernai, Juventus legend Giovanni Trapattoni and Liverpool great Bob Paisley. The prestige of this accolade will always stick with Morley who produced one of the finest individual European campaigns from any English footballer.
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OMITTED BY ENGLAND
Despite match-winning performances against Anderlecht at home and Dynamo Berlin away, as well as a mesmeric assist for Peter Withe in the final, Tony Morley, alongside many of his Villa colleagues, was somehow left out of Ron Greenwood’s 1982 World Cup squad. The likes of Guy Mowbray and Adrian Durham have made clear the disbelief that persists to this day that no Villa player played a single minute in that tournament, with unused substitute Peter Withe the only representative in the Three Lions camp.
It is clear just how disappointed the Villa star still is at Greenwood’s decision, as he suggests “I just proved that I could go up against the best in Europe and live with them. That’s probably my biggest regret in football and the one thing I wish I had on my CV, it took me a long time to get over that.” The good-humoured Merseyside man, however, points out that the nightclubs of Birmingham, such as famous Hagley Road haunt Liberty’s, did well out of his omission. As ever, though, Morley is also quick to point out the unfair exclusion of his talented teammates.
Captain Dennis Mortimer was the most glaring snub according to Tony Morley, who saw his skipper as on par with “Sounness and Robson as the most complete midfielders at the time.” He acknowledges that Gary Shaw, Kenny Swain and Gordon Cowans will all have also felt hard done by to have not been on the plane to Spain.
RELATIONSHIP WITH RON
Tony Morley also believes that he would have racked up a lot more than six England caps had it not been for Villa boss Ron Saunders and his stubbornness to the claret and blue cause. Morley explains that “the club had to give permission and I’m absolutely certain that Ron Saunders would have said ‘no, he’s injured’, all Saunders thought about was the club and he was quite right.”
The former England international sees Saunders as similar to Sir Alex in this sense, and whilst Saunders and Morley did not always see eye-to-eye, the latter does not bear any grudges with his former manager. The pair had a love-hate relationship, with Saunders using tricks such as calling the star ‘Anthony’ to wind him up and to get the best out of him.
“He was a winner,” Morley recalls, as he starts to imagine what could have been had the boss stayed at Villa for another couple of seasons. “We were set up for the next five years,” he claims, “we won the European Cup and had the FA Youth Cup winners coming through, with Brian McClair and Tony Dorigo.” According to Morley, Villa fans were “robbed” of a “dynasty that could have won another four or five trophies” Instead, it was Everton who would rise to the top of English football, as Villa fell into the second tier.
OUSTED BY DOUG
Although his exit was premature, by the time Ron Saunders did leave the club in 1982, he had established himself as one of the most important figures in Villa history. Morley has added his voice to the debate around a potential change of name for the North Stand when it is renovated in the coming years. “It’s got to be Saunders, or maybe Mortimer, Villa’s greatest ever captain,” believes Morley, “they put a Doug Ellis stand up, but it should have been Ron Saunders, no question about it.”
His relationship with former Chairman ‘Deadly’ Doug Ellis was well documented and Morley pulled no punches when clarifying the reason for his Villa exit in 1983. The man from Ormskirk is naturally well-humoured but his facial expression becomes more stern as he recalls how “I was 27 when Doug Ellis came back and I was finished at Villa by 28.” Morley continues, “I wasn’t even at my prime, I was voted in the European team of the season and I had four or five special years to give to Villa and one man took that away from me.” The pacey left winger moved to West Brom just a year after winning the European Cup.
As one of Villa’s greatest ever players, Morley maintains a great relationship with his former teammates and the claret and blue faithful, and still keeps up with the “phenomenal club,” that he was “very fortunate to play for.”
MORLEY AND MERSE
When asked which player from Villa history he would have loved to play with, Morley provides a number of names that conjure up images of flair, ferocity and free-flowing football. “I played a retirement game with Paul Merson,” begins Morley, “I didn’t realise how quick he was in his brain, he was two or three moves in front of everyone. He was very similar to Cowans and Shaw.” The ‘Magic Man’ would certainly have set the flying Morley away with his trademark pinpoint passes.
Dwight Yorke is the second player that Morley wishes he lined up alongside, whilst he also expresses a disappointment at not being able to play regularly with Andy Gray or Brian Little at the peak of their powers. Yorke and Little, according to Tony Morley, were players “who had something special about them and made football look easy,” whilst Andy Gray’s big frame and fearlessness would “have been ideal for a wide player like me.”
Despite being part of an exclusive group of European Cup winning players, Tony Morley is a down-to-earth, reflective and sharp-witted individual who possesses an endless number of insightful stories about his time at the club.
All at the UTV Podcast thank Tony for being so giving with his time and expertise and he is always welcome on the channel.
Thank you for reading: any likes, retweets, or shares on the social media post where you found this article would be highly appreciated.
Thumbnail Media Credit: www.avfc.co.uk
AUTHOR | JOEY MILLINGTON
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3 Responses
Great article. Loved watching Tony Morley play football. He could set the crowd alight like a match to a box of fireworks. Instant, explosive, Morley magic.
Tony Morley, what a top man he is. I was lucky enough to go to an evening with him and Gary Shaw. So funny and both had a fund of brilliant stories. The biggest impression I left with was the regret that their Villa team was not allowed the time together to potentially win more trophies. Doug Ellis was very much in the frame for that.
Really interesting article, Tony is very astute in his recall as he was on the pitch. Love the retro interviews on UTV.
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