View: Three greatest Aston Villa managers in the club’s history
Since their foundation in 1874, Aston Villa Football Club have had their fair share of successful managers.
From English League titles to FA Cup wins, and most notably, a European Cup in 1982, the west midlands club are one of the most successful sides in English football history.
Unai Emery has recently filled the void of Villa manager after the sacking of Steven Gerrard and certainly has some work to do if he wishes to be mentioned in the same breath as the club’s legendary coaches, who have made our top three rankings below.
3) Graham Taylor
Taylor’s time at Villa has since been overshadowed by his disastrous reign as England manager, but the coach helped re-build a struggling side who had collapsed after European Cup victory in 1982.
The Englishman had a brilliant football brain and was a masterful in-game tactician, which almost lead to a Villa title in 1990 when his side finished runners-up to Liverpool.
His success was so profound that England came calling in 1990, and although this would prove his downfall, the success he delivered at Villa Park cannot be forgotten.
Taylor would later return to B6 as head coach in 2002 but spent just 15 months at the helm after a fall-out with Chairman Doug Ellis.
2) Tony Barton
It is quite remarkable that the man who led Aston Villa to their first-ever European Cup isn’t classed as the club’s greatest manager, but that speaks volumes of the man who is still to come.
Joining in 1980, Barton arrived at the club as an assistant manager to Ron Saunders before taking sole charge of the dugout two years later when the latter took up a controversial role at Birmingham City.
Taking over an already-competitive side, Barton continued in a similar vein, delivering the 1982 European Cup and 1982 European Super Cup within a year in charge of the club.
A 1-0 win over Anderlecht gave his Villa side the chance of reaching footballing immortality, and Peter White’s winning goal against Bayern Munich subsequently consigned Barton to folklore.
While he didn’t spend many years in charge of Villa, Barton delivered the greatest day in the club’s history – and this can’t go unnoticed.
1) George Ramsey
Ramsey is by far the greatest manager to ever grace the Aston Villa dugout and is surely up there among the greatest coaches in the history of the game.
The Glasgow-born manager provided unprecedented success to the west-midlands club, winning the FA Cup in his first season against bitter rivals West Brom, before revolutionising the club with his cutting-edge tactics.
Ramsey’s Villa were an unstoppable force in the 1890s, winning five league titles in six years on the stroke of the century before he added yet another title to his name in 1910.
The ex-Villa player also masterminded a further five FA Cup victories during his quite astonishing 42 years in the Villa dugout, with his longevity and ability to adapt his side second to none.
His accumulation of honours made him the most successful manager in history for over 100 years until the rise of Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United.
Quite simply, Aston Villa have not and probably will not ever have a manager like him again.
In other Aston Villa news, Finn Azaz is set for a fresh contract offer after a pair of stunning loan spells in the football league.