Get Well Soon Giddy

We'd like to wish Aston Villa legend John Gidman a speedy recovery after a heart operation.

An exciting right back, John clocked up well over 200 appearances in Villa shirt winning the 1977 League Cup in the process before moving on to Everton in 1979.

In 1981 he became the first player signed by Big Ron Atkinson at Manchester United  where he played in the 1985 FA Cup triumph.

John had been scheduled to take part in ‘Three Amigos’at the Sacred Heart Club, in Grange Road, Aston, on Thursday,  reminiscing about the past and talk about the present alongside former Villa favourites Peter Withe and Brian Little. Tony Morley will be stepping in to take his place.

Get well soon Giddy.

Fantasy Villa Team No.4: 'ello John, gotta new motor?

Well, we thought, this one would be dead easy. John is a fairly common name, or so we'd imagined; pulling together a fantasy Villa team full of Johns should have been a total doddle, right?

Wrong!

There doesn't seem to be a single John on the entire current playing staff. We could - at a push - have included Jean II Makoun, but if three successive managers have ignored him, why should we be any different?

John appears to have been most popular with 70s era players so a large chunk of our squad comes from that decade. We had to have Budgie of course, total legend; John Gidman was shoo in at right back and the much missed John Robson gets the call at left back. Struggling for centre halves, we've gone back to the 1920s for Scottish hero John Johnstone.

In the middle of the park we use utility man John Gregory, flanked by Sixties wing wonder Johnny MacLeod and legendary 19th Century Captain Fantastic John "Jack" Devey.

We'll take any excuse to sing "He's bigger than me and you" hence Carew's starring role along with FA Cup hero Johnny Dixon and part of Villa's exciting mid-seventies forward line, John Deehan.

Frankly there weren't many options. There just aren't as many Johns as you'd think.

Fantasy Villa Team No.1: The PFA Team of the Year criteria

In the first of an occasional series, we pick fantasy Villa teams using players from times gone by.

This first one virtually picks itself as our criteria was that players had to have featured in a PFA Team of the Year. We were genuinely struggling to get a full team here, hence the five at the back, but as both John Gidman and Alan Wright were quite happy bombing forward it might sort of work.

Hard done by here is right back Kenny Swain who doesn't make our team despite that the fact he appeared in PFA Teams twice. He was trumped by John Gidman who appeared an impressive three times.

The team also boasts two Andy Grays.