Paul Merson, winger, 1998-2002
We started the season with a club-record run of 12 games unbeaten. We won 4-1 at Southampton and John Gregory wanted the whole team to have a picture in front of the away fans because it was a record. I wouldn’t do it. He was going: “You’ve got to do it, we’ll all be in it together.” I’m right at the back, I wouldn’t get in the picture. I don’t even think I stood up – I might have bent down and done my laces up. He said: “We’re a team, you’re coming.” I just thought: “No, other teams will be watching this thinking they’ve won the league already.” I knew how long was left in the season and was fortunate enough to know what it takes to win a league title, having done it twice with Arsenal, and it was too early.
I think this is the best Villa team since that year but now they are in a position where there is a different pressure. Everybody is watching Aston Villa this weekend. Almost everybody who doesn’t support Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City and Birmingham City want Villa to do well. Two months ago Villa going away to Brentford on Sunday and getting a draw, you’d say it was a good result. But now they’re in the title race, so they need to win. Draws are no good any more. If you get on a bad run … I remember turning up at games in the second half of that season thinking: “When are we going to win again?”
Lee Hendrie, midfielder, 1993-2007
We beat Arsenal 3-2 almost 25 years ago to this day. Dennis Bergkamp scored twice; it was a mad day. We went in 2-0 down at half-time and there was a delay for us to come out for the second half because an RAF parachutist [Nigel Rogoff, who lost a leg as a result], dressed as Santa, got caught on the top of the Trinity Road Stand. We were sat in the changing room wondering what was happening and then found out his parachute gave way. He fell right in front of the dugouts. It was horrible.
Dion Dublin’s goals stick out but I also remember the game because Nelson Vivas, in the buildup to our equaliser, munched me with a tackle. I lost my head and just volleyed him – I booted him off the ball. If there was VAR back then, I would have gone. We got the winner and then I ran up to him and gave him a bit of stick. I remember that game because it was that sense of: “Wow, we can go and do something special.” The atmosphere at Villa Park was incredible. The only other time I’ve heard it like that was the previous season when Stan Collymore scored an absolute screamer against Atlético Madrid in the Uefa Cup quarter-finals.
I thought we were going to go and win the league that season. I look back and still to this day cannot put my finger on why things unravelled. To go from one half of the season where you think you’re untouchable to one where you put the shirt on and don’t feel like you can win a game, it was hard to digest. We were winning games quite freely and then two defeats became three defeats and you think: “We’re falling away, here.” The gaffer tried everything to galvanise us to get back to winning ways – we went to Kingsbury water park and had a team-bonding army day – but we really struggled. It was a sickening end to the season.
John Gregory, manager, 1998-2002
I had a lot of good players and they had a great work ethic – training was great and our performances at the weekend were brilliant. In many ways it mirrors the current Villa team because there are not really any superstars at the moment. We didn’t have any but collectively we had a good bunch of lads who worked really hard for one another and it kept producing results. We suddenly found ourselves at the top of the league towards the end of 1998, up there battling against Manchester United and Chelsea. I really thought we had all the ingredients to go right to the final week of the season, being a contender. It was quite galling when we slipped away and I look back on it as a season of “What ifs?”.
The Arsenal game stands out. At half-time I had decided to take off Julian Joachim and bring on Stan. Julian always used to take his boots off first and throw them into the middle of the room and so he sat there in his kit. But as the half-time went on and on, for some reason I decided to put Julian back on. He had to undo the laces on his boots, put them back on and he went out and scored the first goal. Then Dion scored two more goals and we ended up winning the game 3-2 to beat the champions and return top of the pile. When those things happen, and it felt like they kept happening that season, you don’t know if you’re lucky or talented.
Mark Bosnich, goalkeeper, 1992-99
There were two times I felt like we had a chance during my time there: one was in 1998-99 under John but even more so in the inaugural season of the Premier League under Ron Atkinson. My biggest memory of that was Easter weekend, when we played Coventry on the Saturday. We drew 0-0 and should have won. I remember walking into the dressing room and Ron Atkinson – one of the great managers of his generation – having a go at us for not winning but saying: “You’re lucky, because Manchester United are 1-0 down to Sheffield Wednesday.” Added time isn’t like what it is today and I remember being in the bath or shower and someone coming in saying: “Steve Bruce has scored two late goals.” It was a good race but in the end we faltered. It was us, Norwich and Manchester United but United prevailed in the end.
My best friend in football, Dwight Yorke, played the first game of the 1998-99 season against Everton, which we drew 0-0, but as soon as Manchester United came in he wanted to go. A little bit like Harry Kane, he left right at the beginning of the season and it sort of galvanised us at the start, just like it did Tottenham this season. We fell away after Christmas but ended up having a good season overall – we finished sixth. We never really thought of the title that season, deep down, as much as we did in 1992-93, because in that year we had Ray Houghton, Steve Staunton, Dean Saunders – the Liverpool lot as I used to call them – Kevin Richardson, who had won the title twice before, with Everton and Arsenal, and people of that ilk; Paul McGrath, the late Dalian Atkinson. There was a feeling that we were right in the race until the last two or three games of the campaign.
Julian Joachim, striker, 1996-2001
We sold Dwight at the beginning of the season and a lot of people probably questioned how we would cope and whether that was us finished in terms of doing well. He was unbelievable and was flying at Villa. It was a massive loss but we held our own and on our day we could beat anybody. We had some great individuals – Merse, Dion and Gareth Southgate – but we became more and more a team. You can see the current Villa side work hard for each other first and foremost. At the start of this season I thought Villa would be in the top six and I think they would have taken that. Now the title is wide open and they have a fighting chance. Look what happened with one of my old teams, Leicester City, when they slowly but surely kept their run going and getting results in 2015-16. Why can’t Villa do it? The games come thick and fast going into the new year. Suddenly there is not so long left and you’re into that last home run.
Simon Grayson, defender, 1997-99
There is no getting away from people talking about Villa being title contenders because it’s just the nature of social media and football in general. Personally 1998-99 was a mix of pleasure and disappointment because when you’re in a squad that is winning every week, you don’t get into the team. But you are also part of a group that is doing really well and at the top of the division, which doesn’t happen too often. Some of the Villa players may have experienced the other side of it, where they have had relegations and tough times. Now it is about getting the right balance – psychologically as much as anything else. They need to embrace the ride.
