Dr Jozef Venglos, the right man at the wrong time for Aston Villa, how it was fate for Celtic…
Dr Jozef Venglos is warmly remembered by Celtic supporters from time in Glasgow. Granted it wasn’t the best of times in his solitary season in charge, but he was a warm and humble man who left us with some good memories (the 5-1 game over Rangers) and he also brought the gifted Lubo Moravcik to Celtic and of course Johan Mjallby.
If things had worked out differently nearly a decade before at Aston Villa, the Slovakian might not have been at Celtic. He was brought to Birmingham by Villa supremo Doug Ellis and introduced in a blaze of glory by the Villa owner, “ We have got the top man in Europe” he proclaimed. “Simply the best” he added. A far cry from the Scottish media’s welcome of Dr Who? almost a decade later.
A bold statement by Ellis indeed, but Dr Jo had the credentials to back it up. Much like their Scottish counterparts the usual sneering was highly vocal from the arrogant English media.
Despite their reservations, Jozef was a highly respected international manager with Australia, Malaysia, and his native Czechoslovakia whom he had just led to a quarter final place in the World Cup at Italy. Fourteen years earlier he was assistant coach as the Czechs were crowned European Champions. He had also managed Sporting Lisbon amongst a number of clubs. He wasn’t short of credentials that’s for sure.
In joining Aston Villa he became the first man outwith Britain and Ireland to manage a top flight English club. He soon got down to work implementing his alien ideas to the bemused English players. Many resented his training methods and his dietary changes.
Players complained about not being able to tuck into steak and chips and being worked too hard on their fitness. To be fair the villains did not too badly under the leadership of Graham Taylor. The previous campaign seeing Villa finish in an impressive second place, but football was changing and the European game was moving forward.
Predictably with an unhappy dressing room things didn’t go well for Villa in season 90/91 under the leadership of Dr Jo. The highlight being a 2-0 home win over Inter Milan in the Uefa Cup second round first leg against an Inter side boasting World Cup winners Andreas Brehme, Lothar Matthaus and Jurgen Kilnsmann, although the Italians prevailed in the second leg and indeed would go on win the tournament that season.
A disappointing 17th place finish seen Dr Jo depart the Midlands club and head to pastures new in Turkey with Fenerbahce. It could have been so different had the players displayed patience and professionalism to stick with Venglos’ methods.
Of course in the next few years foreign coaches introduced themselves to English top flight football with the likes of Ossie Ardiles and Ruud Gullit arriving. It didn’t kick off however until Arsene Wenger arrived on the scene with Arsenal and he quickly implemented similar ideas. His Arsenal side were very successful indeed and his ideas are now the norm on these shores. An English club without a foreign coach these days is unthinkable.
Oh how different it could’ve been for Jozef , it was fate it didn’t work out I suppose. If jozef was a success down south he probably wouldn’t have ended up at Celtic Park, and in turn we would have been denied the privilege of witnessing the talents of Lubo Moravcik. So I suppose things happen for a reason.
JustAnOrdinaryBhoy – follow on Twitter @ordinarybhoy
