THE BOSS (John Gregory - The Boss - John Gregory, Martin Swain)

Member Name: C_Padd

Product:	John Gregory - The Boss - John Gregory, Martin Swain
Date:	14/01/02 (81 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Straight Person, Very detailed and great to read

Disadvantages: Been unlucky with players, Only covers three seasons

John Gregory has certainly had a fun time in the years he has been manager of Premiership football side Aston Villa. Clashes with both players and officials, a fairytale start to the career, a dream turning sour and a chairman who did not get the name ‘Deadly’ Doug Ellis for nothing. ‘The Boss’ is his autobiography that describes his side of events – so named after his love of Bruce Springsteen.

I am not a Villa fan, though I was gutted that United were able to come back from 2-0 down to win 3-2 the other day. I do however respect their approach to the game, committed and dedicated and a policy of English players without having to look abroad to find stars they can bring their own or buy in their own. John Gregory has a big part to play in this. Another reason I like him is he has been through the lower leagues as a player and manager of Portsmouth and Wycombe. He is not afraid to tell the big Premiership people like Collymore just how lucky they are to be where they are earning millions to play. He is very honest and is prepared to speak his mind if it is going to get him into trouble or not. Gregory has got into trouble with the FA several times over comments about refs and their assistants, with his own chairman and the media especially.

Though this is Gregory’s autobiography there is little talk of his early life or as a player where he had a reasonable career, playing under Terry Venables and Bobby Robson. This could be that if he cannot be the best he is not interested, he was also a decent cross-county runner but when he found he cannot keep up with the pace in the national finals he dropped out. He was manager of Portsmouth a long time before Villa, again this was not a successful time so there is very little mention. He is big enough to admit this himself and I am not critical of this, it just leaves close to 300 pages to talk about just three complete seasons at Aston Villa. There is a lot of time for
detail, something I loved about the book, as I do like my football. Still there is a lot of reading and although it has been an entertaining few years it is not quite and autobiography. Hopefully Gregory has a lot longer left, at the start of his time at Villa he was being touted as a potential England boss, maybe that time is not far off?

In his time at Villa Gregory has had to cope with some very difficult people. Almost as soon as he arrived he had to content with the loss of Steve Staunton and later Mark Bosnich to the new Bosman ruling that allowed players to walk away from the club for free. Paul Merson for all the big talent that he is has his own problems, still recovering from alcohol and gambling addictions. He is a great player with the ability to change games but is very temperamental and needs attention. David Ginola is another one, the Frenchman is undoubtedly a talent but is again hard to work with. He and Gregory have had a very public falling out over David’s weight and his attitude and is now looking to move away. And then Stan Collymore. What can you say about him? One of the most infamous players in English football. He is renowned for not staying at clubs, refusing to play games, beating Swedish girlfriends and running off to physiatrists for depression. Villa paid seven million for him from Liverpool on top of his probably huge wages, so they obviously wanted him to play. And his is talented, there is no doubt about it when you see his performances for Liverpool and some of the goals he has scored. Still with that sort of attitude, there is no wonder Gregory fell out with him. Frankly Stan would spread a bad atmosphere in the dressing room, other senior players would celebrate when he was dropped and much of the time he would mope around. He would claim to be ready to play for Villa, then refuse to play in the reserves. I have no time for Collymore, he is paid enough to show a little respect and commitment.

Gregory cl
early wants to lead Aston Villa to the very top. He has had limited success, finishing top six in the Premiership, FA Cup runners up and a good run twice in the UEFA Cup. However you feel they will never be able to keep up with the likes of Manchester United or Arsenal with the amounts of money involved. Villa cant compete, simple as that. Despite the 30,000 passionate fans they have to watch the money carefully. Gregory has proved to be astute in the market David James to replace Mark Bosnich, Dion Dublin as a classic striker and others. In fact the ones he missed could be more famous. He missed signing now Sunderland keeper Thomas Sorensen when he missed a flight to see him on a scouting mission, and did not want to sign Robbie Keane who later impressed at Coventry and Leeds via Inter Milan after he did not impress him in three games he saw. Still with the likes of Barry, Hendrie, Joachim and Vassell coming through the youth teams things look good for Villa.

Overall this was a good enough read, very detailed with all his thoughts and insight into the game of football. In this sense some may not enjoy it, but he is certainly a character of the game today and this is a very honest and frank view showing just what sort of a person he is.

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