Aston Villa Football Club were formed in March, 1874, by members of the Villa Cross Wesleyan Chapel in Handsworth which is now part of Birmingham. The four founders of Aston Villa were Jack Hughes, Frederick Matthews, Walter Price and William Scattergood. Aston Villa's first match was against the local Aston Brook St Mary's Rugby team. As a condition of the match, the Aston Villa side had to agree to play the first half under rugby rules and the second half under football rules. Aston Villa quickly became one of the best teams in the Midlands, winning their first honour, the Birmingham Senior Cup in 1880, under the captaincy of Scotsman George Ramsay.
Aston Villa won its first FA Cup in 1887 with captain Archie Hunter becoming one of the game's first household names. Aston Villa were one of the dozen teams that competed in the inaugural Football League in 1888 with one of the club's directors, William McGregor being the league's founder. Aston Villa emerged as the most successful English club of the Victorian era, with numerous League titles and FA Cup wins. In 1897, the year Aston Villa won The Double, they moved into their present home, the Aston Lower Grounds. Supporters coined the name "Villa Park"; no official declaration listed the ground as Villa Park.
Aston Villa won their sixth FA Cup in 1920, soon after though the club began a slow decline that led to Villa, at the time one of the most famous and successful clubs in world football, being relegated in 1936 for the first time to the Second Division. This was largely the result of a dismal defensive record: Aston Villa conceded 110 goals, 7 of them coming from Arsenal's Ted Drake in an infamous 1–7 defeat at Villa Park.[15] Like all English clubs, Aston Villa lost seven seasons to the Second World War, and that conflict brought several careers to a premature end.The team was rebuilt under the guidance of former player Alex Massie for the remainder of the 1940s. Aston Villa's first trophy for 37 years came in the 1956–57 season which included an unexpected FA Cup run that would culminate in them defeating the 'Busby Babes' of Manchester United in the final. Aston Villa were relegated though two seasons later, in 1958–59, and a complacency had set in at Villa Park. This was soon overcome as Aston Villa returned to the top flight in 1960 as Second Division Champions and the following season Villa won the inaugural League Cup.
The late 1960s brought a period of turmoil at the club with fan pressure leading to a takeover and managerial changes. This started with Aston Villa being relegated for the third time, under manager Dick Taylor in 1967. The following season the fans called for the board to resign as Aston Villa finished 16th in the Second Division. With mounting debts and Aston Villa lying at the bottom of Division Two, the board sacked Cummings (the manager brought in to replace Taylor), and within weeks the entire board resigned under overwhelming pressure from fans. After much speculation, control of Aston Villa was bought by London financier Pat Matthews, who also brought in Doug Ellis as chairman. However, new ownership could not prevent Villa being relegated to the Third Division for the first time at the end of the 1969–70 season. In the 1971–72 season they returned to the Second Division as Champions with a record 70 points. In 1973 Ron Saunders was appointed manager and by 1977 he had taken them back into the First Division and Europe.
Aston Villa were back amongst the elite and enjoyed much success under Saunders, winning the league in the 1980–81 season. To the surprise of commentators and fans, Saunders quit halfway through the 1981–82 season, after falling out with the chairman, with Villa in the quarter final of the European Cup. He was replaced by his softly-spoken assistant manager Tony Barton who guided Aston Villa to a 1–0 victory over Bayern Munich in the European Cup final in Rotterdam. Aston Villa remain to this day one of only four English teams to have won the European Cup, along with Liverpool, Manchester United and Nottingham Forest. This marked a pinnacle though and Aston Villa declined for most of the 1980s, culminating in relegation in 1987. This was followed by promotion the following year and second place in the Football League in the 1989-90 season.[20]
Aston Villa were one of the founding members of the Premier League in 1992, and finished runners-up to Manchester United in the inaugural season. In the rest of the nineties however Villa went through three different managers and their league positions were inconsistent, although they did win two League Cups. Aston Villa reached the FA Cup final in 2000 (for the first time since 1957) but lost 1–0 to Chelsea in the last game to be played at the old Wembley Stadium. Once again Aston Villa's league position fluctuated under several different managers and things came to a head in the summer of 2006 when David O'Leary left in acrimony. Martin O'Neill soon arrived to a jubilant reception. After 23 years as chairman and single biggest shareholder (approximately 38%), Doug Ellis finally decided to sell his stake in Aston Villa to American Businessman Randy Lerner, the owner of NFL franchise the Cleveland Browns. The arrival of a new owner and manager marked the start of a new period of optimism at Villa Park and sweeping changes occurred throughout the club including a new crest, a new kit sponsor and team changes in the summer of 2007. |