Any Excuse To Talk About Cowans

It doesn't take much to get me all nostalgic, but hearing Marc Albrighton mention Sid and Gary Mac in their prime certainly does the trick.

Speaking to the Official Site man of the moment Albie said he was loving the new passing philosophy that Gerard Houllier was working on getting the team to play because a slow build up, with sensible counter attacking at speed suits him and more over who better to help train the lads than two former midfield maestro's, Gordon Cowans and Gary McAllister.

'I started working with Sid at U15s level, I really rate him as a coach and he was a great technical player.

'He's an absolute legend at Villa, there's no better coach to be working with.'

Albie explains that Cowans prefers the 'quiet word' when criticising but at all other times he wants the camp to be happy, confident and simply to enjoy their work.

'As soon as we leave the pitch, if we've done something wrong he'll come over, put an arm on your shoulder and tell you how to do it better. I think that's how you get the best out of a lot of players.'

Albie obviously has the most praise for Sid due to his association with him, but he's certainly welcomed the involvement of Gary Mac aswell.

'Gary has been really good with us since he's come in, he still joins in a lot of the sessions and you can tell he's still got it, as has Sid. I remember watching Gary back in his Liverpool days spraying the ball around, he was a good player.'

The involvement of both coaches, given how they used to play the game, will certainly aide the younger lads coming through let alone improve our midfield retention and use of the ball so we have a little more to us than simply 'run down the wing' even though we all know it will take a bit more than 5 games to perfect.

Think I'm off to watch oldie videos now of Sid in his prime...for a player like him again eh!

Vital Villa on:

Vital Villa on:

Click here to join in the debate on the club forum.