"I stood in the shower next to him and I go; ‘how did you find playing against Alan Shearer?’ and Paul went, ‘I've never played against Alan Shearer’. I go; ‘he was their number nine tonight’ and Paul just says, ‘I didn't realize that was Shearer’. He had no idea!”
Dean Saunders shared three seasons with Paul McGrath at Aston Villa and still chuckles when reminiscing about his former teammate. As recently described in the wonderful book “Nobody remembers Second”, McGrath enjoyed some extraordinary privileges at Villa Park which Saunders saw first-hand.
“He never trained. If he trained, his knee would swell up. He’d come in, do a session on the bike, just so he could get out of breath and get his legs going a bit to keep them strong. If he'd do any twisting and turning on the training pitch, his knee would swell up. So, the managers just said to him, don't train then and we all accepted he had different rules because what a player,” Saunders tells Tribalfootball in an exclusive conversation.
Dean Saunders turned out for 12 clubs during his career but played the most matches for Aston Villa. While he won’t go as far as saying it was the best time of his career it is a period he looks back on with a lot of joy.
“I know it sounds corny but I enjoyed playing football everywhere but it was a brilliant time at Aston Villa under Ron Atkinson. It was my job to score the goals and I had a good partnership with the late, great Dalian Atkinson who we all miss. I think about him all the time,” says Saunders, comparing Atkinson with a current Premier League striker.
“The best way to describe him is this; picture Haaland having a good game that is how good Dalian could play. He could put a performance in like that but he couldn’t do it every week because some weeks he didn't feel like playing football. Ron Atkinson loved Dalian but when he didn’t play well, he’d be pulling his hair out. Or should I say his wig out,” Saunders says with a big grin about the larger-than-life manager who led Aston Villa to second in the Premiership in 1993.
As accounted for in the aforementioned “Nobody remembers Second”, that was the second time Villa came second inside four seasons and they did so with a brilliant team.
“We had Ray Houghton on the right, Dwight Yorke played on the left and then we had Kevin Richardson and Garry Parker in midfield. Gary Parker used to set me up from everywhere. He was underrated. We had Andy Townsend, Sean Teale, Earl Barrett, Steve Staunton at left back. Each week, when we kicked off, man for man we normally had better players in every opposition,” says Saunders who enjoyed the football which manager Atkinson set his team up to play.
“I can't ever remember him ever saying, take a step back, lads, let them come to the halfway line before we start trying to close them down. It was always on the front foot. Don't let them play out, no way are they playing out against us, no way any defenders are having time on the ball. So, we just got on top of teams.”
Not title contenders yet
Big Ron Atkinson was a flashy character who also delivered some good results during his long career, but not because of big tactical analytics, according to Saunders.
“I never had a manager who gave our team major tactical directions. They wouldn't actually tell you much then, you know. I played with Ian Rush for most of my career with Wales and we wouldn't talk about how many goals we were going to score, but who was the worst player on the ball for our opponent at the back. If we didn't chase the wing-backs, our manager would go mad. That was part of your job as a striker and we worked that out amongst ourselves”.
Having once been a title contender at Aston Villa himself, could Dean Saunders picture the current Villa side crashing the Premier League any time soon?
“No, I don't think they're ready to win the league yet. When you go through the team, to win the league you've got to start thinking; would they get into Man City's team? Would they get into Liverpool's team? Arsenal's team? Once you start saying yes to six or seven players then you've got a chance to win the league,” Saunders declares while still pouring praise on Unai Emery, though.
“I thought Steven Gerrard would take them to a different place but that was Emery instead. He's got a game plan which not least Ollie Watkins is benefiting from. When Gerrard was manager, he never knew when the ball was coming. Now he knows that they're all looking for him. The manager is doing brilliant with that group of players but winning the league, I think, might be a step too far.”
- Dean Saunders was speaking to Tribalfootball on behalf of 888sport
The book “Nobody remembers Second” is out now with Pitch Publishing and available at assorted bookshops and at the Pitch Publishing website.