ASTON VILLA last won the First Division Championship 69 years ago in 1910. It is 22 years now since Eric Houghton led Aston Villa to the last FA Cup final triumph in 1957. We are no nearer reaching those magic targets now than we were a decade ago - despite spending literally millions of ?'s.

This is why I have called for an Extraordinary General Meeting of the Club - a meeting that could, and should, have been held at least two weeks sooner than the 1st...

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Herbert Douglas Ellis OBE (born January 3, 1924 in Chester) is an entrepreneur and long-standing chairman of Aston Villa Football Club.

'Deadly' Doug Ellis began life in a poor family with a widowed mother. However, he had become a millionaire before he was forty due to pioneering package holidays to the sun.

Ellis has been a controversial Chairman and major shareholder of Aston Villa F.C. for two separate spells; the first being from 1968 to 1975. Ellis was replaced as Chairman...

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Jozef Venglos spent one season as manager of Aston Villa (1990-91). He stepped down after they finished just two places above the First Division relegation zone and David Platt was sold to Italian side Bari for ?5 million.

Aston Villa's new manager was Ron Atkinson, who had achieved considerable success with West Bromwich Albion, Manchester United and more recently Sheffield Wednesday.

He spent heavily, making expensive additions to the squad including Earl Barrett, Dean Saunders, Dalian...

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The slow decline continued throughout the 1960s due to a deep seated malaise; the club had failed to adapt to the new football reality, they had a non-existent scouting network, coaching was conducted in the same way as it had been 40 years earlier and the 5 man board contained 3 members over the age of 70. It was the board who decided that they couldn't refuse offers for their two most reliable goalscorers, Phil Woosnam and Tony Hateley.

Without their goals Villa were in real trouble and...

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Although they remained a major force after the war, winning their sixth FA Cup in 1920, the club began a slow decline. This can be attributed in large part to a complacency which culminated in the unthinkable, the most famous and successful football club in world being relegated to the Second Division in 1936.

However, throughout the 1920's and into the 1930's the club had many fine international players (in 1933/34 Villa had no fewer than 14 full internationals) and continued to challenge...

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