Tony Morley

BEST MANAGER YOU PLAYED FOR?

RON SAUNDERS because he was such a winner. He’d left when Villa won the European Cup but it was his team. Ron didn’t particularly like football but he knew how to run a club.

BEST PLAYER YOU PLAYED WITH?

THIS may surprise you, but Des Bremner. He was an unsung hero at Villa and the best professional I ever worked with. His attitude was the same on a Monday as it was on a Saturday.

BEST PLAYER YOU PLAYED AGAINST?

MICHEL PLATINI when he was at Juventus. He could find space in a cubby hole. Not the quickest but he made the game look easy.

TURNING POINT IN YOUR CAREER?

I WAS a right-sided midfielder at Villa, but got a bad knee injury aged 25. The club signed Des Bremner to take my place. When I was fit I had to switch to left wing to get a game and I never looked back.

BEST GOAL YOU SCORED?

IN our last home game before the European Cup Final, against Swansea. Like a golfer taking a sand iron out of a bunker, I put backspin on the ball, it beat the keeper and went in.

BIGGEST ACHIEVEMENT IN YOUR CAREER?

JUST making it in the game. When I signed for Preston, I was 14 and 4ft 10in. I didn’t even have the strength to take a corner. The manager, Alan Ball Snr, saw something of his son in me and spent 12 months building me up without playing me.

BIGGEST INFLUENCE ON YOUR CAREER?

WHEN I made that positional switch at Villa, George Armstrong was on the coaching staff. He was a brilliant left-sided midfielder at Arsenal and he taught me so much.

MOST MEMORABLE GAME?

NOT the European Cup Final, when I made the winning goal for Peter Withe. On my Preston debut, I scored against Plymouth with a header at the far post and that stands out.

BEST STORY ABOUT A TEAM-MATE?

BOBBY CHARLTON was player-manager at Preston, and on Fridays we trained on the pitch. That annoyed our groundsman, Brian, and he’d march into the centre circle, drop his trousers and underpants and show his bare backside to Bobby in protest.

SECRET ABOUT YOU?

AS a kid I was a pigeon fancier and kept the birds in a loft in the garden.

TONY MORLEY played for Aston Villa in happier times for the club. He helped them win the First Division title in 1981 and was part of their European Cup Final victory over Bayern Munich the following year. He also played for Preston, Burnley and West...