December 22 – Hark The Herald Angel
BACK in 2000 the English Premier League was not the plaything for international investors that it is now, with no sugar-daddies waiting in the wings to splash their petro-dollars. Nowhere was this more evident than at Villa Park, where Aston Villa fans were used to their chairman ‘Deadly’ Doug Ellis failing to open the chequebook. But today in 2000 he put his money where his mouth was, breaking the club transfer record to sign Juan Pablo Angel.
Columbian-born Angel made his name at River Plate where he replaced the Italy-bound Hernan Crespo and soon won over the fans who would attend El Monumental wearing angel wings. His form for River saw him earn a £9.5 million move to Europe where he would end up in sunny Birmingham when John Gregory persuaded Deadly Doug to stump up the cash. His six-year spell at Villa was a hit and miss affair, scoring 66 goals in 205 games. The arrival of John Carew and Ashley Young last January saw his chances become limited so Angel sought pastures new.
Angel therefore decided to get his trailblaze on, and jumped aboard the good ship MLS, paving the way for Beckham and the likes as he signed for New York Red Bulls. And instead of sitting around on the treatment table he’s taken the league by storm, scoring 19 goals in his first season and seen by many as MLS’s best player.
In 2004 Angel hit the headlines when the Premier League sought to commission a ‘Chant Laureate’ and the winning chant was an ode to the Columbian from Jonny Hirst, a Birmingham City fan caught sleeping with the enemy. If you fancy a sing-song, we’ve included the lyrics here for you. Be warned, you’ll have to go all Barry Manilow on us as Hirst’s ditty was composed to the tune of Copacabana. More tomorrow, as we look at some players who weren’t up for putting the hours in over the festive period.
His name is Angel,

And he’s a show boy,

An Alice band keeps up his hair,

Juan Pablo from Col-om-bi-air
He came to Villa,

To be a winner,

He succeeded overnight,

Our very own Angel Delight
Just hear the Villa roar,

With each Juan Pablo score,

We’ve got him on a four-year deal,

But we still want more
At the Villa, at Aston Villa,

The greatest club west of Manila,

At the Villa, at Aston Vi-lla,

Football and passion
All ranges of fashion,

At the Villa, we have it all,

La-la, Aston Vil-la-la,

Aston Vil-la-la-la,

Vil-la-la-la
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December 22 - A Shaw Thing | On This Football Day on December 22nd, 2008
[...] See some footage from Villa’s famous European Cup win below and check out what else was going on today here. [...]