It wasn’t long before this began to manifest itself in one of those ‘bidding wars’, with Crewe licking their lips as the price edged higher. The rumour was that Taylor had hoped to complete the deal for about £100,000. Watford’s interest meant the asking price doubled, much to the discomfort of Doug Ellis. Doug tried to knock the price down by offering less with a sell-on clause. Crewe weren’t interested, being focused on the need for immediate funding for their burgeoning youth development scheme.

If the aim was for the new signing to help gain promotion, then it was a success -just! Platt scored at under a goal every two games and that helped get a stuttering Villa over the line on the last day. His winning header in the vital Easter Monday win over Bradford City had already helped to make the player a fan favourite. Again, it was a close-run thing but Villa clung onto their top-flight status in 1989 after a poor second half of the season in which they won only four league games after Christmas. Platt’s fourteen goals included six from a good League Cup run.

Things changed over the summer. Apart from new signings, including the nonpareil, Paul McGrath, some players found their positions being adjusted for the team’s benefit. Ian Ormandroyd, lost at centre-forward, suddenly found himself in a wider position where he could use his pace and looked all the better for it. Platt was moved deeper, where his matchless stamina allowed him to make long runs into the opposition box.

These runs, coupled with the laser-like accurate passing of the immortal Gordon Sidney Cowans, became a feature of Villa’s play. Under these circumstances, it’s not entirely surprising that Platt, despite playing deeper, found himself in the goals. In the end, he found the net nineteen times, a remarkable achievement even allowing for the odd penalty kick, as Villa just came up short in the title race. He also scooped up the PFA Player of the Year award at the end of that season. Such riches were unlikely to go unnoticed by England manager Bobby Robson, who duly took Platt off to the World Cup in Italy.

All fans want success; the trouble is that news of it travels fast. England – and Platt – put up a good show in Italy and his memorable finish to beat Belgium woke the European and World press up to what we had known about for months. Robson had had enough of the tabloids and decided to return to club football, where peace and quiet might prevail. This left England requiring a new boss and Graham Taylor fitted the bill.

His Villa replacement was the highly-regarded Czech coach Doctor Jo Venglos. Venglos was an ambitious appointment that didn’t work out after a good beginning, mainly because the new man was expected to continue Taylor’s work with more or less the same players from the previous season despite wanting to impose a new style of play.

Little money appeared to be available and the coach was reputed to be dismayed at the off-field ‘refuelling habits’ of some of his players. The second half of the season was one long decline, disappointingly after such an exciting 1990 but at least one player held his form and may even have enhanced his appeal. Nineteen goals for a title-chasing side is an impressive enough total. The same number from thirty-five appearances in a relegation battle was remarkable.

Once again, the world of football sat up and took notice. There was plenty of money to be made in Italian football and that looked Platt’s likely destination. As the transfer news hotted up, Villa appointed a new manager, Ron Atkinson. As someone with a track record of running teams that played attacking football it would have been interesting to see what Platt would have looked like under this boss. Ron had released Platt from Old Trafford as a young player and now he was set to depart from Villa for multi-millions. Bari, who had established something of a relationship with Villa over the years, followed up their purchase of Sid Cowans and Paul Rideout in the mid-eighties with a £5.5 million offer for Platt which saw him on his way with barely a backward glance.

Bari might not have been the most-desired destination for a player who had caught international attention in such a vivid way. However, the Milan clubs and Juventus seemed reluctant to get involved. There was a suspicion regarding English players, going back twenty to thirty years, concerning their willingness to settle into Italian life and styles of football. Great names from the past such as Law and Greaves had gone there and hated the ultra-defensive play that typified the Italian game of that time.

Only Villa’s Gerry Hitchens, a big signing for Internatzionale in 1961, stayed for a sustained period and enjoyed success. Platt’s plan was simple enough; do well at Bari, and the interest of bigger clubs would kick in. A clause in his contract allowed for this, if he wanted a move.

The issue now was how Villa were going to manage without their top scorer. The previous departures of the likes of goal-heroes Tony Hateley and Andy Gray had been handled disastrously and triumphantly, respectively. What would be the outcome this time? Atkinson’s original policy was to have a good look at the players in pre-season training before making any big decisions. Apparently, this policy lasted for all of a day as Ron and his new assistant manager, the aforementioned Gray, were clearly dismayed at the quality of some of the players they had inherited.

It didn’t take long for the busiest summer in terms of transfer activity to get underway. Ron wasn’t shy of backing players he’d worked with before. The intermittent genius of Dalian Atkinson was brought in to link up with his ex-boss. With him, from Real Sociedad, came the solid and reliable Kevin Richardson, a strong leader in midfield. There was the prospect of a third link up with the Basque club but Ron decided not to pursue Dalian’s strike partner, John Aldridge, the former Liverpool man. Ron considered Aldridge as past his best. A good run of goalscoring over the next few years suggested that Ron got this one wrong.

The familiar face and powerful frame of Cyrille Regis arrived, on a free transfer (before we started to call them ‘Bosmans’) as Coventry presumably thought he was finished. Coming to Villa allowed Cyrille to link up with the manager who had helped start off a memorable career.

Young defender Ugo Ehiogu came in from the Albion (no jokes about nicking their best young players, please). Steve Staunton was a quality signing from Liverpool. Little was known about a powerful centre-half from Bournemouth, Shaun Teale, but £300,000 was enough to bring him in. A midfielder named Mortimer was likely to get everyone excited, but it turned out to be Paul of that ilk, travelling up from Charlton Athletic. Ron even took advantage of the collapse of Stalinism in Eastern Europe and brought in three cut-price players – Dariusz Kubicki, full back; Matteus Breitkreutz, silky midfielder and Stefan Beinlich, a nippy striker.

With all this lot, the wonder may have been how the players actually learnt each other’s names before the first international break but after an unsettled start, things began to improve. A run of five wins on the bounce even allowed for a little dreaming but such thoughts were soon extinguished by a thumping home defeat to Dirty Leeds, who were to win the league that season. Still, the football was better to watch and the hope was that by the turn of the year, things would be looking up.

Certainly, Ron was keen to carry on spending the Platt cash. He brought in midfielder Garry Parker from Nottingham Forest to help fill the gap left by the second departure of Gordon Cowans. Earl Barrett, the Oldham defender came in, immediately and deservedly claiming the right-back spot. It wasn’t just about signings, though. A young Dwight Yorke had been given a good run in the side and responded by becoming top scorer for the season. The promising Mark Blake was another who Ron wasn’t frightened of promoting.

The feelgood factor was to be tested in the new year, however. After a defeat at Norwich on New Year’s Day, Villa went on to score just a single goal in their next ten league matches. Even under Dr. Venglos there had been nothing like this. If there was a time when the absence of Platt’s goals was felt, it was during this period.

Strangely, the goal drought did not affect Villa’s run to the FA Cup quarter-final where goals, wins and good performances all came together. In the end, the league goals returned, including a nap hand at White Hart Lane, where Villa bounced back from two-down with five different scorers. A good run of home wins was enough for a seventh-place finish, a massive improvement from last time.

With Dalian Atkinson getting himself fit and the other players now well settled in, it was possible to be optimistic as 1992-93 began. In fact, Dalian scored in the first three games, though all ended winless. Villa looked a good side lacking a bit up front and Big Ron put this right by bringing in Dean Saunders from Liverpool despite the interference from a chairman, who again reprised his habit of skinning a flea for a ha’penny. In the end, sanity prevailed and such was Saunders’s immediate impact, it was tempting to go back a decade and wonder if he might be dubbed the Last Piece of the Jigsaw Mk 2.

Part of this was due to the presence of youth team winger Stephen Froggatt. There were no fancy step-overs from this lad but he knew how to get to the bye-line and cross a good ball when he got there. The chief beneficiary was Saunders, who prospered on the end of this fine service. Sadly, the supply was cut off when Froggy was on the receiving end of a thuggish lunging tackle from one of those lovable Wimbledon bruisers, in the game where Dalian scored one of the greatest goals ever seen, a fitting memorial to a player who, at times, made it seem that he might be able to achieve just about anything.

Froggatt took a long time to get back, but the Saunders/Atkinson duo continued to prosper despite this. Dalian’s form was now at such a peak that after two spectacular strikes at Hillsborough, it seemed a call-up to the England squad was inevitable. In one of those great ‘only at Villa’ moments, Atkinson picked up a niggling injury which reduced his playing time until the new year, when he finally had the minor operation that would keep him out until Spring. Dwight Yorke made a good replacement and started to score some remarkable goals of his own as Villa continued to press at the top.

By this time the goals had started to dry up for Deano, which was a double blow during Atkinson’s continued absence. With Villa now struggling to find the net with any regularity, thoughts might have returned to Platt, with his near-guarantee of goals from midfield. Of course, some of the players now doing so well for us had been paid for with the money from the Platt fee, so it was very much a case of swings and roundabouts.

While we were suffering the agony of a title chase that fell short, Platt’s career move worked well, though there were plenty of bumps along the way. His willingness to learn the Italian language could only reinforce the impression that here was a player who wanted to stick around. Bari were impressed enough with the new man that they immediately made him captain.

Platt scored a debut penalty to secure a draw against Torino, but it took until January for the first league win to materialise. Eleven goals in twenty-nine appearances looks impressive enough for a midfielder, but the team only scored another fifteen between them and they were duly relegated.

None of this derailed the Platt Plan. Clearly, Bari would now have to sell their best player. There was plenty of interest but Juventus, now convinced of Platt’s bona fides, were successful with a bid of £6.5 million. The idea of linking up with the likes of Vialli, Ravenelli and Andreas Muller no doubt appealed to Platt and convinced him that the days of struggle were over. Alas, they were only beginning. Injury kept him out for a while and it wasn’t until near the end of the season that he belatedly made a contribution to Juventus’s Uefa Cup triumph.

The fact that Juve had thrived without their new signing meant that when Sampdoria came calling with a tempting offer of £5.2 million in the summer of 1993 it was quickly accepted. Sven Goran Eriksson was the highly-rated manager of the side, though midfielder Roberto Mancini was thought to have some influence over the selection of transfer targets. The thought of lining up alongside Mancini and Ruud Gullit must have appealed to Platt, along with the fact that the Sampdoria fans had a good feeling towards English-based players, Trevor Francis and Liam Brady having played for the club with some distinction in the 80s.

His first season was something of a success, ten goals helping towards a third-place finish and the lifting of the Copa Italia. This meant qualification for the European Cup-Winners’ Cup, reaching the semi-final, where they were knocked out by Arsenal. Coincidentally, it was Arsenal who showed interest in bringing him back to England. The Gunners’ new boss, Bruce Rioch, convinced Platt it would be a good move and a fee of just below £5 million sealed the transfer.

Platt did well enough for the Arse and even left a calling-card in their game at Villa Park when he scored their goal in a 1-1 draw against Brian Little’s new side. Arsenal finished fifth (behind us!) and were knocked out in the semi-final of the League Cup (by us!) so Rioch must have felt hard done by to lose his job at the end of the season.

Still, his replacement, Arsene Wenger, did a pretty good job. Platt contributed to this, but with Bergkamp and Anelka starting to run riot and Emmanuel Petit providing a solid platform for Patrick Viera in midfield, David’s chances were limited. It didn’t help that an old ankle injury was proving hard to shake off so it was no surprise that he left having made little impact in their double-winning side of 1998.

That was about it for Platt as a player, though he took on a few managerial roles before turning up as a coach at the Manchester Oil Company. How much credit he gets or feels from his time there, I don’t know. Still, he should celebrate his achievements as a player, eclipsing as he did the far-more media-boosted Gascoigne. In fact, he stands comparison with the aforementioned Hitchens in terms of his impact on, and longevity in, the Italian game.