Dave Collett recalls a square peg in a round hole.
The summer of 1996 was a time of happy reflection for those of a claret and blue persuasion. Brian Little had brought the League Cup back home. An unlucky defeat in our first FA Cup semi-final since 1960 alongside a fourth-place league position left us contemplating our most successful season since the golden years of the early eighties.
Time rolls on and, casting away the laurels of victory, we were left to wonder what might be achieved in the following campaign and what strengthening of the squad might take place. As ever, the transfer rumours were rife but nothing actually happened. Dwight Yorke signed a new four-year deal but that was about it. Little did we know that Brian was to return to the market he’d used so well before – signing a player whose team had been relegated the previous year.
This had worked out well when bringing in Gareth Southgate from Crystal Palace and then Mark Draper from Leicester City. Both had become important players in 1995-96 and no doubt would be once again. This time, the policy saw Villa swoop for the next candidate, Sasa Curcic from Bolton Wanderers.
It seemed a potentially good move. Bolton had been a struggling, uninspired side, but the signing of Curcic from FK Partisan definitely added to their goal threat. Sasa had upset some of the folks back home by vowing his devotion to Partisan Belgrade while he was trying to make his way in the game, only to sign for local rivals FK when the opportunity arose. The Gardner brothers from Birmingham had similar identity problems, apparently. Bolton’s £1.5 million fee looked like a bargain. Though he only scored four goals for the doomed Trotters, two of them were against Chelsea, and so enhanced the player’s profile.
Upon relegation, he vowed to stay at Burnden Park and help restore them to the top division
the following season. When Villa came in with a bid in the region of £4 million, a then club record, in August, Sasa’s and Bolton’s commitment wavered a little. For the player, it was the choice between second level football and the chance of UEFA Cup football, to say nothing of a decent pay rise. On the other hand, Bolton could collect a tidy profit, enabling them to strengthen their side for their promotion bid (successful in the end). As a bonus, all the blame could be put on the player for cutting and running, breaking his word and other phrases easily linked to betrayal.
Either way, the deal went through and Villa fans got their first look at the new signing when he came on as a sub in a 2-0 home win against Derby. The first experience was a positive one, Curcic looking happy with the ball at his feet, running at the opposition, hurdling tackles and looking to link up with the strikers, Yorke, Joachim or Milosevic. Talking of Savo, one of the ideas behind Sasa’s transfer was that the new pairing might help each other to settle at the club together. Well, that was the plan. In the real world, Savo or his advisors were agitating for a move to Perugia which looked like it might happen until the Italian club abruptly pulled out.
Meanwhile, Sasa was short on chances to show what he could do. Any hopes that he might be able to get in the side for the extra European games went south pretty quickly when Villa went out, embarrassingly and rather tamely, to part-timers Helsingborg at the first challenge. This still left the League Cup, of which Villa were holders. Curcic had a good game at Leeds but the next round saw Villa relinquish their title at Wimbledon, despite almost total dominance.
Even worse for Sasa, the cup exit coincided with the side suddenly hitting form with five league wins on the bounce. The trouble with winning teams is that they don’t get changed too often, so once again Sasa found himself on the bench, occasionally finding himself on the pitch at the end of games like when he set Dwight Yorke up for the last goal in a 5-0 crushing of Wimbledon.
With Villa now hitting their straps, thoughts turned to the possibility of some sort of title challenge. Unhappily, this coincided with a run of games against the top clubs, none of which were won, and a debilitating run of injuries, all of which seemed to involve midfield players.
At least this gave Curcic a chance, though results were mixed. His run against Sheffield Wednesday drew a dubious penalty which was saved, anyway. In the cup at Derby, a reserve midfield was the order of the day and a poor performance resulted in defeat. For Sasa, it saw him score Villa’s consolation goal with a twenty-yard effort.
Results hadn’t been good and, as the missing men returned to fitness, it was understandable that Brian Little would stick with the tried and trusted group, leaving Sasa stuck on the bench again. He at least tried to remain upbeat about matters. His unusual off-field behaviour included hiring a London double-decker bus to which he would invite friends and team-mates to parties. What was consumed at these events is not known, though dark rumours surrounded the nature of the ‘refreshments’ on offer.
Back on the pitch, Villa were still a bit up and down but were winning often enough to challenge for a top five spot that would give them another chance of European football. An own goal against Southampton was enough for the win that was needed to clinch it. Sasa was left to reflect on a season where he made seventeen starts in the league, as well as a handful of sub appearances.
One of the most popular rumours at this time -and it swirled around for months – was that Villa would be signing the (in)famous Stanley Victor Collymore from Liverpool over the summer. Tommy Johnson had already departed for Celtic, so there was room for one more up front. The deal was duly done, at £7 million, leaving little to spend on other areas of the team.
The prospect of Milosevic, Yorke and Collymore tearing around up front was a mouth-watering one. Villa fans hungrily anticipated a serious title challenge with this firepower to call on, a dream that lasted as long as it took to lose the first four league games.
It soon became apparent that Villa had unintentionally but effectively painted themselves into a corner. Uefa were keeping a sharp eye on non-EU players plying their trade in western Europe. There was a requirement that these players should justify their status by their performances. Savo needed to play regularly to satisfy these prying eyes. The thought of Dwight Yorke being left out of the team was ridiculous, and the idea of leaving the new record signing out would probably have finished Doug off.
Thus, Brian tried to play all three together whenever possible, abandoning the 3-5-2 formation that had brought such success for the last two years. This left Villa with a depleted midfield that the opposition took great interest finding the holes in. It also meant fewer places available for the midfielders one of whom, Sasa Curcic, took great exception to this perceived demotion.
What you probably don’t want after the worst start in living memory is for a high-profile player to start laying into the gaffer about his lack of first-team opportunities. This is exactly what Curcic did in the press. Although some sort of peace agreement was reached between player and manager, the incident might have provided Brian Little with a reason not to trust the player. Though Villa recovered from their dismal start, they could never get away from the bottom half, as often a good result was followed by defeat.
At least there was a strong Uefa Cup run, which gave Sasa some game time. It also helped him that Andy Townsend and young Gareth Farrelly had both gone, leaving Little with sometimes no choice but to play defenders like Fernando Nelson and Simon Grayson in midfield.
John GregoryThere was a press rumour just as winter was arriving that Villa might be trying to sign none other than Paul Gascoigne to boost the team. Imagine a dressing-room with Milosevic, Collymore, Curcic and Gascoigne. What could possibly have gone wrong? Happily for everyone’s sanity, the move never happened, so we were spared the sight of Jimmy ‘Five Bellies’ Gardner next to Doug in the directors box.
Back on the pitch, Villa were still struggling and with league form worsening, Brian Little departed. Finding a replacement didn’t take long, with John Gregory moving back from Wycombe Wanderers, where he had made a good start to his managerial career. It’s fair to say that Gregory didn’t think much of Sasa, who had made only three starts all season and he soon sold him to relegation-threatened Crystal Palace for a knockdown £1 million, while the new manager got on with reviving a demoralised side with spectacular results.
For Sasa, the move down south didn’t seem a bad one. Like at Bolton, the team appeared to be a relegation side in waiting, so little was expected of the new man. It helped when he got off to a good start, scoring in their 3-1 home win against Derby. If that doesn’t sound like something to get excited about, it’s worth remembering this was Palace’s first home win of that season. Despite that, Palace duly went down. Villa meanwhile, were powering to nine wins from eleven league games under Gregory, enabling them to qualify for Europe again, so there wasn’t any occasion to miss Sasa.
At least he took some time out to remember us, claiming Brian Little had held him back and he should have been given a free role “like Cantona at Manchester United.” Now Curcic was a talented player, but to put himself on the same level as the Frenchman was a bit much.
While at Palace, he had cosmetic surgery on his hooter as part of his preparation for the new season. As before, he pledged his loyalty to the club, expressing a desire to help them get back up at the first attempt. He kept his word this time; to be fair, no Premier League club was likely to be in for him after the non-event of his previous season.
During his spell at Selhurst Park, Sasa put his name to one of the more unusual footballing achievements, holding his own one-man anti-NATO protest on the sidelines before a game as a protest against the bombing of Serbia. In all, Sasa played just over twenty games for Palace. Wheeler-dealer par excellence, Terry Venables, had been brought in by new owner Mark Goldberg and he had splendid fun emptying out the Palace coffers in double-quick time.
From here, it was downhill all the way. A short spell at Metrostars in America coincided with the worst season in their history. Curcic didn’t even make double figures on the appearance records. Five games at Motherwell at the turn of the century preceded a trial at Tranmere, where he failed to pass muster and wasn’t offered a contract. Back to Belgrade he went, where he joined local team Obilic, after which no-one had any more football tales to tell of the former Republic of Yugoslavia international who in better days had made his debut against Brazil.
Still, life has other consolations. In 2007, he was the winner of the Serbian Celebrity Big Brother competition, trousering a big cash prize as part of the reward. In the same year, a newspaper drew up a list of the fifty worst transfers in the short history of the Premier League. Sasa’s move to Villa was in there.
Four million quid seemed a lot of money then but comes across as small change these days. Whatever your views on transfer fee inflation, it’s fair to say that Villa didn’t get much for their outlay, and the move didn’t do Sasa Curcic any good, either.