Ron Saunders' Villa open 1979-80 with a draw at Burnden Park as Tony Morley made his Villa debut aged 24 after moving from Burnley in June 1979 for a fee of £220,000.

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*Birmingham Daily Post*
Saturday, 18 August 1979

*Villa leave out £2m stars*
By lAN WILLARS

Aston Villa have left out their £2 million rated transfer-listed internationals Andy Gray and John Gidman for their opening game of the season at Bolton today.

Manager Ron Saunders rejected the opportunity of placing them in the shop window. preferring to keep faith with the side that played in the pre-season friendly against F C Twenty Enschende.

The only comment Saunders would make on the matter was: “I have selected the team I believe to be best equipped mentally and physically to do the job for me.”

But I understand he refrained from considering Gray and Gidman because he is anxious to field a settled side which will have to do duty when the pair have finally departed from Villa Park.

Villa have in fact received only one firm offer for Scottish centre forward Gray believed to be West Midlands rivals Wolves although several clubs have made inquiries for both players.

Gray and Gidman were originally scheduled to turn out for the reserves in the Central League fixture against Bolton until the game had to be called off yesterday because of a waterlogged pitch.

The state of the Villa Park pitch is giving cause for concern even though the club took advice from top experts two years ago and spent in excess of £80.000 laying new drains, putting in pop-up sprinklers and seeding a completely new playing surface.

But Villa’s biggest problem still centres around finding top-class replacements for Gray and Gidman particularly as the transfer market has rocketed to sky-high proportions.

Saunders has already made it extremely clear that the pair will only be allowed to leave the club when realistic fees are paid. But unless he can pull off a satisfactory exchange deal Saunders will then be faced with a similar task.

Wolves could be in a position to exchange their midfield player Steve Daley for Gray plus a cash adjustment, but it is doubtful whether the centre-forward would welcome a move to Molineux.

Gray’s role as leader of the attack at Bolton will go to John Deehan who has never had a better chance to prove his potential. The England Under-21 striker has often had to play second fiddle to Gray. Now he has It all to do on his own.

Ken Swain continues in Gidman’s right-back position. but even he must appreciate that this is a holding job until Villa come up with another quality defender.