Manager #18 for Aston Villa, Jozef Vengloš.

When Doug Ellis appointed Jozef Vengloš in July 1990 to replace the departed Graham Taylor he became the first manager from outside Britain or Ireland to take charge of a top-flight English team.

Taylor was a tough task to follow and despite his glowing references Vengloš’ sole season in charge of Villa looks at first glance a difficult one. A 17th placed finish, saved from relegation by a late season win having been runners up in the previous campaign; an ageing and misfiring squad without the motivating managerial hand of Taylor; and the star player, David Platt, rapidly making for the exit door; Vengloš had more than his fair share of challenges.

A spiteful local press campaign hardly helped - and set in motion a distinct distrust of the journalistic intentions of the local rag that remains today - but the reality was that Vengloš’ Villa reign began very competently indeed.

Vengloš’ first 16 games brought 9 wins, 4 draws and just 3 losses.

The wins included the famous European night when Villa vanquished Inter Milan at Villa Park courtesy of goals from Kent Nielsen and David Platt.

A fortnight later and Villa’s season and Vengloš’ regime was shattered. An extremely suspect refereeing performance at the San Siro saw Inter clinch exactly the number of goals needed to overturn Villa’s lead and thereafter Vengloš and his team seemed lost, unable to recover from the set back.

The final 33 games of the season brought 7 wins, 11 draws and 15 losses.

Yet Vengloš had joined the club with a strong reputation having been assistant coach when Czechoslovakia won the European Championship in 1976 and had two spells as manager, taking them to third place at the 1980 European Championship and the quarter-finals at the 1990 World Cup.

Reflecting on his time with Villa Vengloš recalled “For me it was a great honour.” A typically respectful response from a decent man not given the tools to do his job. Vengloš sole signing for the first team was Gary Penrice for a scarcely believable £1,000,000, whilst Ivo Staš’ arrival and non-appearance became stuff of legend.

Vengloš continued “For me it was a great honour and I tried to do my best at Villa. It was an excellent experience getting to know the inside atmosphere of English football. Those situations have helped me with work in other countries. When I came over there, for foreign people it was more difficult than now, but lots of managers have come over and done well.”

Introduced by Ellis in his typically pompous and patronising style saying “Do you know who this is?” and a local press delighting firstly in their childish “Dr Who?” only then to up the ante to “Dr No” for Vengloš’ alleged reluctance to enter the transfer market. Vengloš days were numbered before they had even begun. A few years later a guy called Arsene Wenger suffered similar indignities from a brazenly xenophobic press corps which soon infected the fan base.

That no-one connected the dots in the transfer market which blatantly signposted Ellis’ reluctant, miserly and often belated spending windily served to reinforce the lack of support he could expect.

Thankfully though there were some within the playing staff and beyond who recognised then, and some subsequently, the validity of the ideas Vengloš was bringing to English football and which would be widely celebrated once Wenger won his first title.

Dwight Yorke recalled “The rhings he did at Villa, other clubs were doing seven or eight years later.”

Vengloš revealed “I told them after the game not to stay in the dressing room. The boys who played have to run around and do their stretches and those who didn’t will have a normal training session.

“They weren’t used to that and it probably felt a little bit strange in the beginning but after a while the players knew why they were doing it and it worked very well.”

The footballing culture of the time in England was another culture shock - beer, snacks and laughter after a loss, sometimes minutes after the final whistle wasn’t something Vengloš had bargained for.

Equally a powerful intellect and gift for languages was put to the greatest strain as the dressing room refused to budge an inch to help the new boss

“I had a bit of a problem with my English which was not really in the top level as it probably should have been.I know of course that English is the world No.1 language and I tried my best, I spoke Russian, Portuguese and can communicate in Spanish and so on.

“But a few things those days were a bit different to what we had been doing in central Europe. The methodology of training, the analysing of nutrition and the recuperation, regeneration and physiological approach to the game.“

The denouement of Vengloš doomed reign came full circle as the local rag plastered the intentionally spiteful “For God Sake Go, Jo” headline across its pages.

He did, but it wasn’t him who needed to repair his reputation.

Jozef Vengloš passed away on 26 January 2021 aged 84.