By the mid-1970s, he was assistant to Gordon Bradley in the States with New York Cosmos. Mallet had been Birmingham City manager for a year before working as assistant to Stan Cullis in the late 1960s. Saunders said the club needed the money to build a stand at the Witton End.Ĭosmos offered £50,000 and this was too good for the club to turn down. Saunders then said the guy was from New York Cosmos, he’d made an offer and Saunders had accepted it and that was that. One day Saunders told Hunt there was a guy in the canteen who wanted to talk to him. He would be seen in a Villa shirt just twice more during that year, with his final game being a 2-0 home win over Millwall in the League Cup Quarter Final in December 1976.įor a lad struggling to find a place in a First Division side it seems incredible he would end up playing alongside Pele, Beckenbauer, Carlos Alberto, Neeskens, and, for at least three matches, Cruyff. A week later he scored his first senior goal in a 2-2 draw against West Ham at Upton Park. Hunt’s only previous appearance that season had been as a sub at Anfield. Hunt had to wait a further year to make his First Division start when Liverpool were the visitors. It was clear from the start Saunders didn’t rate the player, and it seems the feelings were mutual. Crowe had given Hunt an apprenticeship, although not until Hunt’s Mum rang him to complain about the club backing down from an earlier promise. Ron Saunders had taken over as manager from Vic Crowe that season and led them to League Cup success, their first trophy for 14 years. He earned a starting place for the visit of Sunderland three days later. That win secured promotion back to the First Division after an absence of eight years, finishing second to Manchester United. Villa were a Second Division club at the time. His first club was his favourite team, Aston Villa, where he made his first team debut in April 1975, when he came on as a sub for Chico Hamilton in a 4-0 win at Sheffield Wednesday. Yet for a few years at the end of the decade, he was considered more valuable than all of these men. When you think of some of the huge names of 1970’s world football, Pele, Franz Beckenbauer, Johan Cruyff and Carlos Alberto would certainly find their way onto your list.
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