Gary Shaw: Aston Villa’s Brummie made good who conquered Europe – and impressed Maradona

Holte End hero, who has died aged 63, was myopically overlooked by England despite vibrant role in title and European Cup-winning campaigns

At the start of the 1980s, at every home match, the Holte End at Villa Park would reverberate with a singular, insistent chant: “When he gets the ball he’s bound to score, Gary, Gary Shaw.”
And more often than not, Villa’s No8 would do just that. Across the first three seasons of the decade, as Villa won the title, the European Cup and the European Super Cup, Shaw scored 48 goals. And they were strikes of all different kinds: left foot, right foot, tap-ins, volleys, long-range blasters; he was capable of the lot.
But it was more than just the goals the fans celebrated. In a team renowned throughout the game for being the very epitome of the collective, the whole way more than the sum of the parts, for the supporters he was the standout favourite. It was not so much that he was quick, clever, adept at finding space. It was not just that he was the only locally born player in the team. It was more that, with his mop of blond hair, his micro-short shorts and an undimmed twinkle in his eye, he was the fans’ representative on the pitch. This was the Brummie made good, the laddiest of lads, one of their own.
His tragically premature death at the age of 63 has provided a telling reminder of what he meant to so many Villa followers of a certain age. And, sadly, how quickly his influence came and went.
Almost from the moment he pulled on a first team shirt, as a 17-year-old in 1978, it was evident he possessed an abundance of talent. Though he recalled that the manager Ron Saunders was not exactly effusive in his praise.
“I scored a hat-trick in the second half of a game,” he once recalled. “And when he was asked about it afterwards, Ron said I was lucky, because he was going to take me off at half-time.”
But as Saunders’s side coalesced – with Dennis Mortimer, Tony Morley, Peter Withe and Gordon Cowans integral – the flop-haired teenager was at its heart, the man capable of making the difference. In 1981, Villa won the league using just 14 players. Yet the wider football world seemed not to appreciate how smart, efficient and organised this side was: not a single Villa player won an international cap that season. Not that it mattered to Shaw. Born and bred a Villan, his world revolved around the club.
“I’ve been to every Villa appearance at Wembley since 1971,” he said in an interview last year. “I saw them lose the League Cup to Spurs when I was 11. Broke my heart.”
For him, the following season was the stuff of dreams. Despite the fact that Saunders resigned in February 1982 after a row with the chairman Doug Ellis, Villa went on to win the European Cup that May, beating, in the final in Rotterdam, a Bayern Munich side that included Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and Paul Breitner.
“I think we were 10-1 with bookies,” was Shaw’s memory of the encounter. “We were just there for the ride. They had world-class players and we had none recognised by the FA coaching staff. What chance did we have?”
What they did have was extraordinary team spirit, a confidence built from absolute mutual trust. Plus in Shaw a superb eye for the telling pass. As indeed he showed when he took control of the ball midway into the Bayern half and threaded a defence-splitting pass to Morley, who crossed for Withe to score the winning goal, a sequence still memorialised on the front of the North Stand at Villa Park with a line from Brian Moore’s television commentary.
“Shaw… There’s a good ball played in for Tony Morley. Oh, it must be! And it is! Peter Withe!”
“𝗢𝗵, 𝗶𝘁 𝗺𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗯𝗲, 𝗶𝘁 𝗶𝘀!” It’s only fitting Peter Withe’s birthday is the day after we draw Bayern Munich 🏆 pic.twitter.com/gC9hdllruL
Despite his imagination, pace, and an extraordinary haul of goals that season, after being picked for the preliminary 40 England players for the 1982 World Cup in Spain, Shaw did not make the final squad.
“I’d just scored 24 goals, no penalties, no free-kicks, and I’m sitting on a beach in Ibiza having a San Miguel,” he said.
He demonstrated quite how wrong the selection policy was the following year when he helped Villa to win the European Super Cup, beating Barcelona at Camp Nou. So impressed was Diego Maradona with Shaw’s contribution that day, he sent word to the Villa dressing room that he would like to swap shirts. Shaw recalled many years later, with a characteristic chuckle, that he had been prevented from doing so by the Villa kit man on account of the fact shirts were far too expensive to be carelessly handed over to opponents.
Sadly his chances of gaining an England cap were over before the end of that season when he suffered a terrible knee injury, one from which he never really recovered. And one which, after he developed septicemia following an issue with it in 2016, almost killed him.
After he retired, he worked as a club ambassador and as an analyst for Opta, a chirpy, cheery presence in press rooms around the country. Though in truth you did not need to be a statistician to have noted what a player Gary Shaw was.
For three seasons he illuminated the game, a joyous, delightful forward, who, as the song in his memory insisted, always seemed bound to score.
Unai Emery has told Aston Villa’s new generation to take inspiration from the club’s European Cup heroes after the tragic death of Gary Shaw.
Emery is preparing for Villa’s return to the rebranded Champions League after an absence of nearly 40 years, with the occasion sure to be a poignant evening after the passing of the legendary forward on Monday at the age of 63. Villa said the club were ‘shocked and profoundly saddened’ by news of Shaw’s death.
He played in the historic 1982 European Cup final win over Bayern Munich in what is arguably the club’s finest moment, and was heavily influential in the league title win the year before. He had been in hospital after suffering a head injury in a recent fall.
A replica of the European trophy sits in a cabinet near Emery’s office at Villa’s training ground and the Basque says his players will be “motivated” by the memories of Shaw’s magic.
Emery said: “My condolences to the family and all the supporters at Villa. We have a memory in our training ground a picture of 1982 and he was the protagonist of that. My condolences to them. Yes, I think it is sad and we can use that as motivation.”
Former Villa forward Gabriel Agbonlahor said: “For me, growing up hearing about that European Cup-winning team, and how good he was, he was a local lad like me. I was lucky enough to be coached by him from the age of 14 to 17.
“We sometimes forget what legends those guys were who won the European Cup. We haven’t played in the competition since and what they achieved makes them legends of the club.”
Solihull-born Shaw joined Villa as an apprentice and went on to score 79 times in 213 appearances, including 20 in their title-winning campaign, after which he was named PFA Young Player of the Year.
He was then an important part of the team that won the European Cup with victory over Bayern Munich in the final in 1982. Shaw scored three goals in the competition, including a quarter-final strike against Dynamo Kyiv. He left Villa in 1988 with his career also taking him to Denmark, Austria and Hong Kong before he retired in 1992. He later worked as a statistical analyst and was a matchday ambassador for Villa.
Dear GazI wanted to play football because of you. I love Villa because of you. When I was 11 I asked my Mom if I could have a blonde wedge because of you( 😂). Her wry “I don’t think we can do that, Son” will stay with me as one of my abiding memories of her, too.You were… pic.twitter.com/FUQDavW4nq
Villa’s return to the Champions League comes after a remarkable two seasons under Emery, who has transformed the fortunes of this famous old club.
Europa Conference League semi-finalists last season, this glamorous stage is where Emery belongs and he has challenged his squad to ensure it is an annual event.
Villa face Young Boys in a relatively low-key introduction on Tuesday evening before welcoming Bundesliga giants Bayern early next month.
Emery said: “Now is our moment. I’m excited, I think it’s a good moment for the club to play in the Champions League after a long time, hopefully we can keep it for a long time, that’s our challenge.
“How far we can go I don’t know but I’m not going to refuse any objective in this competition. We know how difficult that is with seven or eight teams contending to get in the position in the table to get it.
“We want to create a new way together, the first message I can send to them is I want to be competitive. We know how difficult Europe is. Last year we learnt a lot about playing away and how difficult it is.”
Young Boys play on a plastic pitch and Villa flew into the Swiss capital early on Monday afternoon to practice on the surface which has frustrated the likes of Pep Guardiola in recent years.
Leon Bailey, the Jamaica international, has travelled with the squad after missing Villa’s win over Everton with a hamstring strain.