It is with sadness that we are to report that former Villan Dalian Atkinson has passed away at the age of just 48.
Dalian will forever be remembered as part of the team under Ron Atkinson that finished second in the inaugural Premier League season, behind winners Manchester United. He also secured goal of the season for the 1992/93 season with a wonder goal against Wimbledon.
Rest in peace Dalian – forever a Villan and always a gentleman in my own dealings with him during his post-Villa career.
The Author
Matt Turvey
Matt is the owner of, and chief writer for, Aston Villa Life. He is also a columnist for the Wolverhampton Express & Star, appearing in the Kick Off pullout on Saturdays and the Final Whistle pullout the Monday after Aston Villa play, as well as every Thursday as a blogger on their website. He has previously been featured as a writer on Football365 and Life's A Pitch, and was a regular pundit for Sports Tonight TV on Sky.Comments 18
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Matt,
Loved that goal against the Dons he really was a player that never fulfilled his talent.
RIP Dalian.
SWV
RIP Dalian Atkinson, one of our great heroes, and a gentle giant.
Seems from the neighbours that he had had a drop of pop, but was not threatening, just did not stand still when ordered to.
Italian teenager appears to be a done deal according to sports blogs, etc and could be the deal being publicised after the game on Tuesday, by which time Jedinak could be ours too. If he comes with Hernandez and Bamford, Villa will be able to field a Saturday team, and a Tuesday night side…
Heard Juve in for the Italian lad…think that deal will be beyond us. Agents playing with us. Jedinak is the deal announced after game. 4mill having medical today. Think (HOPEFUL) Bamford and de laet to join then prob done.
Goalini
Delaet Elphick Chester Amavi
Tishiba Jedinak
Ayew McCormack Grealish
Bamford
Gestede
baker
bacuna
westy
adama
That’s a play off team at least surly!
super player dalian RIP
what a player ,team ,manager ,that side beating man u cup final if only deadly had let big ron manage good players wanted to be in his side
Many memories of Dalian during one of Aston Villa’s peaks in English football, clearly the Wimbledon goal will be played forever and a fitting epitaph because it shows his undoubted skill and the cheekiness of his celebration, arms open, look what I just did.
But the Tranmere semi final is a treasured memory, seeing us claw back being 3-1 down, the excitement, the tension, the relief of getting it to penalties and then the pressure of penalties and the contribution Dalian made to get us to the final but ultimately triumph over manure, I still have all the newspapers from that time.
Keep this thread as tributes to Dalian, we can talk on the other thread about the present and the future Villa team.
My heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of Dalian Atkinson, he will live long in the memory of Villans everywhere, his legacy won’t be lost. A true Villan who played the game the way he wanted.
His injury and the breaking up of the Deano/Dalian partnership gave the title to Manure in 93 but that will always be a big part of the Villa story, coming so close to winning.
R.I.P. Dalian
A very sad day,terrible news.An abundance of talent,should have achieved more.He didn’t deserve to die in this way.Thanks for the memories Dalian.
R.I.P. D.A.
Very sad day for all villa fans and my condolences to his family, Tazers? what ever happened to the police that makes them react so quickly like this, very sad sign of the times.
RIP Dalian: it’s discovering incredible Villans such as him that make cheering on the Villa so rewarding, even for the more recent supporters such as myself.
UTV!!
Apparently according to reports Dalian was not armed with any type of weapon so why was he taken down in such a way, why are the police trained in self defence and procedures to restrain people if all they are going to do is tazer someone because they are not doing as they are told, I find the problem very disturbing and I hope there is a full enquiry but that will not bring DA back.
SWV
VP is going to be an emotional whirlpool tonight lets hope we continue the fightback.
If anyone hasn’t seen Dalian destroy Barcelona i suggest you watch it and admire his talents, also his goals versus Wednesday, awesome, wonder why he didn’t get even one cap.
It appears Dalian wasn’t with it when he got tasered but would they taser a mental patient, real shame
http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/taser-death-dalian-atkinson-threatened-11753750?
I hope the lads play Huddersfield like the way we know Dalian could play football.
His passing is such a trajedy.
UTV
Yes it is at the very least a tragic end for Dalian, but by all the accounts were getting over the pond, he was in fact very agitated and being aggressive, having already threatened his Dad according to his own brother. Now i know you guys are all questioning the use of tasers, but being a few miles out of a city (Toronto) where a cop pops nine rounds into a kid high on crack or what ever for running around on the bus with his pecker in his hand, then the taser is a far better piece of equipment we are now rushing to equip all our officers with. The issue is open boarders my friends, I hadn’t even seen a hand gun before 1988, after emigrating all the cops here had them, because the villains, not villans, all had guns brought up from the sates. Now they bring them into Britain from all over Europe so how can you ask the coppers to go after armed thugs armed with just the truncheon we all felt once or twice after the match lol. Gun control was what kept the UK safe, maybe with Brexit and better boarder security you may once again get control over weapons in the UK, I do so hope so, other wise I don’t see much advantage from leaving in the first place.
Sorry for the rant, rest in piece Dalian and thanks for the memories.
Good luck to the team tonight, could be a crowd of 40,000 ish, nothing like VP for a night game.
Reading through the various blogs and pleased to see the fans weren’t too critical, its a team in the process of re-building, with the new signings i’m very confident of top 3.
Its really noticeable the improvement of Bacuna and Cissoko, just tinkering with the MF should do the trick.
Saw lots of pics of VP last night…looked amazing. 35k a great turnout for tues night.
Cissoko seems to of improved but Amavi has to start….the guy will be a great talent. Bacuna too improved but still a square peg in a round hole. Linked to trippier on loan…that would be superb.
Nearly their just 3 or 4 more signings.
Although i have been a stern critic of Bacuna i read what supposedly happened in the infamous ‘European giants’ interview, apparently a Dutch interviewer asked him if he had ambitions to play in the Champions Lge, of course he answered “Every player has those ambitions” and the British media did the rest making out he thought a move to a European giant was deserved, not the first time its happened.
Don’t think you’d want to fall out with Jedinek, looks just what we needed last season.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilkIPxPWn7Q
Makes you proud to be a Villan.
SWV