Andy Townsend insists no-one would be happier than him if he loses his special place in Aston Villa history. The former midfielder holds both an impressive and unwanted position in the club folklore as the last Villa captain to lift a major trophy.
The 62-year-old did that at Wembley in 1996 when he was the driving force behind the 3-0 League Cup final victory over Leeds United. Townsend did everything but score that day and not even goals from Savo Milosevic, Ian Taylor and Dwight Yorke could deny him the man of the match award.
But not in his wildest dreams did he think he would be another three decades before Villa would claim another piece of silverware – a prospect that awaits John McGinn on Wednesday night. The Scot, who scored a sumptuous goal in the 4-2 win over Liverpool, will lead Villa against SC Freiburg in the Europa League final on Wednesday evening knowing victory would see him replace Townsend in the club’s record books.
“I'll be cheering the loudest if he gets it done,” Townsend told BirminghamLive. “I can't think of a better guy to go and lift it for the club than John. I really can't because he's a bit of a throwback to me. I think he could have played in any era because he gets on with his job and he gets his head down. He's not always brilliant every week, he doesn't expect to be, but he always shows up and just lately his goals have been fantastic – and he will always do his fair share of stuff without the ball.”
For Townsend, though, McGinn’s value is not just about goals and assists, it’s the way he inspires others. “He doesn't have to go grabbing people by the scruff of the neck, I think it's just his mere presence out there on the field makes everybody feel better. When Villa were struggling at the turn of the year without Boubacar Kamara, John and Youri Tielemans in particular, it showed – and then all of a sudden John come back and things very quickly started to knit together again. That's not a coincidence. That's because he's got great ability, a fantastic engine and a great work ethic but he’s also got a presence on the field and he's a very likable character.”
“You can tell he's a captain that the rest of the boys enjoy working with and I resonate with that. I was captain for a long time, not just at Villa, but most of my other clubs too and I think sometimes there's this perception that every captain's got to be this snarling, growling, menacing presence that everybody is scared of. It doesn't have to be that way. You can be a very effective captain by being out there every week as much as you can, by encouraging, by always being willing to sacrifice your own game for whatever's required for the team. I think they're great traits that John McGinn has.”
“As I said, I can't think of anybody better to go and pick a trophy up after 30-odd years since I've done it than him. I think he deserves it. He’s already a modern day Villa legend, he's seen a lot since he's been at the club, he came at a time when back in Bruce's time, there was talk about one minute the club might not even exist because they were going to go skint. So he's seen all of that period, he was a bargain and I remember watching, I think his first Premier League game at Spurs away, and thinking to myself ‘This kid's decent’, he always caught my eye because of his left foot. From there, he's just gone on to become such an effective leader and an effective captain for the team.”
