Gordon Cowans
Gordon Sidney Cowans ( born October 27, 1958 in Cornforth ) is a former English footballer. The technically studded midfielder is regarded as one of the best players in the club's history of Aston Villa. He won there in 1977 the League Cup, in 1981 was later followed by the English championship and one year of the European Champions Cup and missed for the seasons 1979 /80 to 1982/83 not a single competitive match. After a three-year stay in Italy with AS Bari, he returned to Birmingham and won in 1990 once again the runner before he (among them was a third time Aston Villa) with eight clubs in six years could end his professional career.
Sports career
Club career
Aston Villa, Part 1 (1976-1985)
At the age of 12 years, " Sid ," concluded Gordon Cowans as was called by friends and teammates, the youth department of Aston Villa on. Cowans, who had only come close to south of Birmingham in Cornforth World, signed by the end of his schooling in April 1975 a training contract at the "Villans ". Even before his promotion to professional players in September 1976, he was then given on February 7, 1976 against Manchester City (1:2) by Substitutes his league debut. His sporting breakthrough followed in February 1977, he was responsible with making sure that the team at the end of a good fourth place in the Premier League finished (after position 17 in the previous year ) and to win the League Cup. The final against Everton was decided only in a second replay and after Cowans had been exposed in the first game (0-0 ), he replaced the Scotsman Alex Cropley in the second match ( 1-1 after extra time ) and both were jointly represented in the third edition in the 3-2 at Old Trafford.
With the technical skills of the diminutive midfielder, the quality in the passing game to speak on short and long distance and eye for goal, he was involved particularly from the 1979/80 season instrumental in the following high-altitude flight. By the end of the 1982/83 season he did not miss one of 168 official matches in series. For winning the English Championship 1981, he contributed five goals and the following year he crowned this achievement with the success in the European Champions Cup and a short time later with the Supercup in the 3-0 second leg victory, he beat FC Barcelona from the penalty spot to score achieved. He had the largest total yield results in the season 1982/83 with ten league goals. During preparations for the 1983/84 season to Cowans broke a leg in August 1983 and he was then forced to suspend an entire year. For the new season 1984/85 he returned in time back to the league opener. However, he had a hard time with it to regain the form from before his injury, and in July 1985 he transferred for £ 500,000 and together with his teammate Paul Rideout to Italian club AS Bari, who had just gained in the Serie A.
Bari, Birmingham and Blackburn Rovers (1985-1993)
The three years in the capital of Apulia were only moderately successful, and in the first year Cowans increased with the new club on a direct path to the second division last but one from. In the two subsequent years each fell through the attempts to return to the excellence and as his former Villa manager Graham Turner signaled a willingness to renewed commitment, this came in July 1988 after a total of 94 league games, while only three goals for Bari to Birmingham back. Cowans seemed by this time to be " over its peak out," but in a team that had just risen again only in the First Division, the returnees experienced a " second spring." On the side of emerging players such as David Platt, who founded its good performance not insignificantly with the mentor skills Cowans, we drove through the narrow relegation in 1989 to a surprising runner-up in 1990 and even though it Turner at the beginning of the 1989/90 season yet in the meantime for had rejected four league games. In the season 1990/91 he completed a fifth year without having been missing in a league game before he under new manager Ron Atkinson lost his place in October 1991 and the club left in the direction of the emerging second division club Blackburn Rovers.
The Rovers he helped with 26 inserts in the league for making the play -off games in which he ensured promotion to the newly created Premier League with victories against Derby County and Leicester City. The team managed by Kenny Dalglish, he played in the 1992/93 season as a reserve player 24 league games and scored in a 7-1 thrashing of Norwich City his only Premier League goal for Blackburn. But was quickly obvious that was more for him not an athletic perspective in the ambitious club, who was two years later to win the English championship and he took in July 1993 for a third time the opportunity to hire at Aston Villa.
Last stations (1993-1997)
His last player at Aston Villa period only lasted until February 1994. He only came in eleven league games for use and only in the four appearances in the UEFA Cup up to the second-round defeat against Deportivo La Coruña was a fixture in the supervised still of Atkions team. In the second division Derby County he was then immediately starting player, played in all 19 final league games of the season 1992/93 and then the play-off games against Millwall FC (2-0, 3-1 ) and in the final Leicester City (1: 2). Next stop was from December 1994, the second division rival Wolverhampton Wanderers, who spent the transfer fee of £ 20,000 for the transfer and thus tried to solve his creative problem in the game design team. At the end of the 1994/95 season Cowans reached the second year in a row the playoffs for promotion to the Premier League, but failed there already in the semifinals of Bolton Wanderers (2:1, 0:2 ).
Shortly before the turn of 1996/97 he moved to the free transfer also playing in the second division Sheffield United, graduated from there until the end of the current season of the 23 required games and said goodbye after more good performances in the direction of Bradford City. There he played the first 17 games before as part of the fight against relegation from the second division squad further reinforcements came to the club, which in turn supplanted him on the bench. End of March 1997, he joined then to Stockport County. In the third division, he helped in the ultimately successful promotion battle with seven league missions to bridge an injury crisis before then regulars Chris Marsden took his seat again. As a contract -free player, he then went to Burnley FC and the third- highest division he placed next nine last duty stakes until the end of 1997 here its focus more on the trainer activities for the reserve team.
In the new coach role, he later returned again to Aston Villa, where he worked first in the youth division, before he ascended into the era of Gérard Houllier in the Kotrainerstab the first team.
England national team
As a midfielder, whose playing style was distinguished by a high degree of accuracy and game intelligence, Cowans was already the end of the 1970s as a suitable candidate as a future playmaker the England team in the 1980s. The breakthrough in the " Three Lions " failed to materialize, what superficially with Glenn Hoddle had to do, which proved to be too competitive. Nevertheless, it was surprising that the then coach Ron Greenwood to very good playing at Aston Villa Cowans - unlike Tony Morley and Peter Withe - in Spain completely left outside in front before the World Cup in 1982 and this also ignored in the squad nomination.
Only when Bobby Robson Green Woods took successor, he came on 23 February 1983 at Wembley Stadium against Wales on his debut for the senior team. The performances in the 2-1 victory sufficed Robson then to transfer him a task in the midfield for the important qualifier against Hungary. The game ended with a 2-0 victory and his fourth match against Scotland on 1 June 1983, he scored his first goal. When he played three games against the hosts within a week during a trip to Australia mid-month, appeared his international career durchzustarten before he broke a leg and not just the club career came to a halt in the summer of 1983. He was then long no longer part of the England team. It was only in January 1986 found the career of the now exchanged to Bari Cowans with the eighth international game a sequel. This coach Robson, however, had been experimenting during the 4-0 win against Egypt in Cairo just before the 1986 World Cup in Mexico and although Cowans against the USSR was again two months later in the starting lineup, he remained in the midfield hierarchy behind players such as Bryan Robson and Ray Wilkins, and again received no place in the World Cup squad.
It was not until almost four and a half years later Cowans celebrated a brief comeback in the match against Ireland on November 14, 1990, after he had just won wiedererstarkt with Aston Villa the runner-up. The English media landscape occupied himself while even the question of whether Robson's successor Graham Taylor intention to seriously sort out the new superstar Paul Gascoigne in favor of Cowan's for the upcoming qualifiers, but tedious 1:1 created against the neighbor few arguments for this scenario and so remained this tenth international for the last Cowans.
Title / Awards
- European Champions Cup ( 1): 1982
- European Supercup ( 1): 1982
- English Championship ( 1): 1981
- Charity Shield ( 1): 1981
- English League Cup ( 1): 1977