Sell out Aston Villa book goes global

23 Nov Sell out Aston Villa book goes global

Forty years ago in November 1980 Aston Villa were top of the First Division having fought off the challenge of Liverpool and Ipswich Town.

What happened next will always remain part of club folklore. Villa stayed in the top four and were crowned Football League champions for the first time in 71 years on May 2, 1981.

To celebrate the remarkable 1980-81 season, Stourbridge businessman Jim Cadman has worked with the players to create AV40 – the Aston Villa 40^th Anniversary Tribute.

The AV40 project was launched in August with the publication of the collector’s edition of the Aston Villa 40^th Anniversary Tribute Book, which sold out within a month of publication and has been sent to Villa fans in countries all over the world including Australia, Canada, Italy and Ireland.

For the second phase of the project, a soft cover edition of the AV40 book has been published. Signed by five members of the 1980-81 squad – Dennis Mortimer, Gordon Cowans, Des Bremner, Tony Morley and Gary Shaw – it contains reports of every match, programme covers, player profiles, action photos, memorabilia, statistics and league tables plus personal recollections from the players.

Complementing the book is a range of signed AV40 retro memorabilia including footballs, player trade cards, rosettes and pin badges.

Title-winning skipper Dennis Mortimer said: “The players have been thrilled by the response to the AV40 project. It was a privilege to write the foreword to the book as the backing we received from our fans during the historic 1980-81 campaign was incredible.

“We hope that those who remember that season, as well as the supporters who follow Villa with such a passion today, will treasure the book and the memorabilia items.”