10 Players You Didn't Know Aston Villa Almost Signed
8. Tim Cahill
Former Villa manager Graham Taylor revealed how he came close to procuring the signature of then-Millwall midfielder Tim Cahill during his time with the Midlands outfit. When I was at Villa I tried to sign Cahill at Millwall but he did his cruciate ligaments and that was the end of that, he said. Cahills failed move proved to be a real kick in the teeth for Aston Villa, as not only did the Australian international become his countrys all-time highest scorer, and bag more than 60 goals following his move to Everton, but also he scored a total of seven goals against Aston Villa in their Premier League meetings. Considering he joined Everton for just £2M a decade ago, and was a terrific servant making more than 270 appearances over eight years, Aston Villa could feel mightily unlucky that the Australian's injury prevented them signing him long before the Toffees swooped in.
Crippy Cooke, 23, is a freelance Football Writer contributing to What Culture. He's had work featured on Zoo, MSN, London 24, The Telegraph, The Huffington Post, and was recently named Writer of the Year on FTBpro - while also a nominee for Best Male Blog in the Football Blogging Awards.
