The 1996-97 season was

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...

's 122nd professional season, their 86th season in the top flight and their 9th consecutive season in the top tier of English football (the fifth in the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

). There was no silverware this season for last season's

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

winners, but Brian Little's competent Villa side achieved

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

qualification for the second season running, but this time via the

UEFA Respect Fair Play ranking The UEFA Respect Fair Play ranking was used by UEFA from 1995 to the 2015–16 season to grant three berths for the first qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League. Since that time it has granted a monetary prize to winning associations. Qualific ...

. The autumn of the season saw the departure of veteran defender Paul McGrath to

Derby County Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Derby, Derbyshire, England. In 2022, it was announced that DCFC was acquired by Clowes Developments (UK) Ltd, a Derbyshire-based property group. Founded in 1884 ...

, while the injured

Gary Charles Gary Andrew Charles (born 13 April 1970) is an English football coach and former professional player. He played as a right-back, notably beginning his career with Nottingham Forest and featured in the inaugural Premier League season under Brian ...

was replaced at right-back by the

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

Fernando Nelson. The end of the season saw the arrival of

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

striker

Stan Collymore Stanley Victor Collymore (born 22 January 1971) is an English football pundit, sport strategist, and former player who played as a striker from 1990 to 2001, most notably for Nottingham Forest and later Liverpool, who he joined from the form ...

for a club record fee of £7 million. Club record signing Sasa Curcic, who had been disappointing after his £4million arrival in the summer of 1996, was then sold to

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building * ...

for £1million. Long-serving defender Paul McGrath left in the autumn to sign for

after more than seven years at

Villa Park Villa Park is a football stadium in Aston, Birmingham, England, with a seating capacity of 42,682. It has been the home of Premier League side Aston Villa since 1897. The ground is less than a mile from both Witton and Aston railway stations ...

. Another Villa defender, Phil King, who had been restricted to just three league appearances in as many years at the club, was transferred to

Swindon Town Swindon Town Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club has played home matches at ...

. Striker Tommy Johnson, whose first team chances were becoming increasingly limited, was sold to

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

Franz Carr Franz Carr (born 24 September 1966) is an English former professional footballer who played as a winger from 1984 until 2000. He made 131 appearances in seven years with Nottingham Forest, and had shorter spells in the Premier League or Footba ...

left after just over a year at Villa Park to join Reggiana of

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. Defender

Carl Tiler Carl Tiler (born 11 February 1970) is an English former professional footballer who played as a central defender. He made more than 250 appearances in Premier League and the Football League and was part of a number of successful sides during ...

was sold to

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games at ...

for £500,000 after just 18 months at the club, having played just 12 league games due to injury. Dwight Yorke was Villa's top scorer for the second season running, with 17 goals in the Premier League and 20 in all competitions.

Kit

Transfers

Transferred in

Loaned in

Transferred out

Loaned out

Overall transfer activity

Expenditure

£5,700,000

Income

£3,120,000

Balance

£2,580,000

Squad

First Team

Results

Premier League

Results by round

Matches

''Aston Villa's score comes first''

Legend

FA Premier League

FA Cup

League Cup

UEFA Cup

References

External links

Aston Villa official website
*avfchistory.co.u
1996–97 season
{{DEFAULTSORT:1996-97 Aston Villa F.C. season Aston Villa F.C. seasons