Andy Townsend - Midfielder Date of Birth: July 23, 1963 Birthplace: Maidstone, England Nationality: Irish Height: 1.80m / 5'11" Previous Clubs: Chelsea, Weymouth, Southampton, Norwich Joined Villa: July 26, 1993 Acquisition Price: £2.1 million Debut: August 1993 Left Villa (for): August 30, 1997 (Middlesbrough) Selling Price: £500.000

Townsend joined Villa from Chelsea in the summer of 1993 for £2.1 million. Previous clubs include Weymouth, Southampton and Norwich City. He captained the Republic of Ireland in the World Cup finals in 1994 and has over 50 caps for his country. Needless to say he's the key man in Aston Villa's midfield. He was Man of the Match when Villa beat Leeds 3-0 in the 1996 Coca Cola Cup final. He has been Villa's captain even since Kevin Richardson left the Villa. Townsend is very consistent, his only real problem being that he ends up in the ref's books a little too often.

A shock announcement on August 30, 1997, revealed that Andy Townsend had signed for Middlesbrough for half a million. Manager Brian Little immediately defended his decision, despite Aston Villa's very small midfield roster at the time. One excuse could be that it would be wise of Aston Villa to get rid of Andy while they could still get some money for him ...

Apperances has substitutions in brackets, i.e. the games when he came on as a sub and didn't start on the pitch. All the stats include cup games.

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