Gary Charles - Defender

Date of Birth: April 13, 1970
Birthplace: London
Nationality: English
Height: 1.75m/5'9"
Previous Clubs: Derby, Nottingham Forest
Joined Villa: January 6, 1995
Acquisition Price: £2.9 m (Gary Charles and Tommy Johnson)
Debut: January 95
Left Villa (for): January 15, 1999 (Benfica, Belgium)
Selling Price: £1 million
England

Joined Villa from Derby in a 3 million deal with Tommy Johnson. He very quickly earned a place in the first team, and since then he has been the right back of Aston Villa. He scored his first goal for Villa on April 8, 1996 against Southampton at Villa Park. The end of his first full season brought a disaster, though. He suffered a broken and dislocated ancle against West ham at the end of the 95-96 season, which took him out of the game for a year. In April 97, he was announced healthy enough to start playing footie again, thanks to some brilliant work by good old physio Jim Walker. His first return to the 1st team was in the American friendlies right after the 96-97 season vs San Jose Clash and Los Angeles Galaxy. He then had a full summer to recover completely, and as expected he returned fit as a fiddle to the first team at the beginning of the 97-98 season, and has now put Fernando Nelson down to some serious competition for the right back spot. However, Charles hasn't been much in Brian Little's jigzaw this season, and his playing time has been very limited. He has done good most of the time, though.

In March 1997, he was arrested for refusing to do a breath test, having initially been apprehended by police officers under suspicion of violent behaviour outside a nightclub in Derby.

Charles found it continously difficult to settle at the starting 11, with all the competition for the back 5 at Aston Villa. Season 1998/99 saw the arrival of both Steve Watson and the incredibly talented youngster Gareth Barry, and Charles was even less sure of getting some pitch time. At New Year, he had had enough, and requested a transfer. Benfica were interested, and moments later, the deal had gone through, Charles moving to Portugal for one million.

Stats
Until the end of his Aston Villa career

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.
 

Season Club Apps Goals
1987-88 Nottingham Forest 0 0
88-89 -//- 2 0
(loan) Leicester 5 (3) 0
89-90 Nottingham Forest 0 (3) 0
90-91 -//- 16 (1) 1
91-92 -//- 42 (2) 1
92-93 -//- 15 0
93-94 Derby 51 (1) 1
94-95 -//- 25 2

Aston Villa 14 (2) 0
95-96 -//- 47 1
96-97 -//- 0 0
97-98 -//- 13 (9) 1
1998/1999 -//- 17 (6) 2
Villa record 91 (17) 4
Total record 247 (27) 9