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Michael Oakes - Goalkeeper Date of Birth: October 30, 1973 Birthplace: Northwich Nationality: English Height: 1.85m / 6'1" Previous Clubs: Own product Joined Villa: Trainee Acquisition Price: Trainee Debut: 1994 Left Villa (for): October 29, 2000 (Wolverhampton) Transfer fee: £900,000

A former Villa trainee who made his league debut while on loan to Scarborough in 1993-94. He played in the Premiership for Aston Villa on a few occasions, he appeared in the Coca-Cola Cup and he was also member of the England under-21 squad.

Oakes kept on trying to become Villa's first choice of goalkeeper. At the start of the 96-97 season, Mark Bosnich was injured, giving Oakes the chance to prove his worth. However, as soon as Bosnich returned, he was Villa's second goalie again

Over the summer and start of the 97-98 season, Oakes established himself at Villa even more, but the start of the 97-98 season was a nightmare. With Bosnich injured more severely than Oakes, Brian Little had little choise but to field Oakes, and his injured hand certainly played its part in the two matches he appeared, during which Michael had to pick no less than five balls out of the net.

As David James arrived to take over as first goalie, Oakes got increasingly frustrated, and when Summer 2000 arrived, he requested a transfer, and was off to Wolves soon after.

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.