'He's stuck in a time warp' - John Gregory's most outrageous Aston Villa outbursts

John Gregory was never short of a soundbite or nine during his eventful Aston Villa reign around the turn of the millennium.

Whether he was taking a swipe at chairmen, referees, current and departing players or even art, Gregory could always be counted upon to express an opinion in the bluntest of terms.

We've delved through the archives to find 9 of the former Villa boss's most memorable quotes.

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1. "If I'd had a gun I would have shot him."

Gregory's quip when he faced the press to announce that Dwight Yorke had quit the club for Manchester United in a £12.6 million move. Gregory was describing how he felt at the moment Dwight told him he no longer wanted to play for Villa.

2. "Unfortunately David didn't look at a map. He thought the Midlands was just outside Liverpool." Same day: "He moved to Everton because his wife wanted him home for his lunch."

More belters after David Unsworth's four days as a Villa player in the summer of 1998 before deciding he'd had enough and wanted to move closer to home.

3. "The chairman of Brighton wouldn't recognise Gareth Barry if he was stood on Brighton beach in the team strip, with a seagull on his head and a ball in his hand."

Gregory's response, back in January 1999, to claims that Brighton made Barry the player he is and worthy of a £2.5m compensation payment.

4. "What the f*** is art? A picture of a bottle of sour milk lying next to a smelly jumper? What the f*** is that all about? And look at opera. To me it's a load of s***. But people love it. I'd say football is art. When I watched France v Holland at Euro 2000, I was orgasmic."

Gregory doesn't know much about art but he knows what he doesn't like, according to an interview he gave to lads mag Loaded in 2000.

5. "We gave him a b******ing at half-time because he was playing like a tart and it seemed to do the trick."

Another off-the-cuff classic. Gregory was explaining what had prompted Mark Delaney's impressive second-half display and goal against Watford in August 1999.

6. "My team is made up of 10 Englishmen and one convict."

The 'convict' was non-other than Australian Mark Bosnich.

7. "There's an aura about this club, a sense of history and tradition. Even the name is beautifully symmetrical with five letters in each word."

How Gregory explained his love for Aston Villa in his autobiography, titled The Boss.

8. "I personally think referees should be wired up to a couple of electrodes and they should be allowed to make three mistakes before you run 50,000 volts through their genitals."

Gregory after referee David Elleray awarded a dodgy penalty against Villa in a defeat to Sunderland in October 1999.

9. "He's stuck in a time warp, which does make things more difficult. He thinks our training ground is the best in the country and certainly when it was built 25 years ago it was super-duper. But since then other clubs have caught up with us, or gone past us, and ours is like a shanty town now compared to some. I'm kicking and screaming, trying to drag us forward but it's hard. If I'm not careful it becomes a personal attack on the chairman because of the way he is."

Gregory unleashes his infamous 'time warp' blast at Doug Ellis is December 2000.