{"id":7065158,"date":"2026-09-23T21:25:37","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T21:25:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/uncategorized\/like-a-father-the-ex-aston-villa-star-on-his-boss-during-his-brief-spell-in-villa-park\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T21:25:37","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T21:25:37","slug":"like-a-father-the-ex-aston-villa-star-on-his-boss-during-his-brief-spell-in-villa-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7065158","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Like a father\u2019 &#8211; the ex Aston Villa star on his boss during his brief spell in Villa Park"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The former Aston Villa star recalled the relationship with his ex boss during his one-year stint in the West Midlands.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The relationship between players and managers does not always include warmth like a family. Some prefer to form stances from the players to stay professional, while some others create close bonds which sometimes can help boost the players\u2019 confidence too.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">That was what the ex-Aston Villa star, Benito Carbone, experienced during his brief spell in Villa Park. The attacking midfielder who is considered the best Italian in the club throughout the history so far, felt a special connection with his former boss back then in the 1999\/2000 season. He shared his memory during the interview with Villa as reported in the club\u2019s official site, <\/span><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.avfc.co.uk\/news\/2025\/january\/30\/my-villa-moment--benito-carbone\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">avfc.co.uk<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cJohn Gregory, for me, was like a father. For a player like me, feeling the trust of the coach is the best thing. He was very important for my career, because he gave to me everything about trusting a player.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>His best moment\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Carbone\u2019s best moment with The Clarets and Blue was actually the turning point of his view on the relationship with his boss at that time, <a href=\"https:\/\/avillafan.com\/john-gregory\/\">John Gregory<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.avillafan.com\/41010\/all-italians-in-aston-villa-history-can-matteo-ruggeri-outshine-his-predecessors\/\">It was the match against Leeds United in the round of 16 of the FA Cup.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">At that time, the former Inter Milan man was missing his family, who remained in Italy while he was playing in England. A few days before the match, he felt the longing for them so much that he asked Gregory to go home.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cI went to John Gregory to say: \u201cCoach, listen, I want to go home, please. I miss my family, I miss my wife, I miss my kids, and it\u2019s very important for me to go home.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cThe answer of John Gregory was: \u201cBenny, you don\u2019t go anywhere. We have the most important game of the season against Leeds, and I am sure you will score two goals.\u201d I scored three.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">That was it. Carbone paid his boss\u2019 trust and helped Villa send Leeds, which was in the top three at that time, to the exit in a 3-2 win. He rekindled that moment after the game with so much joy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201c<\/em>John Gregory came to me and told me: \u201cThat\u2019s why I never let you go home.\u201d That game, when I scored the goals, I went to hug him, there\u2019s the photos too. I said to him: \u201cThank you very much, coach.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf he had given me permission to go home, for sure, I would never have a day like this. He was sure I played that game and scored the goals.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cIt was one of the best days of my life. I had never scored three goals in one game as important as this. Never. The atmosphere of the players and the fans on that day, with my teammates, with Paul Merson, with Dion Dublin, with George Boateng, with Gareth Southgate, everybody, I couldn\u2019t believe it. It was incredible. The best day of my career.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Aston Villa had a fine run in the FA Cup that season as they reached the final. Unfortunately, they slumped to a narrow 1-0 loss to Chelsea with their international squad.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>The reason for his brief stint<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Despite his top form in the West Midlands side, the Italian only stayed for one season. It was his homesickness which made him turn down the four-year contract. <a href=\"https:\/\/avillafan.com\/benito-carbone\/\">Carbone<\/a> recalled that time as he added his comments.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cThey offered me another four years. Four years in England away from my family, my house, my style of life. Four years was a long time, and in my head, that moment, I was back home in Italy\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">However, the midfielder with 30 games for Villa appeared to regret that decision. He would have signed the contract instead if he could have gone back in time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cIf I was there with my head now, for sure, four years, I would sign for Villa. Villa is a big club, with one of the best stadiums in the world. Beautiful fans, they loved me, and that was a very big mistake from me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Surprisingly, he did not return home and played on his home soil until 2002. He opted to stay in England and switched sides to Bradford City. He joined Como once he left England. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><!-- CONTENT END 1 --><\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The former Aston Villa star recalled the relationship with his ex boss during his one-year stint in the West Midlands. The relationship between players and managers does not always include warmth like a family. Some prefer to form stances from the players to stay professional, while some others create close bonds which sometimes can help [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7065159,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[140161,226623,226624,226625],"tags":[77238,181508,226626,240,3141,226627,10548,8189,817,21825],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-7065158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aston-villa","category-avfc","category-benito-carbone","category-john-gregory","tag-aston","tag-aston-villa","tag-benito-carbone","tag-boss","tag-father","tag-john-gregory","tag-park","tag-spell","tag-star","tag-villa"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>\u2018Like a father\u2019 - the ex Aston Villa star on his boss during his brief spell in Villa Park - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7065158\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Like a father\u2019 - the ex Aston Villa star on his boss during his brief spell in Villa Park - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The former Aston Villa star recalled the relationship with his ex boss during his one-year stint in the West Midlands. 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