The 1989âÂÂ90 English football season was Aston Villa's 91st season in the Football League with Villa competing in the Football League First Division. A lowly 17th the previous season, Villa improved drastically and spent most of the season challenging for the title though finishing in second behind Liverpool. This was Villa's highest finish since 1980âÂÂ81, and a great result for a team in the second season of the top flight. At the end of the season Jozef Vengloà ¡ became the first manager from outside of Britain of a top flight club in English football history.
Key players in the team this season were high-scoring midfielder David Platt, who broke into the England team and went on to play at the World Cup, as well as being voted PFA Player of the Year, and new defender Paul McGrath, a ã450,000 pre-season signing from Manchester United. Aston Villa played in kit manufactured by Danish company Hummel and sponsored by Mita Copiers. There were also debuts for Kent Nielsen, Adrian Heath, Andy Comyn, Mark Blake, Tony Cascarino and Dwight Yorke.
Slovak Jozef Vengloà ¡, who had just led Czechoslovakia to the quarter-finals of the World Cup, replaced Graham Taylor who had accepted an offer to take over management of the England national football team.