To say that Gary Shaw had it all would not be an understatement.

In fact, as a footballer, he almost had it all by the age of 23. By that time,he’d won the European Cup, the First Division title and been crowned European Young Footballer of the Year.

With blond locks, cut into a fashionable 80s ‘wedge’ and a face to match, he was darling of the Holte End where he once stood as a young teenager looking up to his own idols at Villa Park. Darling of the pubs and clubs in and around Birmingham, too.

Talk about living the dream. Shaw did. For a time, anyway. A wonderful left foot and a deadly partnership with Peter Withe formed the spearhead of Villa’s all-too-brief flirtation with success.

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Under the watchful eye of Ron Saunders, a tough as teak Scouser who liked playing the role of either sergeant-major or bully – depending on his victim – the young striker’s prodigious talent blossomed. Saunders wouldn’t let Shaw get away with anything. Well aware of the talent at his disposal, he clamped down on any excesses the teenager might have had.

Shaw once went into contract negotiations with his manager – and managed to come out with £5 less than he went in with. He was told repeatedly by Saunders to wear flip-flops in the shower area. He refused. Broke his toe and the manager never let him hear the end of it. But Villa’s manager knew. Oh, he knew all right.

Into the first-team by the age of 17, signing professional forms on his 18th birthday – it is no exaggeration to say that, given his accomplishments, a parallel could be drawn with fellow West Midlands export Jude Bellingham.

At the same stage of their careers, Shaw could have been anything. Should have been anything. An image remains of him in the mind’s eye of this author, standing in the massed ranks of Birmingham City supporters on Easter Monday, 1983, in the pen at the foot of the North Stand.

Blistering heat, tight derby – until Shaw twisted this way and that with seven minutes to go and his left foot did the rest, rolling the ball into the net, settling it with the only goal.

It couldn’t get much better. Sadly for him, it didn’t. Six months later came the challenge at Nottingham Forest that was the beginning of the end.

It caused a problem in Shaw’s knee that he never shook off. Four years after that Birmingham derby, he left Villa. Four years after that, he was out of football altogether. Sport can be cruel. Football, particularly so.

The boy from a council estate in north Solihull had scaled the heights at such a young age only to have the fruits ripped away from him through no fault of his own. It would be remiss not to wonder if that injustice contributed to a tinge of bitterness. Maybe, maybe not.

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After he finished playing, he picked up some work as a statistical analyst with the Press Association, among other outlets when he finished playing. In the press box, he was good company, particularly dissecting forwards, as you would expect.

But there were times, when he walked away from Villa Park and St Andrew’s, into the throng of a crowd and you wondered if either group of supporters knew who was in their midst. He wouldn’t ever trumpet it. Unassuming, shy, perhaps insecure, even.

However, he was fond of cricket. He played during his playing days and opened the batting for the club’s old stars. And he was a ferocious supporter of Warwickshire Cricket Club. It was the last time I saw him – on the stairwell leading to the corporate areas at Edgbaston ahead of a T20 fixture with Worcestershire. It was his release. I shall miss seeing him and chewing the fat over the Bears.

And judging by the response already on social media, Aston Villa will miss him too.

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