Surplus 6 win praise from O'Neill

[PaulTheVillan]

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[timeoutbigbar]

Considering the exorbitant combined wages of the 'surplus 6', the least i'd expect would be for them to actually try in training.

[darren woolley]

Let's hope they put the effort in and catch somebody's eye leading to a move.

[supertom]

Can't see there being a hell of a lot of takers for most of them to be honest.

Luke Young may as well be kept, and played. He's a good player. He wasn't right last season, but with funds tight and other positions more pressing, we've a quality right back on the books who should be playing. Beye or Lichaj are adequate back up.

Shorey is good enough to cover for Warnock. Whether he's happy to do that is another matter.

Sidwell I can't really think of good reason to keep, because he's just bobbins. Will he still go to Fulham? I can't fathom how Hughes would want him.

Nige could be a key player for us. I think him and O Neill probably butt heads a fair bit, and perhaps a clash of egos, so we'll see. But I'd like to see Nigel stay and push for a starting place. I'm hoping he kicks on in his 3rd year as Petrov did.

Our summer seems to rest on what happens with Milner. I'd rather keep Jimmy, but by the same token, sell him and we can buy 2-3 quality players that we need to supplement the squad. Taking Milner out the equation, I can't see us raising enough capitol to fund much of a change.
I still think we could get enough scraped together to get a decent midfielder and attacker to improve us. And it would seem in pre-season, that Mart is experimenting with alternatives to the archaic 4-4-2.

[Arsey]

barring an injury crisis I can not see them playing more than a handful of games between them.

I remember 1-2 years into MON's time in charge it was all about the squad not having enough depth etc.  It is fairly obvious MON can not handle a big squad and would be in cloud cuckoo land in the Prem changed the squad of 25 to a squad of 18.

[Dante Lavelli]

Slightly off topic but MON's quotes are a bit weird.  Purely speculation but he seems to be slightly removed from the action/negotiations with both the Milner and Young moves.

There appears to be a bit of a change in his job description this year.

[old man villa fan]

Slightly off topic but MON's quotes are a bit weird.  Purely speculation but he seems to be slightly removed from the action/negotiations with both the Milner and Young moves.

There appears to be a bit of a change in his job description this year.

Was thinking that myself.  Whether Randy feels that the Milner saga would be taking MON's eye off preseason and therefore taken it on himself or whether it has always been like that and it was just the impression we had that MON handled everything.

[sfx412]

as I.ve said elsewhere is it surprising with so many over the top transfer fees and huge wage deals that RL took the responsibility off him.
Sounds to me an excercise to put said players in the shop window, an attempt to encourage interest.

[Dante Lavelli]

I'm sure you're right about the shop window theory.
Either way, what he said can do no harm to the players in question as he is ultimately being complimentary to them all.

I hope they are not empty words as all of the players potentially could play a part for Villa this season.

[JUAN PABLO]

Hes need to get shot of Heskey first and bloody quick...     having him in a Villa shirt is depressing me..

[sfx412]

I'm no Heskey fan, thought his purchase one of O'Neills jobs for the boys deals what I do wonder is the value of Salifou to the wage bill. At least Heskey like most of the alleged 'dead wood' does offer something to any PL side.
Can anyone tell me what Salifou offers. Why is he picked ahead of these so called top quality youngsters we have, has he ever shown anything of worth?

[Greg N'Ash]

Sounds to me that he's not hopeful of selling many of them and has decided to at least re-intigrate them into the squad. Certainly a change- from around the end of the season where he basicially said they weren't good enough

[Pete3206]

At least Heskey like most of the alleged 'dead wood' does offer something to any PL side.

Please continue.

[old man villa fan]

Sounds to me that he's not hopeful of selling many of them and has decided to at least re-intigrate them into the squad. Certainly a change- from around the end of the season where he basicially said they weren't good enough

Did he actually say they were not good enough or that they had to try harder to get back in the team.  Of course, forgetting and perceived favouritism the manager has for certain players.

[Risso]

Slightly off topic but MON's quotes are a bit weird.  Purely speculation but he seems to be slightly removed from the action/negotiations with both the Milner and Young moves.

There appears to be a bit of a change in his job description this year.

Was thinking that myself.  Whether Randy feels that the Milner saga would be taking MON's eye off preseason and therefore taken it on himself or whether it has always been like that and it was just the impression we had that MON handled everything.

The General specifically said once that O'Neill had full control over transfers, without interference from anybody else.  That doesn't seem to be the case anymore, which is probably a good thing.