Spent 121.5m Recouped 39m

[Loxton01]

The Evening Mail [so yes maybe a little bit out] did a spread of all the players bought and sold in the period of Martin O'neills tenure.

I totted it all up and the Spent is 121.5 and the Recouped is 39m [which excludes milner money]

That is a net spend of 82.5 million pounds

I think this simple stat shows how much our Chairman backed the manager

Wages were at 71million up 40% over the last two years. More than Spurs and way more than Everton

The more I think about this the more I realise Randy was right to question the manager and ask him to sell before he bought anymore players. How can he justify having more money and more importantly more money for wages

The General has posted this evening suggesting money is available but wages are the issue and particularly pointed out the issue regarding players not getting time on the pitch.

Martin O'neill bought all these players!!!! NRC, Sidwell, Luke Young, Shorey, Salifou, Harewood, Davies, Beye. Just think the annual wage for all those players. 20 million plus? Its incredible the amount of money are ex manager has wasted.

I would be interested to understand others thoughts!!!

[Monty]

Above everything else, that has been the problem with MON not only at Villa, but everywhere he's managed. The wage bill is always at a much higher proportion of turnover when he leaves than it is when he arrives.

[willywombat]

Fully agree. He had to be accountable, I find it desperately disappointing that he chose to storm off like a spoilt child with the season just about upon us

[Villa'Zawg]

It's a ridiculous amount of money for a football team but it's not a lot of money for a top 6 Premier League team.

[BannedUserIAT]

What I fail to come to grips with is that MON has shown via Routledge that he's capable of understanding where a player he'd bought was not what he hoped and shipped out. So why the failure to do this with others?

Was it just the sheer number of players that he failed to integrate into the first team? Did he feel that having to fall on his sword so many times would damage his hard-earned reputation?

What I find most amusing is coments on here regarding most of MON's signings have been pretty much spot on. The contributors to this site really do know their stuff in the main whereas a man paid an enormous amount of money.....well, didn't.

[ROBBO]

This will turn out to be in the best interests of the club, i doubt he would have lasted the season. He lost me when he bought Heskey, we were in a great position to get top four and he bought a donkey, not only that he changed the game plan to suit him.

[Trinitymiddle]

A net spend of roughly £20m a year and to acheive what he did is quite something. However, if the General is to be believed (and I've no reason not to) that is not the issue. The problem with paying high wages is that when you want to move players on, its very hard, especially in a downturn, as O'Neill was finding. I think this was the reason he couldn't sign anyone, as he couldn't free up his wage budget.
I was one of O'Neill's biggest fans, but if the General is right, and his story does seem to stack up, Then I have lost a huge amount of respect for MON, not only for throwing his toys out of the pram (something he specifically said he WOULD NOT do a couple of week ago) but more importantly for his timing.
Ego out of control. 

[Chris Harte]

I don't see £20m a season over four years and repeated 6th place finishes as a great achievement. Had it been a couple of 4th places I'd have agreed though. 5th and 6th place are best of the rest positions really.

To use the same stats as the OP from the Mail, it looks as though for 2008-09 in isolation the net investment was £40m+. If O'Neill hadn't achieved the holy grail of CL football after that spend then perhaps Lerner felt disinclined to provide any more funds.

[Trinitymiddle]

I don't see £20m a season over four years and repeated 6th place finishes as a great achievement. Had it been a couple of 4th places I'd have agreed though. 5th and 6th place are best of the rest positions really.

To use the same stats as the OP from the Mail, it looks as though for 2008-09 in isolation the net investment was £40m+. If O'Neill hadn't achieved the holy grail of CL football after that spend then perhaps Lerner felt disinclined to provide any more funds.

Look how much Spurs and City, and Leeds and Newcastle before them spent, and see how many Champions League finishes they acheived.

£20m doesn't buy you a lot these days, and to go from almost being relegated to being within one game of Champions League  within 2 seasons is still something, in my book anyway.

I think if you read the General's recent postings he says that funds were still available, but that wages had to come into line with turnover.

[UK Redsox]

Here's a detailed list of the ins & outs at Villa Park during the MoN era

LINK

[villa `cross the mersey]

Trinity Middle said "£20m doesn't buy you a lot these days, and to go from almost being relegated to being within one game of Champions League  within 2 seasons is still something, in my book anyway."

I agree but it pales into significance when we look at our history and see that we went from third division champions to European champions inside 11 years!

Probably impossible these days, where money buys success rather  than good or astute management

[nechells]

A couple of the so-called "dead wood" will possibly get a new lease of life under a new manager ie Luke Young & NRC.

We still need a squad & if your 1st 11 are all fit then it is the managers porogative to pick them.

Villa are traditionaly not an attractive proposition to potential targets-The fact that we pay good wages may counter balance this problem.

I agree that MON has made some terrible decisions in the transfer market but lets be honest-We aren't going to go anywhere in this day & age without spending big money.If Randy isn't prepared to put any more money in (money he charges the club intrest on & money he will recouperate if he was to sell)then lets not kid ourselves that we are showing ambition-We are competing with the likes of Sunderland,Fulham & Everton for the outside chance of sneaking into the Europa play offs which start in July every year.

[TheMalandro]

How much money could be raised by selling the players that are left? I'd imagine £80million could be recouped easily.

Figures can be used both ways.

[john e]

How much money could be raised by selling the players that are left? I'd imagine £80million could be recouped easily.

Figures can be used both ways.

you'd get approx 50 mill for the sale of Milner and Young

[Hookeysmith]

And we think it is only us?

Chelsea - 2009 Champions and FA cup winners have released in the last 4 weeks

Ballack
Cole J
Deco
Carvallio

4 players that would get in most teams in the prem so not considered dead wood by any means - reported saving on weekly wage bill of £460, 000

I think every club bar one have the same issues and are addressing it - seems only MON did not see why he had to