Mon linked to Leicester return?

[TonyD]

The days of mon playing carlos at right back and that old lump heskey coming on after 80 minutes seem like heaven compared to our current situation -to think some of us (myself included) wanted mon out because we werent happy with 6 th place -now we can only dream of such heights.

Hate to be a complete U turner (as i was one that abcked Lerner 1000% when MON threw his toys out) But boy do i agree with your comment

He also helped with the mess we have got ourselves into ..

True he helped get us in the mess but he also bought milner, downing and ash to the club who were not only great players to watch at their best but gained the club a huge profit in transfer fees-it wasnt all bad under mon and the bad things then look nothing to the situation we are in now.

The players performed for him in the main and id take top 6 now anyday compared to the position we face at present.

If we carried on with Mon's system of management we would have gone bankrupt. He wasted a huge amount of money, Harewood, Routledge, Maloney, Beye, NRC, and served up ugly football with a team that cost premium prices plus extortionate wages for pretty much average players. He was a crap manager,as well as being an over hyped,  egotistical self centred prat. I would be suprised if he ever works again, an average manager who was found out.

Spot on.

[UsualSuspect]

None of the big 4/5 will touch MON with a bargepole

nearly bankrupted us and got us to errr 6th

About a year ago someone asked on a man ure forum what they thought of MON as their next manager

The nicest response was that they were going to burn their season tickets

[richard moore]

As someone who has thought for ages that we didn't ever play that well or attractively under MON with a few notable exceptions and whose brand of football I found singularly unappealing a lot of the time (though the results meant I conveniently also didn't mind a lot of the time), I don't see such a huge difference between how we play now (first half yesterday excepted) and how we often played before. There is a difference, I don't deny that, but it isn't a yawning chasm. Coouple of seasons ago, we might have won a game like the one yesterday based on having a bit more individual flare but I can't truthfully say the overall pattern of the game would have been that different....

[richard moore]

well for all those who reckon he did such an ace job, it doesn't seem like many other chairman agree. 12 months, and all he's been offered is the west ham madhouse and a rumour of the Leicester job? Not much in a career progression there. Still think he'll end up north of the border at celtic again once he realises he's not as highly rated as he thinks he is, but who knows,  he might still be hoping for the Liverpool job.

That has to be the 'proof of the pudding' so to speak...

[supertom]

I don't blame O Neill for the current financial mess. He's not the one responsible for signing the cheques and balancing the books. Granted he signed dross like Beye and Sidwell, but Randy's complete lack of footballing knowledge and how to run a club has contributed to the situation now. With better people working with him and better management of cash to perhaps bankroll O Neills targets more selectively, then we might have more in the pot currently for McLeish. As it is he gave O Neill a level of control only a select few managers have, and in some cases (Fergie) have taken years to earn and spunked away more money than this club should have been outlaying. Now we've sold Milner, Downing and Young for a lot of money to cover the cost of Martins outleighs as well as Houlliers one big extravagance in Bent. In truth the threat of the cost of relegation was probably the major factor in signing Bent for Randy. Spend 24mill to keep us up, or potentially go under in the championship.

Despite the circumstances of his leaving and some dire football (though Barca-esque to what we play at the moment and last season), I miss O Neill. Apart from anything else we overachieved and we actually threatened the big boys, which is largely to his credit.