MO'N on Goals on Sunday

[supertom]

The annoying thing about MON was he had the right idea how to play but picked poor players to do it.
Every time I look at Leicester I see a MON team but with a good striker, a good attacking midfielder and a team ethic of work until you drop.
Heskey or Vardy, Downing or Mahrez? Infuriating in hindsight

Well I'd say that's a touch unfair in as much as I'd directly compare Gabby and Young with Vardy and Mahrez. The latter two of course have found levels of consistency that evaded Gabby and Young. Though Young in fairness had 18 months where he was absolutely superb. I'd also imagine that the Ash Young of 07-09 would be tearing up the current Premier League given the chance. He'd be finding the net more consistently. Not to diminish what Leicester have done but the league is shitter now than it was 5-6 years ago and defences are even worse.

[peter w]

We were supposed to be challenging for the CL places and I'd argue that not one of defenders signed by O'Neill were top 4 or CL standard.chequebook.

Guess we'll see where James Collins and West Ham finish this season...

True enough but to be fair despite the odd good run of games, Collins never showed the form consistently at Villa that he's showing at west Ham. If we had this player then, I think we would have seriously threatened the top 4.

[paul_e]

The annoying thing about MON was he had the right idea how to play but picked poor players to do it.
Every time I look at Leicester I see a MON team but with a good striker, a good attacking midfielder and a team ethic of work until you drop.
Heskey or Vardy, Downing or Mahrez? Infuriating in hindsight

Well I'd say that's a touch unfair in as much as I'd directly compare Gabby and Young with Vardy and Mahrez. The latter two of course have found levels of consistency that evaded Gabby and Young. Though Young in fairness had 18 months where he was absolutely superb. I'd also imagine that the Ash Young of 07-09 would be tearing up the current Premier League given the chance. He'd be finding the net more consistently. Not to diminish what Leicester have done but the league is shitter now than it was 5-6 years ago and defences are even worse.

I think young at his best was better than Mahrez but Gabby has never been a good enough finisher.  On top of that when mon was with us man u, chelsea, arsenal and liverpool were a firmly established top 4 with solid squads and strong management 3 of them have fallen apart in the last few years with only Arsenal even remotely interested in the title race this season.  On top of that Man City went into freefall after announcing their new manager 5 months ahead and with the existing manager expected to just get on with it in the meantime.  I think villa from the 3rd mon season would be right up with these Leicester and Tottenham teams.  I'm not belittling the achievements of Leicester, just pointing out that they've been helped by circumstances which were against us.

[supertom]

The annoying thing about MON was he had the right idea how to play but picked poor players to do it.
Every time I look at Leicester I see a MON team but with a good striker, a good attacking midfielder and a team ethic of work until you drop.
Heskey or Vardy, Downing or Mahrez? Infuriating in hindsight

Well I'd say that's a touch unfair in as much as I'd directly compare Gabby and Young with Vardy and Mahrez. The latter two of course have found levels of consistency that evaded Gabby and Young. Though Young in fairness had 18 months where he was absolutely superb. I'd also imagine that the Ash Young of 07-09 would be tearing up the current Premier League given the chance. He'd be finding the net more consistently. Not to diminish what Leicester have done but the league is shitter now than it was 5-6 years ago and defences are even worse.

I think young at his best was better than Mahrez but Gabby has never been a good enough finisher.  On top of that when mon was with us man u, chelsea, arsenal and liverpool were a firmly established top 4 with solid squads and strong management 3 of them have fallen apart in the last few years with only Arsenal even remotely interested in the title race this season.  On top of that Man City went into freefall after announcing their new manager 5 months ahead and with the existing manager expected to just get on with it in the meantime.  I think villa from the 3rd mon season would be right up with these Leicester and Tottenham teams.  I'm not belittling the achievements of Leicester, just pointing out that they've been helped by circumstances which were against us.

I agree. I've said it in another thread before, I think O Neill's Villa side would be pushing for the title this year. That said I think that says more about the standard of the Premier League now more than the quality of O Neill's side.
I'll be interested to see if Vardy continues this level next season. And Mahrez for that matter. Both players have found a whole new level almost unexpected from them before.
Mahrez has been player of the season for me but I can still see him jumping too soon to a big club and then slowly fading into obscurity as a one season wonder. He should keep his head on his shoulders and give Leicester another season or two and most certainly enjoy playing in the CL with them next season. I can see him ending up on Real Madrid or Barcelonas bench for a year before being sold on though.
I'd fancy the Ash Young of 07-09 to be scoring 15-20 in the current league. He had around the same amount of assists as Mahrez is posting this season.

[tomd2103]

Moyes and Redknapp finished above MON. He's a myth, his success came in the 90's and Scotland where he won the same amount of trophies as Mcrelegation.

Not sure about that, as he did very well with Leicester.  I just think he reached the end of his managerial shelf life whilst with us. 

[robbo1874]

People talk about DOL and Gregory in the same way as MON because all three finished sixth, but for me there is a big difference between doing it once and finishing consistently there, like MON did.

Yeah, about £150m.

Precisely. It's not about comparing. 30-odd years of his predecessors had shown that getting Aston Villa into the top six is pretty much a prerequisite of the abilities of anyone wanting the job. People's big gripe is that sixth, and no trophies, was all he achieved in 4 seasons with free rein and an open cheque book.

Equally you can't compare fees/wages between eras due to the distortional effects of the recent TV money. We still spent loads back in the day on the likes of Curcic, Collymore, Angel etc

angel would be an absolute steal these days at 9.5m

Which is why I said it's not about comparing. It's about my last sentence above. He was the man entrusted with realising our "dreams come true" scenario, and he blew it.