Villa to sell Luke Young on the cheap

[Dave Cooper please]

I don't see anything more than a superficial similarity between the two.

It's clear he's not a manager who needs to be friends with his players and has that old fashioned you're either with me or against me attitude which in these days of player power often works against him but I see nothing of any substance to suggest that he wants to be Brian Clough.

You don't see much similarity yet you go on to list two classic Clough traits. Traits that, as you acknowledge, don't go down well with players these days, and in Clough's case at Leeds, didn't always go down too well back then either.

*Edit* And just after you listed another one!

Just my perception of MON is that he would think that players should take it as an honour to be picked for their country and that it reflects well on the club when they are. I might be wrong.

[Risso]

A random snippet off the web:

Martin O'Neill says he learnt invaluable lessons from Brian Clough about how to handle players.

Aston Villa boss O'Neill said: "I remember saying to him if Nottingham Forest didn't match my ambition I would be off.

"He told me to f**k off then. I f****d off to the reserves and he called me back about four months later and said: 'Are you still here'."

If only he'd leant invaluable lessons from Brian Clough about passing the ball about, and signing players like Roy Keane.

[Phil from the upper holte]

Martin O'Neill, you are not Brian Clough.

And repeat.

He's not fit to lick his boots.

He fancies himself as a Clough but doesn't have a fraction of the talent.

I'm reading Big Ron's autobiography atm and he says in there that he wouldn't reccomend ANYONE takes Clougies style of managment and bearing in mind that was written before MON came to Villa.

He describes his managment style and its a carbon copy of Martin

[peter w]

A random snippet off the web:

Martin O'Neill says he learnt invaluable lessons from Brian Clough about how to handle players.

Aston Villa boss O'Neill said: "I remember saying to him if Nottingham Forest didn't match my ambition I would be off.

"He told me to f**k off then. I f****d off to the reserves and he called me back about four months later and said: 'Are you still here'."

If only he'd leant invaluable lessons from Brian Clough about passing the ball about, and signing players like Roy Keane.

And then losing them to the bigger clubs as soon as they sniff around? yep. he's got that covered then.

[Chris Smith]

I don't see anything more than a superficial similarity between the two.

It's clear he's not a manager who needs to be friends with his players and has that old fashioned you're either with me or against me attitude which in these days of player power often works against him but I see nothing of any substance to suggest that he wants to be Brian Clough.

You don't see much similarity yet you go on to list two classic Clough traits. Traits that, as you acknowledge, don't go down well with players these days, and in Clough's case at Leeds, didn't always go down too well back then either.

*Edit* And just after you listed another one!

Just my perception of MON is that he would think that players should take it as an honour to be picked for their country and that it reflects well on the club when they are. I might be wrong.

As I said there are superficial similarities but Clough was more of a coach where MON isn't, Clough was a massive self publicist where MON is less so, Clough was confontaional with other managers where MON isn't.

I think it's just a lazy comparison.

[Phil from the upper holte]

Someone else treated badly by MON. The list is building

I may be old fashioned but isnt the player supposed to impress the manager?

Maybe Luke was too busy counting his £????? pay roll to actually think about training hard and wanting to play for his employee.

Your thoughts will be interesting to read.

I think The Sandman summed it up perfectly for me to be honest.

Luke to me has never shown anything other than total commitment, After he had some time off for his brothers funeral he has been completely overlooked. Im not sayin the two are related but its an observation.

He has even commented that no matter what he does he feels he will be overlooked, why would he say it if its not the truth?

[Chris Smith]

What has his turning down England got to do with it?

Just my perception of MON is that he would think that players should take it as an honour to be picked for their country and that it reflects well on the club when they are. I might be wrong.

The main point is that Luke Young has blotted his copybook a number of times and unless he's totally thick would be aware that MON is not the sort of manager to take that lightly.

In any job you know what is and isn't acceptable to your boss and the consequences of transgressing. Whether MON's approach is the right or not isn't the issue, Luke Young knew the score so can have few complaints. The manager has to be the boss and has to be seen to be the boss.

I honestly do not think that O'Neill would give a toss about a player retiring from international football, as it would obviously be of benefit to Villa.  Especially when that player is 30 years old or over.

I agree though about O'Neill being the boss, but all these crticisms of O'neill from players are chipping away at his public persona little by little.  In my opinion he's gone from being thought of as a great boss to work for, and the possible heir apparent to Alex Ferguson, to a really unlikeable pain in the arse, who is getting out of his depth at Villa.

I agree that the criticisms are chipping away but to me that's largely down to the spoiled brats who masquerade as footballers these days.

[JerryD]

It may be just me, but to my eyes Luke's never looked 'right' since that unfortunate episode with his brother. His eyes look dazed and regardless of what some folks think, I don't think he's played well since.

I think someone even suggested he came out with some credit in the Stamford Bridge massacre. As someone who was there I couldn't disagree more. He was shocking all afternoon.

He's not a world beater. He's also 31. If he goes, he goes. Its not the end of the world.

[Risso]

I agree that the criticisms are chipping away but to me that's largely down to the spoiled brats who masquerade as footballers these days.

Maybe so, but all footballers are spoiled brats.  People tried to argue that Saint Milner was better than the rest, but it was of course nonsense.  If he can't deal with spoiled brats, then he belongs to a past era.  Which is what I've said all along.

[Chris Smith]

I agree that the criticisms are chipping away but to me that's largely down to the spoiled brats who masquerade as footballers these days.

Maybe so, but all footballers are spoiled brats.  People tried to argue that Saint Milner was better than the rest, but it was of course nonsense.  If he can't deal with spoiled brats, then he belongs to a past era.  Which is what I've said all along.

He is dealing with them. It might not be thje way you would do it but he's showing them he's in charge. Even with Milner he's decided that we're not going to be pissed about by him and Man City and so has forced the issue.

I don't think it's true to say that they're all the same, most just get their heads down and if they have an issue it stays in house, unfortunately it's those who like to gob off (or have an agent who will do it for them) who get all the publicity.

[KevinGage]

What a fucking waste. I find this almost as depressing as the Milner thing.

He's not the best right back ever, he's not the future of this club, but he's a decent pro who's rarely let us down. And he just been dumped.

His replacement better be good Martin.

Spot on Nick.

Supporting Luke on this one doesn't mean we're making him out to be one of the all time greats in his position, it just means that he looked plenty good enough for us whenever he did play.

A baffling decision.

[march]

It may be just me, but to my eyes Luke's never looked 'right' since that unfortunate episode with his brother. His eyes look dazed and regardless of what some folks think, I don't think he's played well since.

I think someone even suggested he came out with some credit in the Stamford Bridge massacre. As someone who was there I couldn't disagree more. He was shocking all afternoon.

He's not a world beater. He's also 31. If he goes, he goes. Its not the end of the world.

thats my view, none of us know what has gone on, it is clear from MON's comments after the season that he believe Young is not fully committed and Young retorted and said he was.

Either you take the player's side or the manager's side or you just say it is one of these things and we move on.

Luke Young's absence did not cost us 4th place, that was down to the lack of ability to break down teams at home and RB's are not very good at doing that.

[Bosco81]

It's a real puzzler as to why MON has lost faith in him, wonder if it will ever come out.

If MON is going to stick to his GB buying policy he should stop buying cockerknees, as he seems to have problems with Young, NRC, Sidwell and Shorey, I'm hoping Ashley Young bucks the trend.

[WALTERS WARRIORS]

Luke young has never moaned and played left back when asked without a whim. Really need to get him back in the first team. He is class ........

[john robsons sideburns]

Luke has never moaned publicly, but whos' to say what has gone on behind the scenes here.  There's plenty that doesn't add up.....he's gone from being one of our best players, to one that cannot get a game.

O'Neill may be many things but he really isn't stupid, do we all honestly believe that he thinks that Cuellar is a better right back than Luke Young?  (OK...don't answer that!) Do we think that 38,000 of us see this and that he doesn't? (or that!!) No, somethings happened since the awful passing away of Luke's brother, and we may never know the full details.

The fact that London clubs seem to be the only ones linked with him may well tell the story I sense, he wants to be near home and maybe because of that hasn't been putting everything he could into his football, and who could blame him.

Luke Young was a top player for us and I think will be remembered fondly by all Villa fans, but there are much better right backs out there, MON just has to go and find them. (Micah Richards please!)