The end is nigh.

[Legion]

1.   Was MoN the right man for the job at the time of his appointment?
Yes

2.   Are we in a better position now than what we were in when MoN took over?
Yes

3.   Were you initially excited about the style of football we would play?
Yes

4.   Did you expect that we would be able to attract a better quality of player to the club given the fact that we had the new owners and MoN as our manager?
Yes

5.   Has MoN had the funds and enough time to build a squad?
Yes

6.   Would you say that we have a healthier and stronger squad now than at many other times in our clubs modern history?
No

7.   Should Mon have any complaints about the levels of trust and autonomy that has been handed to him by Randy and the board?
No

8.   During Mon’s tenure, has the football improved?  
To start with

9.   Do you get excited about the future transfer dealings that Mon will conduct?
No

10.   Does MoN utilise his squad?
No

11.   Did you expect to be in an even better position than what we presently find ourselves?
No

[KevinGage]

1.   Was MoN the right man for the job at the time of his appointment?   Yep

2.   Are we in a better position now than what we were in when MoN took over? Absolutely

3.   Were you initially excited about the style of football we would play?
It concerned me a tad, as Celtic and Leicester were about as far removed from total football as you could get. But I had hoped that better resources would equal a better style of play

4.   Did you expect that we would be able to attract a better quality of player to the club given the fact that we had the new owners and MoN as our manager?  Yes

5.   Has MoN had the funds and enough time to build a squad? Yes. And then some

6.   Would you say that we have a healthier and stronger squad now than at many other times in our clubs modern history? Sort of. We had better options and more variation under BFR and even JG up to a point

7.   Should Mon have any complaints about the levels of trust and autonomy that has been handed to him by Randy and the board? None whatsoever

8.   During Mon’s tenure, has the football improved?  No

9.   Do you get excited about the future transfer dealings that Mon will conduct? No

10.   Does MoN utilise his squad? No

11.   Did you expect to be in an even better position than what we presently find ourselves?   In 2006? Yes, I probably did

[not3bad]

8.   During Mon’s tenure, has the football improved?  No

No better than it was under DOL?

[pauliewalnuts]

1.   Was MoN the right man for the job at the time of his appointment?

Yes

2.   Are we in a better position now than what we were in when MoN took over?

Yes

3.   Were you initially excited about the style of football we would play?

No.

4.   Did you expect that we would be able to attract a better quality of player to the club given the fact that we had the new owners and MoN as our manager?

Yes

5.   Has MoN had the funds and enough time to build a squad?

Definitely.

6.   Would you say that we have a healthier and stronger squad now than at many other times in our clubs modern history?

Yes.

7.   Should Mon have any complaints about the levels of trust and autonomy that has been handed to him by Randy and the board?

No


8.   During Mon’s tenure, has the football improved?  

No. In fact, it has got worse. Last year was worse than the year before.

9.   Do you get excited about the future transfer dealings that Mon will conduct?

Not at all.

10.   Does MoN utilise his squad?

Not enough.

11.   Did you expect to be in an even better position than what we presently find ourselves?

Not necessarily, but I thought it would have been more fun.

[Rancid custard]

8.   During Mon’s tenure, has the football improved?  No

No better than it was under DOL?

It's better than that, it's the same old same old with us, we can play Arsenal off the pitch one week and look like a bunch of headless chickens against Stoke the next week.

We've been unfairly treated to glimpses of things that will never happen, remember when Ashley played at the top of a midfield diamond for the last 10 or so games 2 seasons back, the attacking football we played was awesome. When we've had patches of 4 5 1 we've looked like a great counter attack team, MON has never utilised these things as separate plan a plan b type scenario when things aren't going our way.

When Gabby's in form, big John is completely off the boil, when big John fancies it Gabby can't be fucked etc.

[Arsey]

1.   Was MoN the right man for the job at the time of his appointment?

2.   Are we in a better position now than what we were in when MoN took over?

3.   Were you initially excited about the style of football we would play?

4.   Did you expect that we would be able to attract a better quality of player to the club given the fact that we had the new owners and MoN as our manager?

5.   Has MoN had the funds and enough time to build a squad?

6.   Would you say that we have a healthier and stronger squad now than at many other times in our clubs modern history?

7.   Should Mon have any complaints about the levels of trust and autonomy that has been handed to him by Randy and the board?

8.   During Mon’s tenure, has the football improved?  

9.   Do you get excited about the future transfer dealings that Mon will conduct?

10.   Does MoN utilise his squad?

11.   Did you expect to be in an even better position than what we presently find ourselves?

In my opinion

1 yes, I was delighted when he took the job

2 yes, clearly but you would expect that given a) how shit we were b) how much money he's spent

3 yes but I wasn't expecting too much given his style of play at Leicester

4 yes and we did

5 yes a much better squad than we currently have

6 yes but I would say the team Little built was better

7 No

8 We are clearly playing better football than we saw under DoL or GT2 but that isn't saying much

9 No, not at all

10 See 9

11 Absolutely, it is just a shame RAL didn't appear 5 years earlier.

[Dave Clark Five]

Oh come off it, would anyone have considered paying £25m for Milner 2 yaers ago? You were probably one of the ones saying we'd overspent at £12m.

You're right I wouldn't have thought anyone would have considered paying £25m for milner 2 years ago.......i don't think anyone would.

Stick with me here this bit is complicated; if he was worth £12m 2 years ago and now is a £25m player then surely that means he has "gone from average to great because of O'Neill".

Maybe. However, how often is O' Neill seen on the training ground?

[Leighton]

1.   Was MoN the right man for the job at the time of his appointment? Yes

2.   Are we in a better position now than what we were in when MoN took over? Yes, both on and off the field.

3.   Were you initially excited about the style of football we would play? Yes

4.   Did you expect that we would be able to attract a better quality of player to the club given the fact that we had the new owners and MoN as our manager? Certainly. If anything this is the one area that I was most assured in, and as a result, I thought that better players would provide success.

5.   Has MoN had the funds and enough time to build a squad? More than any other Villa manager and more than any other top-flight manager of present times bar Ferguson and Wenger.
6.   Would you say that we have a healthier and stronger squad now than at many other times in our clubs modern history? Nearly, all apart from our attacking options.

7.   Should Mon have any complaints about the levels of trust and autonomy that has been handed to him by Randy and the board? None at all.

8.   During Mon’s tenure, has the football improved? It appeared for a time that we were one of the most exciting teams to watch in the league. But that has steadily declined over the last few seasons to become the standard dull and unimaginative play we witness all too often.

9.   Do you get excited about the future transfer dealings that Mon will conduct? No.

10.   Does MoN utilise his squad? No.

11.   Did you expect to be in an even better position than what we presently find ourselves? Yes without a doubt, and I think that the best opportunity we have had, or are ever going to get, at becoming a real and credible force to regularly win silverware has been well and truly squandered.

[Shrek]

I like Oneil but his negatives really do out wieght his positives.

I am really worried that we will struggle this season because of Martin.

It really does seem like he is not moving with the times, he thinks that if he persists with his way it will eventually work. Meanwhile our competetors are progressing and adapting to modern style football. Resulting in us back to a mid table club, failing at the last hurdle again.

I am so worried because it seems as though he cannot see it!

[Salsa Party Animal]

1.   Was MoN the right man for the job at the time of his appointment?
Yes, it was great appointment for us.

2.   Are we in a better position now than what we were in when MoN took over?

Yes as we were in better shape and not too far away from decent team.  

3.   Were you initially excited about the style of football we would play?

No I hated our style but we do have some exciting game but our football is poor, I have watched football in Madrid, Barcelona, Sevilla, Amsterdam, Rome and Milan and prefer European footballing style.

4.   Did you expect that we would be able to attract a better quality of player to the club given the fact that we had the new owners and MoN as our manager?

Yes, but we doesn't try to do more oversea.

5.   Has MoN had the funds and enough time to build a squad?
Yes he had 4 season and plenty of dosh.

6.   Would you say that we have a healthier and stronger squad now than at many other times in our clubs modern history?
No, I would argue our team under John Gregory is stronger squadwise.  

7.   Should Mon have any complaints about the levels of trust and autonomy that has been handed to him by Randy and the board?
No, he was left to manage.

8.   During Mon’s tenure, has the football improved?
It had improved but still not pretty enough. We are more effective and solid but not enough quality.

9.   Do you get excited about the future transfer dealings that Mon will conduct?
Nope, apart from Ashley Young none of our signing have really excite (Entertainment point of view) me.

10.   Does MoN utilise his squad?
No We can predict 10 our of 11 players every game and work out who will come on too easily.

11.   Did you expect to be in an even better position than what we presently find ourselves?
No I expect a little more but we have done well.

I think Martin have done enough from last season to get another season as a manager. But I won't be too upset if we have someone new in charge, but it need to be right man otherwise he will destroy the good work.

[dave.woodhall]

Welcome aboard Michael.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

Paulie has saved me the bother of answering those questions.

[paul_e]

1.   Was MoN the right man for the job at the time of his appointment?
Yes

2.   Are we in a better position now than what we were in when MoN took over?
Yes, A million miles better, I think it's no great stretch to say another season of Doug and DoL would've seen us in the championship.

3.   Were you initially excited about the style of football we would play?
Yes, I expected us to play the 4-3-3 that we started out with (moore, angel and gabby up top) and I'm gutted that we haven't stuck with it.

4.   Did you expect that we would be able to attract a better quality of player to the club given the fact that we had the new owners and MoN as our manager?
Not immediately, too many players don't know anything about football that the press doesn't tell them and we've never had good press.

5.   Has MoN had the funds and enough time to build a squad?
Yes

6.   Would you say that we have a healthier and stronger squad now than at many other times in our clubs modern history?
Yes, The only other time we've looked so close to being a very good side was with Gregory but we didn't have any youth coming through to back it up.

7.   Should Mon have any complaints about the levels of trust and autonomy that has been handed to him by Randy and the board?
Not at all

8.   During Mon’s tenure, has the football improved?
Yes and no, we're not any prettier to watch but we have a lot more belief against the big sides and we do see some flashes of brilliance.  If we could make those happen 3-4 times a game without losing our solidity we'd be a great side.

9.   Do you get excited about the future transfer dealings that Mon will conduct?
I think so, The only big money signing I've not been totally approving of was Downing, purely because of the injury, a couple more signings like Milner, Young and Delph will keep me on side.

10.   Does MoN utilise his squad?
Not as much as I'd like but it's a tough call as whilst he gets ripped for us losing when we're tired he'd get just as much stick if he played backup players and we lost.  It's a double edged sword and it's a bit too easy to say 'if we'd rested xxx' we'd have finished fourth, nothing in sport is that certain.

11.   Did you expect to be in an even better position than what we presently find ourselves?
A little maybe as I thought we'd have a trophy by now, of course if Vidic had seen red...

[Irish villain]

1.   Was MoN the right man for the job at the time of his appointment?
Yes

2.   Are we in a better position now than what we were in when MoN took over?
Yes

3.   Were you initially excited about the style of football we would play?
Yes

4.   Did you expect that we would be able to attract a better quality of player to the club given the fact that we had the new owners and MoN as our manager?
Yes, I definitely thought we would attract a much better class of player

5.   Has MoN had the funds and enough time to build a squad?
Yes, Big Ron, Brian Little and John Gregory never had as much time as he has had and achieved (relative) success with the club

6.   Would you say that we have a healthier and stronger squad now than at many other times in our clubs modern history?
Tough question. We bring our players in from a narrow pool(UK and Ireland) and this limits our choice. We have a bigger squad than previous managers have had but I believe previous managers would use such a squad much better.

7.   Should Mon have any complaints about the levels of trust and autonomy that has been handed to him by Randy and the board?
No, again he has never been on the brink or under pressure the way Little, Big Ron or JG were

8.   During Mon’s tenure, has the football improved?  
07/08 we played some great stuff. Downhill since then with last season being the worst

9.   Do you get excited about the future transfer dealings that Mon will conduct?
I now expect the worst as it will be less disappointing for me

10.   Does MoN utilise his squad?
As I said earlier, no. He uses it quite badly

11.   Did you expect to be in an even better position than what we presently find ourselves?
I thought we would have a stronger first eleven with players in their proper positions and a sense that we were now on the cusp of great things. However, it feels like we have stalled and could be stepping backwards again.We have been consistent but we don't have a whole lot to show for it yet.  This is MON's make or break season

[Mac]

Everyone's got their faults, MON included, but for me he's one of the best there is for getting the most out of players.

this is fast becoming a myth.  Who was the last player that he got the "most" out of compared to where they were before?

Shorey? Harewood? Heskey? Sidwell? NRC? Petrov?

How about Milner - wasting his career in Newcastle's squad as a reasonable winger until MON put him centre-mid and turned him into a £20m+ player touted (admittedly on here) as the natural replacement for Gerrard?

Warnock - again, wasting his career until MON picked him up and got him back into the England squad.

Dunne/Collins - both decent players but unspectacular.  MON brings them in to our side and Chelsea away aside we have the best defence in the league.

That's from 5 minutes thought without trying too hard...

Well if he was that clever why did it take him two years to try Milner in the middle? And Milner was hardly wasting away at Newcastle.