The Martin O'Neill thread (with added sacking #2188)

[Ger Regan]

I've been watching Villa since around '88 and Ron's Villa aside MoN gave me the longest run of enjoying the Villa i've had in that period. Yes he made some howlers in the transfer market but he also made big profits on Young,Milner and Downing as well as getting the best out of Barry before flogging him for £12m. Also when Liverpool came sniffing he kept Barry, something I can't recall Villa doing too often when a bid comes in for a star player. He raised the club's profile and gave us belief that we could take on anybody without fear. The way he left soured things somewhat but for the majority of his time at the club I thoroughly enjoyed, rather than endured watching the Villa. For me the positives outweigh the negatives.

Any profits made on certain players are far outweighed by the losses suffered on duds and wages of non-playing squad members. Any way you look at it, his transfer policy was a failure. He left a very mediocre squad, some with bad attitudes, on long-term contracts on high wages. Unsustainable is putting it mildly.

[not3bad]

Anyway, to my mind i've always seen him as a Brian Clough - Without the talent or charisma.

He hasn't got a fraction of Clough's footballing knowledge and his attempts at wit in interviews are toe curlingly embarrasing.

Certainly not the talent but not sure about the charisma.  It takes more than calling people by their first names to get people fawning over him like MON did and you need a certain something to get an average player to perform out of his skin, which was one of MON's undoubted strengths.

As for "toe curlingly embarrasing interviews",  I remember MON's analysis during international tournaments which were memorable not only for their insight but their humour, which was remarked upon in this forum both before and after MON became Villa manager, so I think you're way off there, to be frank.

[rob_bridge]

Anyway, to my mind i've always seen him as a Brian Clough - Without the talent or charisma.

He hasn't got a fraction of Clough's footballing knowledge and his attempts at wit in interviews are toe curlingly embarrasing.

Certainly not the talent but not sure about the charisma.  It takes more than calling people by their first names to get people fawning over him like MON did and you need a certain something to get an average player to perform out of his skin, which was one of MON's undoubted strengths.

As for "toe curlingly embarrasing interviews",  I remember MON's analysis during international tournaments which were memorable not only for their insight but their humour, which was remarked upon in this forum both before and after MON became Villa manager, so I think you're way off there, to be frank.

This - for all the crap he left us in I'd say along with Lee Dixon and Gary Neville and probably Keane as well (for entertainment) he is one of the few pundits who could spot and articulate specific points.

Compare this to Lawrenson, Hansen and Shearer - the beebs major tournament coverage is poorer without him.

[PaulTheVillan]

I like this video.

[eastie]

Anyway, to my mind i've always seen him as a Brian Clough - Without the talent or charisma.

He hasn't got a fraction of Clough's footballing knowledge and his attempts at wit in interviews are toe curlingly embarrasing.

Certainly not the talent but not sure about the charisma.  It takes more than calling people by their first names to get people fawning over him like MON did and you need a certain something to get an average player to perform out of his skin, which was one of MON's undoubted strengths.

As for "toe curlingly embarrasing interviews",  I remember MON's analysis during international tournaments which were memorable not only for their insight but their humour, which was remarked upon in this forum both before and after MON became Villa manager, so I think you're way off there, to be frank.

This - for all the crap he left us in I'd say along with Lee Dixon and Gary Neville and probably Keane as well (for entertainment) he is one of the few pundits who could spot and articulate specific points.

Compare this to Lawrenson, Hansen and Shearer - the beebs major tournament coverage is poorer without him.

To be honest I think lee Dixon is an awful pundit .

[Concrete John]

I was chatting to a Sunderland fan last night in the pub, who says they are awful and a lot of them are not impressed with him.
Good point in that clip - we are still counting the cost of his tenure. Look at Spurz, started below us, old Harry took them passed us on a lower wage bill - got them into the CL and now they are still in good position. Us on the other hand....

For all the talk about 'could have been where Spurs are', let's not forget that we stopped spending while they carried on doing so.

[Irish villain]

I was chatting to a Sunderland fan last night in the pub, who says they are awful and a lot of them are not impressed with him.
Good point in that clip - we are still counting the cost of his tenure. Look at Spurz, started below us, old Harry took them passed us on a lower wage bill - got them into the CL and now they are still in good position. Us on the other hand....

For all the talk about 'could have been where Spurs are', let's not forget that we stopped spending while they carried on doing so.

Reminds me of that GT quote from 2002 that there are fundamental things wrong at villa that always stop it becoming a massive club when it coms close.

[brontebilly]

It aint going to end well for him at Sunderland. Dont think he has the heart for it anymore, Villa was his chance to make it big and I think he knows he blew it.
Not all bad and far from it. Very organised at set pieces, we could compete with the biggest clubs particularly away from home, Ashley Young, moving Milner to centre midfield, Gabby's development, he inherited a disaffected club as he put it and to be fair he made us competitive.

But as we all know it came at a cost. His laziness as a manager is his biggest fault and the joke of a yes minister entourage he surrounded himself with. Even Clough had a good number 2 for scouting players. We badly missed a David Dein type figure as Chief Executive during his reign but MON would never be one to admit his failings.
I was an enthusiastic backer of MON until the signing of Emile Heskey. We had Gareth Barry playing the football of his career in a 5 man midfield prior to that. The season after in the same position, he played the same side twice in the space of a week. I think Stoke was one with Cuellar at right back. It was over then for MON really.

[not3bad]

I was chatting to a Sunderland fan last night in the pub, who says they are awful and a lot of them are not impressed with him.
Good point in that clip - we are still counting the cost of his tenure. Look at Spurz, started below us, old Harry took them passed us on a lower wage bill - got them into the CL and now they are still in good position. Us on the other hand....

For all the talk about 'could have been where Spurs are', let's not forget that we stopped spending while they carried on doing so.

Would we have had to apply the brakes so hard if we'd been able to make that extra step and qualify for the Champins League?

[Ger Regan]

I was chatting to a Sunderland fan last night in the pub, who says they are awful and a lot of them are not impressed with him.
Good point in that clip - we are still counting the cost of his tenure. Look at Spurz, started below us, old Harry took them passed us on a lower wage bill - got them into the CL and now they are still in good position. Us on the other hand....

For all the talk about 'could have been where Spurs are', let's not forget that we stopped spending while they carried on doing so.

Within their means.

[David_Nab]

Regarding the defence a perfect example of his buying policy was Bouma being injured and us promptly buying Nicky Shorey from new relegated Reading..who lasted a handful of games before being dropped.As I recall he went and asked Sidwell if he was any good ..that was the grand total of his ''scouting '' network.Same with Beye we needed a RB and that was the best he could fine ..seriously.I also recall us being linked to Falcao now at Atheltico Madrid and him saying something like we will be looking closer to home ..we brought Heskey...

The irony of it is the one player who looks to be value for money and good for us long term is Guzan the one player he did buy from abroad !!Downing ,Young and Milner good buys but it's not like we plucked them from obscurity we paid top rate for them

I think the screw is turning on him now as his Sunderland spending has mirrored our own...what is it around £25mil on Fletcher and Johnson alone.Also there is this fabled ability of his to motivate players , I guess getting some average players paying them far more than their worth and give them loads of time off would help...

[pauliewalnuts]

I was chatting to a Sunderland fan last night in the pub, who says they are awful and a lot of them are not impressed with him.
Good point in that clip - we are still counting the cost of his tenure. Look at Spurz, started below us, old Harry took them passed us on a lower wage bill - got them into the CL and now they are still in good position. Us on the other hand....

For all the talk about 'could have been where Spurs are', let's not forget that we stopped spending while they carried on doing so.

Would we have had to apply the brakes so hard if we'd been able to make that extra step and qualify for the Champins League?

If we'd qualified for the CL we'd have lasted about as long in it as we did in the EL the last two times.

[Ger Regan]

If we'd qualified for the CL we'd have lasted about as long in it as we did in the EL the last two times.

Bang on. It would have been properly embarrassing, I think.

[itbrvilla]

I was chatting to a Sunderland fan last night in the pub, who says they are awful and a lot of them are not impressed with him.
Good point in that clip - we are still counting the cost of his tenure. Look at Spurz, started below us, old Harry took them passed us on a lower wage bill - got them into the CL and now they are still in good position. Us on the other hand....

Especially having players who kept or increased in value compared to our money down the drain players.

[Concrete John]

I was chatting to a Sunderland fan last night in the pub, who says they are awful and a lot of them are not impressed with him.
Good point in that clip - we are still counting the cost of his tenure. Look at Spurz, started below us, old Harry took them passed us on a lower wage bill - got them into the CL and now they are still in good position. Us on the other hand....

For all the talk about 'could have been where Spurs are', let's not forget that we stopped spending while they carried on doing so.

Would we have had to apply the brakes so hard if we'd been able to make that extra step and qualify for the Champins League?

Spurs had one season in the CL - does that really make a huge difference to their long term finances?