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

[hawkeye]

He might well end up like Clough ending his final season as a manager taking his team down.

and waking up in a ditch nursing an empty bottle of scotch.

[eastie]

Interesting martin thinks things were gping well at aston villa-

By Brian McNally | 01/12/12 

Martin O’Neill is adamant he won’t be derailed by the flak he is facing at Sunderland and has declared: “I’m no quitter!”

The Black Cats boss is convinced he will make his critics eat their words by making a success of the Sunderland job over ­remaining two years of his contract, despite winning just two of his last 21 league games.

O’Neill heads to one of his former clubs, Norwich, today confident that he can ­transform the Black Cats fortunes.

He said: “Criticism is a major part of the game, so it doesn’t really concern me. You get it everywhere.

“It really doesn’t bother me. We need to win some games, but I don’t get ­worried.

“No one is immune to it. If Arsene Wenger – only last week – has been told for the second time in a year by his own fans that doesn’t know what he’s doing, I think we can all accept plenty of criticism.

“Harry Redknapp has been a great ­manager for a long time, but he’s not fooled by that.

“He has said himself that he’s not got a magic wand. Alex Ferguson doesn’t have a magic wand, believe it or not.

“He had a tough time for a number of years at Manchester United. He laughs himself at some of the signings he made in those days. He’s the greatest living manager in the game. And if Roberto Di Matteo can be the first manager to lose his job, having won the Champions League, let’s get a better sense about these things.

 

“I know what I’m capable of doing. History would tend to suggest I will pull it round. I’m pretty confident about things.”

And O’Neill delivered a stinging rebuke to the critics who he believes have wrongly branded him a quitter. He added: “I had five years at Wycombe, ­four-and-a-half years at Leicester, five years at Celtic, four years at Aston Villa. People say, ‘When things aren’t going so well, he tends to go.’ Well, that’s not actually true.

“If things weren’t going well at Aston Villa, I don’t know what was.

“A year into seeing the people here, they have a great passion for the club and that is mixed up with a lot of other emotions – ­blinding frustration and maybe annoyance that they’ve had a lot of false dawns. Nearly 40 years since we last won a trophy.

“I think it weighs on the fans, it’s not ­weighing on me. It’s been a long time. The main job here is to get a side that can compete in this league.

“There must be something wrong ­somewhere that a club of this size can’t go and really compete – and that’s what I want to do.

“I’m not looking for a five-year plan to do this. It will be somebody else’s task, if that’s the case. I want to do it in the term of my contract. I want to be successful, but I would like to do it because it’s the football club and it’s a major institution.

“Sometimes, even up here, I’m not sure people realise how big it is. It’s a great club. I believe I am more driven.

“It’s a blinding ambition to want to make this club successful.”

'Unbelievable': O'Neill is a top-class manager, insists Gardner

 

Defiant Craig Gardner fired a broadside at critics of Martin O’Neill’s Sunderland regime by insisting: “He’s not Superman – but he’s unbelievable!”

The Black Cats midfielder is adamant that there is no crisis at the Stadium of Light, despite Sunderland going to Norwich today having won just two of their last 21 league games. Gardner, who has played under O’Neill over a five-year period with Aston Villa and Sunderland, is confident his manager will soon silence the doubters.

Gardner said: “Everyone is jumping on the bandwagon – there are a lot of teams who are struggling for results.

“The gaffer has come in here with a massive expectation after what he did at Villa. But he needed time at Villa before taking the team to three successive sixth-place finishes... He has only been here a year.

“He’s not Superman – But he’s unbelievable. Everyone is behind him. He’s a top-class manager with a top-class squad.

“I think the criticism has been unfair. That’s football, but we need to win the games.

“We are not in a crisis – we are not bottom of the league , we are struggling. If we win three of the next six or seven, we will be fine.

“People have little digs at the manager but no one in the dressing room does. Everyone praises him.

“Everyone is raring to go but nobody is hiding and we will get out of this. We are a team of fighters.”

[Gareth]

He is correct, he isn't a quitter....he is a gutless, spiteful quitter

[OCD]

I've seen an interview with him where he said the only regret he had was what happened at Villa.

[KevinGage]

I saw that, you missed out the headline 'O'Neill needs to look beyond first-choice XI'.
Can you imagine how angry he is after spending years building up his media reputation as the Son of Clough, just to see it go down the pan in days. He even tried to rekindle the Clough link the other day in a press conference but the journo's weren't buying it. He'll obviously be in denial and stubbornly refuse to play any of the above mentioned players.

I can't see him lasting the season.

It's one of the traits he seems to have certainly picked up from Clough - kidology.  OBE didn't just overlook those not in his starting XI - he positively ignored them.  At the games, at the training ground, wherever.  The lesson being:  a first team place was everything. You didn't make the first XI = you didn't exist.

The modern game just doesn't operate that way though, subs are as important (maybe sometimes more important) than those starting the match.  And keeping a whole squad of players motivated, involved and keen is not optional, it's a necessity.

It's always bugged me that he picked up on some of the weird and contrary ways of his mentor and not some of his more worthy beliefs, like football being played on the deck and not in the clouds.

 

[Rancid custard]

He might well end up like Clough ending his final season as a manager taking his team down.

and waking up in a ditch nursing an empty bottle of scotch.

Coffee Spat!

[Jarpie]

I saw that, you missed out the headline 'O'Neill needs to look beyond first-choice XI'.
Can you imagine how angry he is after spending years building up his media reputation as the Son of Clough, just to see it go down the pan in days. He even tried to rekindle the Clough link the other day in a press conference but the journo's weren't buying it. He'll obviously be in denial and stubbornly refuse to play any of the above mentioned players.

I can't see him lasting the season.

It's one of the traits he seems to have certainly picked up from Clough - kidology.  OBE didn't just overlook those not in his starting XI - he positively ignored them.  At the games, at the training ground, wherever.  The lesson being:  a first team place was everything. You didn't make the first XI = you didn't exist.

The modern game just doesn't operate that way though, subs are as important (maybe sometimes more important) than those starting the match.  And keeping a whole squad of players motivated, involved and keen is not optional, it's a necessity.

It's always bugged me that he picked up on some of the weird and contrary ways of his mentor and not some of his more worthy beliefs, like football being played on the deck and not in the clouds.

This is just spot on, completely agree with this.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

MON will soon be one of yesterdays men. He will either finish up unemployable ( like O'Leary, which I am glad about) or slowly sliding down the league structure managing non league in front of a few hundred (like Brian Little, which I am not glad about).
What all managers should realise when they get the Villa job, it will more likely than not be the biggest and best job they will ever have.

[Rigadon]

MON will soon be one of yesterdays men. He will either finish up unemployable ( like O'Leary, which I am glad about) or slowly sliding down the league structure managing non league in front of a few hundred (like Brian Little, which I am not glad about).
What all managers should realise when they get the Villa job, it will more likely than not be the biggest and best job they will ever have.

It's a very good point.  How many Villa managers have gone on to a bigger job?  Taylor to Ingerland is the only one I can think of. 

[eastie]

MON will soon be one of yesterdays men. He will either finish up unemployable ( like O'Leary, which I am glad about) or slowly sliding down the league structure managing non league in front of a few hundred (like Brian Little, which I am not glad about).
What all managers should realise when they get the Villa job, it will more likely than not be the biggest and best job they will ever have.

It's a very good point.  How many Villa managers have gone on to a bigger job?  Taylor to Ingerland is the only one I can think of. 

Joe mercer didn't do too badly.neither did tommy Docherty eventually.

[johnc]

MON will soon be one of yesterdays men. He will either finish up unemployable ( like O'Leary, which I am glad about) or slowly sliding down the league structure managing non league in front of a few hundred (like Brian Little, which I am not glad about).
What all managers should realise when they get the Villa job, it will more likely than not be the biggest and best job they will ever have.

Is that because they invariably fail and none of the "bigger and better clubs" see them as a potential manager?

[mal]

MON will soon be one of yesterdays men. He will either finish up unemployable ( like O'Leary, which I am glad about) or slowly sliding down the league structure managing non league in front of a few hundred (like Brian Little, which I am not glad about).
What all managers should realise when they get the Villa job, it will more likely than not be the biggest and best job they will ever have.

It's a very good point.  How many Villa managers have gone on to a bigger job?  Taylor to Ingerland is the only one I can think of. 

Joe mercer didn't do too badly.neither did tommy Docherty eventually.

That's true. Docherty took all he had learnt at Villa and applied it in the same way at a whole host of other clubs, including Manchester United as Ron Atkinson once famously pointed out.

[silhillvilla]

Sunderland lose, Norwich up to 12th !

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

MON will soon be one of yesterdays men. He will either finish up unemployable ( like O'Leary, which I am glad about) or slowly sliding down the league structure managing non league in front of a few hundred (like Brian Little, which I am not glad about).
What all managers should realise when they get the Villa job, it will more likely than not be the biggest and best job they will ever have.

Is that because they invariably fail and none of the "bigger and better clubs" see them as a potential manager?

Ron Saunders and Tony Barton didn't fail. Ron Atkinson and Brian Little also both won silverware with Villa. There's four non failures for starters.

[maidstonevillain]

MON will soon be one of yesterdays men. He will either finish up unemployable ( like O'Leary, which I am glad about) or slowly sliding down the league structure managing non league in front of a few hundred (like Brian Little, which I am not glad about).
What all managers should realise when they get the Villa job, it will more likely than not be the biggest and best job they will ever have.

Is that because they invariably fail and none of the "bigger and better clubs" see them as a potential manager?

It has been to a large extent because for much of Villas history there have been fewer , even no, bigger jobs.

Perhaps only Arsenal up until the 60's.
Then, Man United after the mid 60's, and then Liverpool from the 70's.
Only recently have we fallen well down the pecking order. as we have been overtaken by Spurs, Chelsea, and then Man City.