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

[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.

Lets not get carried away , yes we are a big club but there have been bigger jobs down the years than you have mentioned- we have won the league once in the last 100 years and fa cup once in the last 90 years .

Other clubs have come and gone, Wolves for example, but Villa, with the exception of a few blips, have always been there, or thereabouts, and always had the potential to return to the top.

Aston villa is a huge job but lets be honest-

There were far bigger jobs in the 60s , Liverpool, man utd, man city, Everton , spurs ,etc
There were bigger jobs in the 70s - Liverpool, arsenal, man utd, Leeds.
There were bigger jobs on the 80s - Man U, Everton, Liverpool, arsenal

's
I think you have just largely argued my point. Since the 1960's, and indeed earlier, there have only really been, until very recently, 3 consistently bigger jobs, or clubs, than Villa, Man United, Arsenal, and Liverpool (and Man United have dropped down a division in that period). The other teams you mention have had there moments, but at best have only really been jobs that were of similar stature to Villa.

[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?

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.

No. But there is adifference between failing and a failure to bring to fruition the full potential of the players at your disposal. Sir Brian I felt could have achieved more. SVC was obviously a factor but failure to achieve more than a one league cup would havee tarnished him in e eyes of others who may have considered him as a pitential manager. Also maybe others could have thought that he was inable to handle the big players. And a s for Big Ron, was he on his way down when he came to us? Not necessarily from sheff wed but from Man Utd. As for Ron saunders and tony barton...no arguments there but we are talking 30 years ago. A lot of water under the bridge sonce then and ourmanagers have not gone o. To bigger jobs because they failed at B6

[saunders_heroes]

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.

Lets not get carried away , yes we are a big club but there have been bigger jobs down the years than you have mentioned- we have won the league once in the last 100 years and fa cup once in the last 90 years .

Other clubs have come and gone, Wolves for example, but Villa, with the exception of a few blips, have always been there, or thereabouts, and always had the potential to return to the top.

We weren't there or thereabouts when we found ourselves in the third division.

We've never been out of the top division for long though. I think we've only spent 12 seasons out of the top flight of English football in our entire history. Not many teams can better that. In fact I think it's only one. Perhaps that's what he meant when he claimed we've always been "there or there abouts".

[TopDeck113]

We weren't there or thereabouts when we found ourselves in the third division.

For one season, and with 49000 attendances, not to mention beating a Man United team with Best, Law , and Charlton.

It was actually two.

[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.

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.

Lets not get carried away , yes we are a big club but there have been bigger jobs down the years than you have mentioned- we have won the league once in the last 100 years and fa cup once in the last 90 years .

Other clubs have come and gone, Wolves for example, but Villa, with the exception of a few blips, have always been there, or thereabouts, and always had the potential to return to the top.

Aston villa is a huge job but lets be honest-

There were far bigger jobs in the 60s , Liverpool, man utd, man city, Everton , spurs ,etc
There were bigger jobs in the 70s - Liverpool, arsenal, man utd, Leeds.
There were bigger jobs on the 80s - Man U, Everton, Liverpool, arsenal

's
I think you have just largely argued my point. Since the 1960's, and indeed earlier, there have only really been, until very recently, 3 consistently bigger jobs, or clubs, than Villa, Man United, Arsenal, and Liverpool (and Man United have dropped down a division in that period). The other teams you mention have had there moments, but at best have only really been jobs that were of similar stature to Villa.

Yes the villa job is a big job but I would say we are around the 6th biggest job at best and results , achievements etc over the last 50 years would testify to that .

The era when  we dominated football was long before any of us were born and well over 100 years ago.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

bbc.co.uk/football

Sunderland manager Martin O'Neill says his side are in a relegation battle after one win in their last 10 matches.

The Black Cats are one place and one point above the Premier League drop zone after a 2-1 defeat at Norwich.

"Until you get the requisite number of points I don't think that you can ever think anything else," said O'Neill.

"You need the points, it really is as simple as that. We haven't got enough points on the board at the minute and we have to rectify that."

O'Neill will have been in charge for a year this week and he masterminded some impressive results to steer the Stadium of Light club away from relegation after taking over from Steve Bruce last season.

"Our position in the league, with a couple of teams all tight together, would suggest we are in a fight," added O'Neill.

"It is a battle for us and we have to pull through - it was a battle last year and so I'm hoping the experience they have will stand them in good stead this season."

Norwich looked comfortable after Sebastien Bassong and Anthony Pilkington put them 2-0 up.

Craig Gardner pulled one back for the Black Cats and they piled on the pressure in the second half but failed to take their chances.

"To dominate the way we did in the second half is encouraging," said O'Neill.

"I said to the players at the end that if we perform like we did in the second half we will be fine. We are certainly not good enough to gift goals to teams and be able to turn that around. The top sides are able to do that but we are certainly not a top side."

[The Laughing Policeman]

^^^^^^^^^^ Typical Mon, talks a lot but says nothing.

[supertom]

If he lasts the season I'll be amazed.

[LeeB]

^^^^^^^^^^ Typical Mon, talks a lot but says nothing.

To quote James Brown:

"Just talking loud, and sayin' nuthin'"

[not3bad]

We've never been out of the top division for long though. I think we've only spent 12 seasons out of the top flight of English football in our entire history. Not many teams can better that. In fact I think it's only one.

Everton

[JUAN PABLO]

favourite to be sacked now .   

you know the weasle will resign before they get the chance to do it.

[Mazrim]

Teflon mon.

[N'ZMAV]

He'll walk out and make an excuse before Sunderland pull the trigger.

[JUAN PABLO]

He'll walk out and make an excuse before Sunderland pull the trigger.

I never got the funds

[JUAN PABLO]

Can he sell us Gardner first . 6 mths ago I would have said no bloody way , look to the future. 

but watching him yesterday I thought , I would love him in our midfielder , he looked good , come on MON swap for Dunne and Warnock.