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

[Greg N'Ash]

Surprised anyone has a good word to say about the man especially his devotees on here who invested hours defending him the last 3 years only to have him abandon them and shuffle off at the first sign of the money running out - thats gotta hurt to know he thinks that little of you. Forget Barry or Yorke, MON has set a new standard of self-interest and cowardice. Doug's final joke on us.

[stevenjos]

Surprised anyone has a good word to say about the man especially his devotees on here who invested hours defending him the last 3 years only to have him abandon them and shuffle off at the first sign of the money running out - thats gotta hurt to know he thinks that little of you. Forget Barry or Yorke, MON has set a new standard of self-interest and cowardice. Doug's final joke on us.

I like this

[PeterWithe]

I'll always have fond memories of him, he beat that lot at will and we had some fantastic victories at Man Utd, Liverpool and some great days out. Shame it ended the way it did but hey ho.

[Chico Hamilton III]

Some great MON memories.

Best one for me was being at the Emirates for his first game in charge. I still couldn't believe we'd got him at Villa.

Arsenal's first game at their soulless new mega-bowl, fantastic atmosphere created by the Villa fans, Arsenal fans staring enviously at the Villa fans' party, Olly scoring the first ever league goal at the new place, manic - absolutely manic celebrations when it went in, coming within a whisker of winning, glorious sunny day, pissed as a fart, Villa fans all over London. Thinking that we were at the start of something very special.

I don't imagine that gregnash could have fully appreciated the mood of the fans that day from his laptop

Not nearly up there with Taylor's last game at Everton, but a great day still

[Concrete John]

Surprised anyone has a good word to say about the man especially his devotees on here who invested hours defending him the last 3 years only to have him abandon them and shuffle off at the first sign of the money running out - thats gotta hurt to know he thinks that little of you. Forget Barry or Yorke, MON has set a new standard of self-interest and cowardice. Doug's final joke on us.

You know, it would be easy to just ignore this as the immature 'told you so' type of thing it is.  But as someone who defended our previous manager against what I saw as unfair criticism, I think doing so suggests we're hiding and that you're right.

I take nothing back that I have said in the past about his signings, his style of football or his 'success' as our manager.  I think he was doing most things right and had us on the right track and sincerely hope that a lot of what he has brought to the club is carried on by the new man.  Should he do that and add the parts we were missing, then we'll be a VERY big threat to the CL places.

As for him leaving us, I think the timing was awful and although I think there may be more to come out over the 'why', it has brought him down in my estimation.  But that's my opinion of him as a man, where as our usual debates are over his virtues as a football manager.  And in that respect my opinion has not changed.       

[Ger Regan]

Surprised anyone has a good word to say about the man especially his devotees on here who invested hours defending him the last 3 years only to have him abandon them and shuffle off at the first sign of the money running out - thats gotta hurt to know he thinks that little of you. Forget Barry or Yorke, MON has set a new standard of self-interest and cowardice. Doug's final joke on us.

Haha, I was surprisingly with you up until the final sentence, but you had to throw that grenade into the mix, didn't you!

[dave.woodhall]

Please do not feed the troll.

[garyfouroaks]

Some great MON memories.

Best one for me was being at the Emirates for his first game in charge. I still couldn't believe we'd got him at Villa.

Arsenal's first game at their soulless new mega-bowl, fantastic atmosphere created by the Villa fans, Arsenal fans staring enviously at the Villa fans' party, Olly scoring the first ever league goal at the new place, manic - absolutely manic celebrations when it went in, coming within a whisker of winning, glorious sunny day, pissed as a fart, Villa fans all over London. Thinking that we were at the start of something very special.

I don't imagine that gregnash could have fully appreciated the mood of the fans that day from his laptop

Not nearly up there with Taylor's last game at Everton, but a great day still

I too was there for that. Thanks Chico.

MON has delivered the best consecutive three league finishes of any Villa manager since WW2 ( the quirky Little/Gregory nexus rivalled it). None of us should forget that.

At Villa, our genorosity of spirit to departing managers and players is in notoriously short supply, and i share other's disastisfaction with the manner of MON's departure. But he delivered the goods in the League, the results prove that.

[Greg N'Ash]

He got 3 top 6 finishes spending more money than any previous manager, and more time than any manager since Saunders.  If Lerner handed him 80 odd million and asked him to make us a top 6 team then he was a success. My guess is Randy was expecting a bit more return for his money, i know i would be.

[jonzy85]

I am, like most, disappointed by the timing of MON's departure. I think he should have gone or been pushed in May, or stuck it out with the squad he built.

But in terms of memories, I think we have to thank him for getting us back challenging towards the top.

All these comparisons of our finishes since 1992 are a load of rubbish.

The league is completely different now, with CL places, more teams with multi-millionaire owners etc.

There was a time not too long ago when a newly promoted team like Ipswich could sneak into 5th.

MON, very quickly turned us from relegation candidates into European qualifiers. No one can deny that.

Yes he spent a lot of money, but to do the above he needed to. He inhereted a poor squad with virtually no sell on value that needed to be rebuilt.

We have seen other clubs throw money around and failing miserably, MON did not.

We came up just short on finishing 4th and that may well be his legacy. But I think to have got us as close as he did was some achievement.

[dorsetvillian]

I've been going regurlarly to the Villa since 1978 and still think MON has been one of the best managers I've seen at the club and he will certainly be a hard act to follow.

Despite the obvious frustrations with MON (Being stubborn, not playing a proper right back, not rotating the squad etc, etc)  I have always felt optimistic about Villa with him as manager.

I  certainly can't remember that being the case to often over the past 30 years.

[Phil from the upper holte]

For me the 5-1 against Small Heath

6-0 against Derby

3-1 Liverpool

3-0 Sheff utd

[DANNYG]

Thanks for the memories Martin and we had loads of them for once I had friends who were utd ,scouse and chelsea fans talking about villa as a force and how we had some great players , words which id never really had in quite a few years, for every match I was really full of excitement and anticipation and we really feared nobody....

He did bring the club forward in leaps and bounds all the haters can beleive that PR backed piece of shit the General and Randy put out all they like were now a midtable team as Randy has lost his bottle ....
The full truth will come out no doubt further down the line one day, anybody in the game who talks of  Martin or has played for him says hes a man of principle and in the end he obviously felt let down by the board and was told conflicting things about how the club goes forward ....yes he spent money but we had a billionaire owner and thats what clubs breaking in2 the top4 have to do spurs have spent bucket loads 2 get in there and wasted shit loads on crap signings aswell over the years but they finished 6 points above us thats how close it was last year .......

I think leaving now or 5 games makes no difference at all because if your leaving you just go thats it , all this leaving us in the shit talk goin on thats just an excuse to hate him more and blacken his name managers 99% of the time are sacked or step down leaving the club in the shit  what was he supposed to do play 10 games then step down after addressing his successor to his duties personally ....

But now we must march on and if this is a blessing in disguise then I think he did a great job on the whole and now to fully suppport the new guy in charge ....

well feel free to shoot me down now people after all this is a forum for peoples opinions and im glad ive got mine out there....Up the villa !

[Whiney MacWhineface]

Oh, and I don't recall a Villa side being anywhere near as robust away from home. This was excellent. If we could have matched that robustness at home he'd have cracked it.

[garyfouroaks]

He got 3 top 6 finishes spending more money than any previous manager, and more time than any manager since Saunders.  If Lerner handed him 80 odd million and asked him to make us a top 6 team then he was a success. My guess is Randy was expecting a bit more return for his money, i know i would be.

Last year Deloitte quote the following incomes for our competitors:Man U £268m,Arsenal £216m,Chelsea £199m,Liverpool £178m...............ours? Around £80m, so our income annually is £100m less as a minimum, than allof our top four rivals, excluding Man City who have spent over £200m in the transfer market, which puts MON's net spend into perspective.

Yes some money was wasted, yes his use of it was baffling at times, but the end result, the best consecutive three season top flight finish of any post WW2 manager is a matter of record.