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

[Concrete John]

The Chelsea away 4-4 game on boxing day a few years ago.  Sheer magic!

[luke95]

Average out all our seasons final finishing place over 20 years & it'll be a lot closer to 9th/10th than 5th ....

Do it then, and then do it for every other club and tell me who's better than us. And if you want to be pedantic it's four times bottom half in the Premier League, compared to nine top sixes.

Like i said we'll agree to differ.

whichever way you look at it more often than not over the last 20 years 4/5/6 or more clubs have finished above us in the league table each season .

[Pat McMahon]

Loads of positives for me:

1. The sheer anticipation and excitement when he was appointed. It was the first day of a holiday for me and capped a great feeling of leaving work for 10 days.
2. 2 weeks later watching our team of Dolly's ne'er do wells hold on for a 1-1 draw at the Emurates. And Mellberg scoring the first proper goal there, not an Arsenal player.
3. His record in local derbies. Obviously the creme de la creme was the 5-1, though Chico won the lottery with that one as I had to drive whilst he popped 4 cans on the route back to London. I'm sure I paid the petrol too...
4. Three consecutive top 6 finishes.
5. Our away form - as good as it's been in the top flight in my life
6. Becoming a really tough team to beat and opposing fans fearing us.
7. Knowing that we could actually beat anybody on our day. Who was our last manager to record wins over Liverpool, Man Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea? (genuine question, not rhetorical)
8. Getting us to Wembley twice, a ground we have graced far too infrequently in my life time. And in my opinion, putting in decent performances in both games.
9. Having a team spirit that could keep us going to the end - I have cracking memories of the 2nd half performances, with team and crowd pulling together, at home v Arsenal in both 2007 and 2008. And the sheer ecstacy of Zat Knight's equaliser was as good as I can remember feeling at a home draw.
10. Helping us to be viewed fondly by both the media and many neutrals. So many people have talked admiringly of the Villa to me in the past 4 years - and I've lived in London or Shanghai all that time.
11. Building a team which attracted the highest average crowds I can remember in my life.

I have a fear, hopefully unfounded, that we will be like those Charlton fans who were bemoaning the fact that Curbishley had hit a glass ceiling 5 years ago and now enjoy their away days to Trumpton FC.

If I ever meet him I will shake his hand and thank him for the above. Then ask him if that bastard Kenny Burns did handle the ball on the line at Villa Park in 1978 as Forest waltzed towards the title.

[Chico Hamilton III]

Chico won the lottery with that one as I had to drive whilst he popped 4 cans on the route back to London. I'm sure I paid the petrol too...

You did pay for the petrol. Although my hi-octane, 5-star, Stella-rised company all the way backl to the Smoke more than compensated you.

Reminds me, didn't David Gold overtake us in his Roller on the motorway on the way up for that game?

[Pat McMahon]

Chico won the lottery with that one as I had to drive whilst he popped 4 cans on the route back to London. I'm sure I paid the petrol too...

You did pay for the petrol. Although my hi-octane, 5-star, Stella-rised company all the way backl to the Smoke more than compensated you.

Reminds me, didn't David Gold overtake us in his Roller on the motorway on the way up for that game?

You're right, I had forgotten that. Shame we never saw him on the way back down as you could have chucked a can of Chico piss at him and melted his windscreen wipers.

[Ger Regan]

Like i said we'll agree to differ.

whichever way you look at it more often than not over the last 20 years 4/5/6 or more clubs have finished above us in the league table each season .

You can't name them, can you?

[mozza]

The dust has become to settle from his untimely departure for which he will be roundly criticised -

Without doubt he has taken us to the next level and almost, but not quite put silverware on the table-

More positive than negative memories in all honesty -

Highlights include that memorable 3-2 win at Goodison, for me the Moscow no show was the beginning
of the end -

Very much his own man which is admirable but blinkered in that he didn't appear to learn from errors let
alone admit to any -

Whilst his motivation skills have been widely applauded I have to wonder why he clearly had fallouts with
players who suffered the consequences till the day he left -

It's been four years with MON - the time has flown and so now has the man heralded by many as a 'messiah' -

Can't say I'm bothered with any explanation he might offer or pay any interest to any future position he takes up
in football, my attention will be fully focused on the immediate and future fortunes of our club       

       

[nick harper]

I think the phenomenal away record will stay in the memory for me. It's probably as long
ago as the championship season that I was confident we would get a result in pretty
much every away game we played.

Over four seasons and 76 league games, we only lost 22, and won just about everywhere but Chelsea.

[barrysleftfoot]

  Don't know why but that Everton game, when Ashley scored in the last minute is still one of my favourite Villa memories.

 Can argue until the cows come home about how good MON was, for Villa , and for himself, all i know is in the last 30 years he is only one of 2 managers who lifted the club immediately, shook us down, and made us think "We are Aston Villa, we are a big club, lets realise it and lets act on it".

  We ARE a big club, and sometimes we are a bit self-depreciating, time to act big, we have as good a squad as we have ever had, and regardless of what he has and has'nt bought, you have to thank MON for that.

  Thanks MON, i enjoyed the ride, and am looking foward to the next one.

[Rancid custard]

Our awesome record against the noses

Chelsea 4 - 4

Playing Arsenal off the pitch a few times

Getting results at Chelsea when everyone else never beat them

Breaking the Man utd Hex

Everton

A trip to Wembley

There was a sense of pride when he turned down the England job to stay with us too.

[Percy McCarthy]

Loads of positives for me:

1. The sheer anticipation and excitement when he was appointed. It was the first day of a holiday for me and capped a great feeling of leaving work for 10 days.
2. 2 weeks later watching our team of Dolly's ne'er do wells hold on for a 1-1 draw at the Emurates. And Mellberg scoring the first proper goal there, not an Arsenal player.
3. His record in local derbies. Obviously the creme de la creme was the 5-1, though Chico won the lottery with that one as I had to drive whilst he popped 4 cans on the route back to London. I'm sure I paid the petrol too...
4. Three consecutive top 6 finishes.
5. Our away form - as good as it's been in the top flight in my life
6. Becoming a really tough team to beat and opposing fans fearing us.
7. Knowing that we could actually beat anybody on our day. Who was our last manager to record wins over Liverpool, Man Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea? (genuine question, not rhetorical)
8. Getting us to Wembley twice, a ground we have graced far too infrequently in my life time. And in my opinion, putting in decent performances in both games.
9. Having a team spirit that could keep us going to the end - I have cracking memories of the 2nd half performances, with team and crowd pulling together, at home v Arsenal in both 2007 and 2008. And the sheer ecstacy of Zat Knight's equaliser was as good as I can remember feeling at a home draw.
10. Helping us to be viewed fondly by both the media and many neutrals. So many people have talked admiringly of the Villa to me in the past 4 years - and I've lived in London or Shanghai all that time.
11. Building a team which attracted the highest average crowds I can remember in my life.

I have a fear, hopefully unfounded, that we will be like those Charlton fans who were bemoaning the fact that Curbishley had hit a glass ceiling 5 years ago and now enjoy their away days to Trumpton FC.

If I ever meet him I will shake his hand and thank him for the above. Then ask him if that bastard Kenny Burns did handle the ball on the line at Villa Park in 1978 as Forest waltzed towards the title.

A fitting tribute Monsieur McMahon.

I really thought we could have made more progress this season so I'm disappointed he's gone. I think he should have embraced the challenging circumstances we find ourselves in because I believe he had the ability to do so. I suppose I'm more disappointed in him than anything else.

[PAKISTAN]

best memory easy peasy 5-1 against the scum .

[Meanwood Villa]

The 07/08 season will be an all-time favourite for me. We were banging them in for fun that year and it's very rare I've been able to say that about the Villa.
The Everton game 08/09 (or at least the last 30 seconds of it) I will be surprised and delighted if I ever feel that elation in a football stadium again

[frank]

The Everton game 08/09 (or at least the last 30 seconds of it) I will be surprised and delighted if I ever feel that elation in a football stadium again

MON's teams provided a few similar occasions - coming back against Reading and Blackburn in the cup games and Barry's equalising penalty in the 4-4 at Stamford Bridge, for example - though I agree with you that the Everton game was special. Even more than that, however, I'll remember the excitement and euphoria of his appointment and the heady weeks that followed. I just couldn't believe that this was happening to Aston Villa.

Like many others, I thought that he had achieved as much with us as he was ever likely to and would probably leave at the end of or during the coming season, but the appalling timing of his departure has lost him a lot of respect and affection. For a time it seemed that history might regard him as one of the great Villa managers and that will now not be the case, but he certainly gave us some great memories.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

Martin O'Neill's Aston Villa tenure: in pictures
A look back at the 58-year-old's reign at Villa Park over the past four seasons, in the wake of his resignation

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/gallery/2010/aug/09/aston-villa-martin-o-neill-gallery#/?picture=365589802&index=0