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

[pauliewalnuts]

Badly, but above us.

Not for long, looking at current form and upcoming fixtures.

[PeterWithesShin]

I wish MON was still here. I'd love to see Fletcher and Graham up front instead of Benteke and Weimann. And for only 4 times the cost of our strikers. The man is a genius.

[PaulWinch again]

If the dwarf does leave Sunderland, for whatever alleged reason, there will be those who would have him back at Villa Park.

I would. I could get used to going to Wembley twice a season and finishing 6th again after the current relegation battles and losing to lower league oppo in the cup.

Under the restraints of the regime as they are now, you can forget getting any of that with O'Neill in charge.

[PaulWinch again]

I wish MON was still here. I'd love to see Fletcher and Graham up front instead of Benteke and Weimann. And for only 4 times the cost of our strikers. The man is a genius.

Indeed it makes me shudder to think that if he was still in charge, Weimann would be elsewhere now after we'd released him for not being rubbish and British.

[The Man With A Stick]

Some mug would give him another chance.  I wouldn't even be surprised to see the idiots who run Cardiff sack Malky Mackay after getting them promoted and give O'Neill £50m to spend.  He could probably get three of his journeymen on board for that.

[Steve R]

....  He seems to have lost the enthusiasm which was a big part of his managerial style.

He seems to have lost his mystique, which was an even bigger part.

I doubt his ego would allow him to take a lower league job. It's hard to see anyone in the top flight coming in for him, even the Baggies have certain standards.

No doubt he'll take a break from football before ensuring that the next move is the right one, in customary O'Leary/McLeish style. But that will probably be it as far as management goes.

[KevinGage]

He's too good for football. 

But not, seemingly, good enough for Sunderland.

[stuart445]

I would. I could get used to going to Wembley twice a season and finishing 6th again after the current relegation battles and losing to lower league oppo in the cup.

Lovejoy you make it sound like we got to Wembley twice every season under him whereas i only recall it happening in one season and the other seasons not even bothering with the league cup maybe i am mistaken.  Maybe if we do get back into the Europa League in the future we could try and get o'neil back just so we can take it seriously and not surrender it as under o'neil we never put up a white flag against Hamburg and Moscow did we? 

[Dave]

Welcome back Stuart.

You've been missed on the Benteke thread 

[pauliewalnuts]

If the dwarf does leave Sunderland, for whatever alleged reason, there will be those who would have him back at Villa Park.

I would. I could get used to going to Wembley twice a season and finishing 6th again after the current relegation battles and losing to lower league oppo in the cup.

Yep, and it only cost about £150m, and i seem to remember the occasional fuck up to lower league oppositions in the cup under MON, too.

[eamonn]

I remember coming away from old trafford after we'd hammered them there, walking back to the car, and many of them couldn't wait for him to take over from sralix, positively gloating about how they were going to pinch him from us, as he'd never turn them down. We can but hope it's never too late!!!

It was hardly a hammering. A hard-fought one-nil win.
Fair dos though, he managed a Villa team to beat Yanited which is more than practically all of the last half a dozen or so did.

I think he had a core of young players at Villa and more that he was able to buy at a fair old premium who he set to play in his image and it worked well to a degree but was always going to have its limitations. He hasn't been able to replicate that at Sunderland despite positive early signs when taking over. It looks now as if it was merely the bounce of a new manager and his ways and time out of the game have combined rather badly to reflect a turgid side at the moment. I think SoccerHQ mentioned it, but when things are dull and insipid, the Stadium of Light is even a more depressing place to be than Villa Park. He'll have had his fair experience of both by the end of the season so whether jump or get pushed, I'd be surprised to still see him there next season.

Also, when I saw our second-half at home to Norwich this season, us down to ten men, I didn't think it would be eclipsed for awfulness but with the situation reversed and Sunderland having the extra man I think they managed to do so yesterday.

[pauliewalnuts]

I remember coming away from old trafford after we'd hammered them there, walking back to the car, and many of them couldn't wait for him to take over from sralix, positively gloating about how they were going to pinch him from us, as he'd never turn them down. We can but hope it's never too late!!!

It was hardly a hammering. A hard-fought one-nil win.
Fair dos though, he managed a Villa team to beat Yanited which is more than practically all of the last half a dozen or so did.

I think he had a core of young players at Villa and more that he was able to buy at a fair old premium who he set to play in his image and it worked well to a degree but was always going to have its limitations. He hasn't been able to replicate that at Sunderland despite positive early signs when taking over. It looks now as if it was merely the bounce of a new manager and his ways and time out of the game have combined rather badly to reflect a turgid side at the moment. I think SoccerHQ mentioned it, but when things are dull and insipid, the Stadium of Light is even a more depressing place to be than Villa Park. He'll have had his fair experience of both by the end of the season so whether jump or get pushed, I'd be surprised to still see him there next season.

Also, when I saw our second-half at home to Norwich this season, us down to ten men, I didn't think it would be eclipsed for awfulness but with the situation reversed and Sunderland having the extra man I think they managed to do so yesterday.

Spot on there, Eamonn.

[KevinGage]

One of the things that I remember most from MON's tenure at VP was that there were many, many times where we won or drew games when we didn't deserve it.  We all know that he's limited tactically & self opinionated but above all he's lucky.  I just hope his luck runs out sometime soon.

I sort of get what you mean. 

In the first season or two, it was perhaps asking for too much for us to control and boss games and see out victories against weaker sides with some kind of comfort.

The feeling was that the longer he was in the job and with a better calibre of player on the books, this would happen in time.  But we were still holding on for dear life in his fourth year, hacking the ball away like some desperate FA Cup minnow in the last few minutes. I'm not sure that would have changed had he been 5/6 years in the job.

That said, we played with a tenacity and resolution which has often been lacking since.  For an outdated manager  (and his approach definitely was more 80's) he did well to oversee 16+ league victories for 3 seasons on the bounce. There was a fair degree of excitement in the way we played at times too (even if we did lack variation). That illustrates to me that he still had something about him. And I wouldn't put it purely down to luck.  The money helped, sure.   But many clubs have spent large sums at different times and got nowhere near that.

I don't delight in his current misfortune .  His time with us was largely go-ahead and positive, though his leaving definitely soured that.   Managers (like players) have a shelf life though.  I think back to BFR's time at Coventry and -as much as most of us didn't want him potted in 1994- I'd have to concede Herbert probably got that one right.

[JUAN PABLO]

I wish MON was still here. I'd love to see Fletcher and Graham up front instead of Benteke and Weimann. And for only 4 times the cost of our strikers. The man is a genius.

Indeed it makes me shudder to think that if he was still in charge, Weimann would be elsewhere now after we'd released him for not being rubbish and British.

dont talk shit . Weimann would still be here with MON.






as right back               

[PaulTheVillan]

Weimann would have been sold to Bolton and we'd have signed Zamora.