Was the General right to comment on O'Neill

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Also the fact remains that MON has said nothing bad about the club in his absence, so maybe they should take note of that.

As we all know, action speaks louder than words.

[Gregorys Boy]

Yes but in Martin's statement when leaving he made it clear what a great club he thought it was.  His problem seems to be with the people running the club, not the fans,  yet he hasn't even slaged them off, which makes MR HIGH OR MIGHTY'S remarks totally uncalled for.

And Dave please explain how MON did not do a fantastic.  The season before he took over we finished 16, was playing dire football, were a mess on and off the pitch, and would have been prime candiates for relegation if O'Leary and Ellis had of stayed.  From that we finished a very respectable eleveth in Martin's first season, followed by three top six finish's, during which we improved our points total and pushed hard for fourth.  Not to mention last season getting to the semi-final of one cup and the final of another and all this with a very small squad.  And as Holt rightly pointed out on Sunday he made the likes of Milner and Youngs stars who will make the club a big profit in the long run.  NOW ON WHAT PLANET IS THAT NOT DOING A GOOD JOB!!!

Did the guy make mistakes yes, was there a case for saying he had taken us as far as he could, maybe.  But the fact is we had a good thing going under him, and may struggle to get someone who can match that.  Yes the guy walked out, but that should not change what he did while her.

[dave.woodhall]

Yes but in Martin's statement when leaving he made it clear what a great club he thought it was.  His problem seems to be with the people running the club, not the fans,  yet he hasn't even slaged them off, which makes MR HIGH OR MIGHTY'S remarks totally uncalled for.

And who might you be referring to?

[not3bad]

Maybe Martin had forced the board to change their minds before (maybe by threatening to resign), thought he could do it again, wasn't able to and backed himself into a corner.

Maybe it'll come out that MON has threatened to resign loads of times before but this time the board actually called his bluff.

Now who else has that happened to! 

[dave.woodhall]

Maybe Martin had forced the board to change their minds before (maybe by threatening to resign), thought he could do it again, wasn't able to and backed himself into a corner.

Maybe it'll come out that MON has threatened to resign loads of times before but this time the board actually called his bluff.

Now who else has that happened to! 

That thought struck me as well.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Yes but in Martin's statement when leaving he made it clear what a great club he thought it was.

He was hardly going to say he'd spent the last 4 years managing a crap club. He's Martin O'Neill, one of the best managers in the game.

[Gregorys Boy]

Thats not the point, the point is he has done nothing to deserve the attack from the club.  Don't forget plenty of managers would have had a swipe in the press.

[old man villa fan]

I would rather have the General posting his comments direct on this site or on others rather than issuing a statement or giving interviews to the press.  At least we get all of his comments rather than the press omitting some words to make it sound completely different.  The press are very good at carving up interviews and carefully selecting a few quotes to make an article with some sensational headline.

[KevinGage]

  The season before he took over we finished 16, was playing dire football, were a mess on and off the pitch, and would have been prime candiates for relegation if O'Leary and Ellis had of stayed.  From that we finished a very respectable eleveth in Martin's first season, followed by three top six finish's, during which we improved our points total and pushed hard for fourth.  Not to mention last season getting to the semi-final of one cup and the final of another and all this with a very small squad.  And as Holt rightly pointed out on Sunday he made the likes of Milner and Youngs stars who will make the club a big profit in the long run.  NOW ON WHAT PLANET IS THAT NOT DOING A GOOD JOB!!!

It might be a good/ decent job -and that's been generous. Delivering parity with the JG years (are you JG's sprog by any chance? that would explain a lot) would be about par I'd say, or slightly under with the level of investment and backing given.

But a fantastic job? No.  And you revised that yourself in your later post, so you must have known you were on shaky ground with that one.

Also: Small squad?  Well, yeah I guess if you do ostracise a fair chunk of them the numbers start to dwindle.

For you to even use that lame O'Dreary era excuse four years after MON rocked up and with countless millions spent says it all really.

[dave.woodhall]

After four years of O'Neill a not-too-bright reporter said to me last week, "How can you hope to get Martin Jol when Fulham couldn't?" It may or may not be relevant.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Thats not the point, the point is he has done nothing to deserve the attack from the club.  Don't forget plenty of managers would have had a swipe in the press.

Martin got his punches in first. As I said earlier, action speaks louder than words.

[old man villa fan]

Thats not the point, the point is he has done nothing to deserve the attack from the club.  Don't forget plenty of managers would have had a swipe in the press.

What else could MON have said that the press hadn't already presented as his side of the events.  At least with the comments being from the media rather than his own quotes, he can always distance himself from them in the future.  I suppose he could always have come out and said essentially what the General said but he wouldn't do that, would he.

The results that he achieved as manager are on record and nobody can deny that.  If the facts that the General outlined in his comments are true, I would hardly call that an attack on the manager.  An attack on MON would have been far stronger than what was said.

Hiding the truth, if that was what was said by the General, either for what MON had achieved previously or for the so called dignity of the club would not have been fair on the supporters.  Bottom line is, supporters want to see what goes on on the pitch and know what goes on behind the scenes so that they can make up their own minds on the rights and wrongs.  the club has to try and satisfy the fans as without the support of the fans, there would be no club.

[Gregorys Boy]

Thats not fair, how can someone saying nothing be classed as an attack.  Have you ever considered that this idea of Martin thinking he was bigger than the club is just rubbish made up by the club to defend itself.

As for the other point, its not like O'Neill was thinking the job was done.  I am not saying we should settle for top six forever, but I don't get how anyone can see three sixth places, plus a semi-final final and final of a cup, and a ever improving team in four seasons as not being good going.  Four years isn't a long time you know.  The guy had a long term vision, which included the Champions League, but unless you have the sort of money City have [and even then its not for certain] then you have to except that these things take time.

You can't really compear this with the Gregory era, it was much easily to compete with the big four back then.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Thats not fair, how can someone saying nothing be classed as an attack.

Third time..action speaks louder than words. Martin may have kept quiet and I don't blame him, leaving a club in limbo five days before the season kicks off and taking the 5 most important backroom staff with him is, in my book, an attack. A dirty one at that.

[Pongos hat2]

The messiahs followers are still at it.