The legacy of Martin O'Neill

[mark1968]

Au Revoir Mr Dummy Spitter!

The biggest thing at the club was your ego.

[Olneythelonely]

Au Revoir Mr Dummy Spitter!

The biggest thing at the club was your ego.

He left about a month ago.

[PaulTheVillan]

MON was exactly what the club needed.

After 2 years I fell out of love with him (boo hoo) and wouldn't have cared if he went.

I remember saying things along those lines on here and getting some strange responses. Actually I only ever remember Risso thinking along the same lines.

[Olneythelonely]

MON was exactly what the club needed.

After 2 years I fell out of love with him (boo hoo) and wouldn't have cared if he went.

I remember saying things along those lines on here and getting some strange responses. Actually I only ever remember Risso thinking along the same lines.

There were loads and loads of people wanting him out. I wasn't one of them, but I'm glad he's gone now.

[PaulTheVillan]

MON was exactly what the club needed.

After 2 years I fell out of love with him (boo hoo) and wouldn't have cared if he went.

I remember saying things along those lines on here and getting some strange responses. Actually I only ever remember Risso thinking along the same lines.

There were loads and loads of people wanting him out. I wasn't one of them, but I'm glad he's gone now.

Probably, like I said... I only ever remember Risso saying things along those lines too.

[pauliewalnuts]

MON was exactly what the club needed.

After 2 years I fell out of love with him (boo hoo) and wouldn't have cared if he went.

I remember saying things along those lines on here and getting some strange responses. Actually I only ever remember Risso thinking along the same lines.

There were loads and loads of people wanting him out. I wasn't one of them, but I'm glad he's gone now.

I don't think there were loads who wanted him out.

Risso, Malcolm, who else? Mark Fletcher.

There were plenty who didn't rate his football or think he'd take us any further, but acknowledged that he'd earned the right to try again.

[TimTheVillain]

MON was exactly what the club needed.

After 2 years I fell out of love with him (boo hoo) and wouldn't have cared if he went.

I remember saying things along those lines on here and getting some strange responses. Actually I only ever remember Risso thinking along the same lines.

There were loads and loads of people wanting him out. I wasn't one of them, but I'm glad he's gone now.

I don't think there were loads who wanted him out.

Risso, Malcolm, who else? Mark Fletcher.

There were plenty who didn't rate his football or think he'd take us any further, but acknowledged that he'd earned the right to try again.

Agree, not too many actually wanted him out, more so, to change the way the team played, not to alienate relativley expensive players and to act more in the transfer windows.

He was incredibly frustrating, but most took that as the way he was.

[Toronto Villa]

MON was exactly what the club needed.

After 2 years I fell out of love with him (boo hoo) and wouldn't have cared if he went.

I remember saying things along those lines on here and getting some strange responses. Actually I only ever remember Risso thinking along the same lines.

There were loads and loads of people wanting him out. I wasn't one of them, but I'm glad he's gone now.

I don't think there were loads who wanted him out.

Risso, Malcolm, who else? Mark Fletcher.

There were plenty who didn't rate his football or think he'd take us any further, but acknowledged that he'd earned the right to try again.

I agree. I was supporter of MON for the majority of his time here, but the last 6-9 months things became stale. I stated as you have indicated there, that like many I wasn't convinced anymore that he was the man to take us to that next level, but I will stand by my assertion he was exactly the right man to get us out of an almighty jam in 2006. He did a lot of good things at Villa, but he's soiled the sheets by the manner of his departure. I care about Villa much more than I will ever care about MON.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

The legacy of MON is fans willing to accept any old shit provided we win.

I think you'll find that 99% of football fans will put winning ahead of pretty football everytime. Clearly you and Tony Mowbray are in the other 1%.

Once again Chris you deliberately miss the point. If your definition of decent football is restricted to Mowbray, you really have little understanding of modern football. You really must have hated the West Ham game.

Exactly. The idea that somehow winning football and attractive football need to be different is exactly the attitude that has held England back for generations. From Hungary in '53 to the Germans in '10, English football has suffered from exactly the same deficiencies. Any notion that somehow possession is too risky a strategy to be a good one for winning, or that it's preferable to put in endless crosses in the vain hope that something will happen rather than crafting a move with a definite purpose, or that defenders should always hack it as far away as possible from their goal because passing is such a dangerous luxury - these notions were never right and now they're just laughable.

Except that isn't what Mark said. He suggested that Villa fans were somehow unique for putting a winning team ahead of a pretty team. Which is total bolloocks.

We all like to see great football but we prefer to see winning football.

What's total 'bolloocks' Chris, is your comment. Where did I mention us being unique? There was a time, not so long ago, when Villa fans would want to see both entertaining and winning football. Maybe the likes of the Rags, Stoke, Leicester and Bolton are willing to accept a win at any cost but I'd never have put Villa in that group.

[usav]

MON was exactly what the club needed.

After 2 years I fell out of love with him (boo hoo) and wouldn't have cared if he went.

I remember saying things along those lines on here and getting some strange responses. Actually I only ever remember Risso thinking along the same lines.

Ahem.

[CheeriOneill]

Does the fact that most of us are glad he left (if not the timing), have a touch of hatred towards him and are (in general) happy to welcome Gerard Who? into the club - answer the question?

Its hard to seperate legacy from feelings: -

I loved
I liked
I was confused
I was living a lie
I came to terms
I hated
I still do

[Chris Smith]

MON was exactly what the club needed.

After 2 years I fell out of love with him (boo hoo) and wouldn't have cared if he went.

I remember saying things along those lines on here and getting some strange responses. Actually I only ever remember Risso thinking along the same lines.

There were loads and loads of people wanting him out. I wasn't one of them, but I'm glad he's gone now.

I don't think there were loads who wanted him out.

Risso, Malcolm, who else? Mark Fletcher.

There were plenty who didn't rate his football or think he'd take us any further, but acknowledged that he'd earned the right to try again.

Ktvillain, Hawkeye, Everall, East19, Hilts...

[Concrete John]

To be fair to Hilts, he was more in the camp of 'get Mourinho in' than 'MON out'.  And all it would have taken was that phone call.....

[pauliewalnuts]

MON was exactly what the club needed.

After 2 years I fell out of love with him (boo hoo) and wouldn't have cared if he went.

I remember saying things along those lines on here and getting some strange responses. Actually I only ever remember Risso thinking along the same lines.

There were loads and loads of people wanting him out. I wasn't one of them, but I'm glad he's gone now.

I don't think there were loads who wanted him out.

Risso, Malcolm, who else? Mark Fletcher.

There were plenty who didn't rate his football or think he'd take us any further, but acknowledged that he'd earned the right to try again.

Ktvillain, Hawkeye, Everall, East19, Hilts...

Eight people.

Keep going and you might get enough to fill a second people carrier.

[Chris Smith]

The legacy of MON is fans willing to accept any old shit provided we win.

I think you'll find that 99% of football fans will put winning ahead of pretty football everytime. Clearly you and Tony Mowbray are in the other 1%.

Once again Chris you deliberately miss the point. If your definition of decent football is restricted to Mowbray, you really have little understanding of modern football. You really must have hated the West Ham game.

Exactly. The idea that somehow winning football and attractive football need to be different is exactly the attitude that has held England back for generations. From Hungary in '53 to the Germans in '10, English football has suffered from exactly the same deficiencies. Any notion that somehow possession is too risky a strategy to be a good one for winning, or that it's preferable to put in endless crosses in the vain hope that something will happen rather than crafting a move with a definite purpose, or that defenders should always hack it as far away as possible from their goal because passing is such a dangerous luxury - these notions were never right and now they're just laughable.

Except that isn't what Mark said. He suggested that Villa fans were somehow unique for putting a winning team ahead of a pretty team. Which is total bolloocks.

We all like to see great football but we prefer to see winning football.

What's total 'bolloocks' Chris, is your comment. Where did I mention us being unique? There was a time, not so long ago, when Villa fans would want to see both entertaining and winning football. Maybe the likes of the Rags, Stoke, Leicester and Bolton are willing to accept a win at any cost but I'd never have put Villa in that group.

Your first post was "The legacy of MON is fans willing to accept any old shit provided we win". Which is what all fans are like, with the "as long as win" being the important bit. The clubs you mention don't win all that often so isn't really relevant.

I'd put up with it if we won every week, MON hasn't made me like that being a football fan has.