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[Rip Van We Go Again]

I'm not knocking his achievement in reaching 4th and the Champions League. I just happen to hold the opinion that we would have done at least as well, given the same level of investment in the playing squad.

Nope.
O'Neill would not have made the same signings 'Arry has, overpriced British based players would not have propelled us to 4th. Certainly, the likes of Keane and McGeady wouldn't have (a snip at £18m)

[Drummond]

I like that I've turned signatures off.

[Villa'Zawg]

Whatever happened to your old signature? The one about somebody carrying on doing some job because he liked it.

I changed it at about the same time as you changed your opinion about how simple it was going to be for Villa to appoint a new top class manager.

What, you mean how I said we'd get a top-class manager and we promptly got one? I can't remember changing my opinion about that at all.

I was thinking more of when you were saying Randy has made sure he won't be caught by surprise if Martin leaves. Still, we're getting a bit off track here aren't we?

[Villa'Zawg]

I'm not knocking his achievement in reaching 4th and the Champions League. I just happen to hold the opinion that we would have done at least as well, given the same level of investment in the playing squad.

Nope.
O'Neill would not have made the same signings 'Arry has, overpriced British based players would not have propelled us to 4th. Certainly, the likes of Keane and McGeady wouldn't have (a snip at £18m)

and it is fine for you that you think that. I think we'd have had more than Keane and McGeady to choose from if we had spent another £120m.

[pauliewalnuts]

I'm not knocking his achievement in reaching 4th and the Champions League. I just happen to hold the opinion that we would have done at least as well, given the same level of investment in the playing squad.

Nope.
O'Neill would not have made the same signings 'Arry has, overpriced British based players would not have propelled us to 4th. Certainly, the likes of Keane and McGeady wouldn't have (a snip at £18m)

and it is fine for you that you think that. I think we'd have had more than Keane and McGeady to choose from if we had spent another £120m.

If Martin had spent another 120m ( as this seems to be your accepted relevant figure), he'd have spent it on a dozen players of the quality of Keane and McGeady.

As you can only play 11 at once, that would have got us no further forward.

[dave.woodhall]

I was thinking more of when you were saying Randy has made sure he won't be caught by surprise if Martin leaves. Still, we're getting a bit off track here aren't we?

Yes, I must admit I was a bit wrong there. I, like Randy no doubt, thought the previous manager had a bit more decency than to walk out at the most inconvenient time, a short while after saying he had no intention of leaving. Still, you live and learn.

[Villa'Zawg]

I was thinking more of when you were saying Randy has made sure he won't be caught by surprise if Martin leaves. Still, we're getting a bit off track here aren't we?

Yes, I must admit I was a bit wrong there. I, like Randy no doubt, thought the previous manager had a bit more decency than to walk out at the most inconvenient time, a short while after saying he had no intention of leaving. Still, you live and learn.

If ever a situation called for a back him or sack him type approach, this was probably it. As you say, you live and learn.

[dave.woodhall]

I was thinking more of when you were saying Randy has made sure he won't be caught by surprise if Martin leaves. Still, we're getting a bit off track here aren't we?

Yes, I must admit I was a bit wrong there. I, like Randy no doubt, thought the previous manager had a bit more decency than to walk out at the most inconvenient time, a short while after saying he had no intention of leaving. Still, you live and learn.

If ever a situation called for a back him or sack him type approach, this was probably it. As you say, you live and learn.

Even though no-one wanted him sacked and only you have said he hadn't been backed enough.

[Villa'Zawg]

I was thinking more of when you were saying Randy has made sure he won't be caught by surprise if Martin leaves. Still, we're getting a bit off track here aren't we?

Yes, I must admit I was a bit wrong there. I, like Randy no doubt, thought the previous manager had a bit more decency than to walk out at the most inconvenient time, a short while after saying he had no intention of leaving. Still, you live and learn.

If ever a situation called for a back him or sack him type approach, this was probably it. As you say, you live and learn.

Even though no-one wanted him sacked and only you have said he hadn't been backed enough.

He was certainly backed in the past but that didn't seem to be happening this summer. I'm struggling to think of a single thing that happened to demonstrate he was been backed again.

[dave.woodhall]

What about those players you reckoned he was about to sign? And in any case, even if Randy didn't give another penny, he's still done more than he had to.

[Dave Cooper please]

So he had been backed more than any other Villa manager in living memory and at the first sign that Randy might want to see some return on his investment or some reassurances that high earning, non-playing wasters were going to be moved on, he walks?

Marvellous, such loyalty.

[pauliewalnuts]

Even if he felt he wasn't being backed, he could have shown more loyalty and - let's face it - gratitude for the 3m pounds a year to the club, and had the decency to handle his departure a bit better.

What was really so bad that he absolutely had to walk when he did?

The board have said that MON knew the situation at the start of the summer, and before, even, and agreed with the strategy on multiple occasions. He then met with the chairman and having given no warning that anything was wrong, walked out two days later.

Villadawg - the board say that is what happened. You're assuming other things happened to provoke it (and "assuming" is the right word, as we've not heard MON say anything thus far, so we don't even know if he'd disagree).

Given that, you're clearly suggesting the board are lying to us, aren't you?

Is that a fair assumption? Are they lying to us?

[Villa'Zawg]

each of the last 3 posts are saying it shouldn't have mattered whether they backed him further this summer or not. My earlier point was that I feel, given what had been going on leading up to the summer, they should have made the decision to either back him or sack him, one way or the other.

Paulie - I'm not assuming anything, I'm saying I still don't know why he resigned. As far as I know there hasn't been anything from the board more explicit that Randy's statement that he and O'Neill ‘no longer shared a common view as to how to move forward".  It seems as though the signs of that were there for some time before he announced his resignation.

I agree 100% that O'Neill knew the situation going into the summer. He had made comments himself about using the academy players and maybe even selling one of his star players. It may be that he decided to go back on that or decided that in fact he couldn't handle it. It may also be that something else happened, perhaps related to the Milner/Ireland deal that made his position untenable.

[Dave Cooper please]

each of the last 3 posts are saying it shouldn't have mattered whether they backed him further this summer or not. My earlier point was that I feel, given what had been going on leading up to the summer, they should have made the decision to either back him or sack him, one way or the other.

General K, on behalf of the board, has said that they would be backing him. They obviously didn't want to sack him or they would have done it well before MON resigned surely?
So, cards out, do you think the board are lying?

I agree 100% that O'Neill knew the situation going into the summer. He had made comments himself about using the academy players and maybe even selling one of his star players. It may be that he decided to go back on that or decided that in fact he couldn't handle it. It may also be that something else happened, perhaps related to the Milner/Ireland deal that made his position untenable.

Right, so you think that O'Neill knew the situation, and yet chose to fuck off anyway at the worst possible moment?

[Villa'Zawg]

Yes Dave that's right. He had known what the situation was regarding funding for some time and he fucked off.

So why assume that it was the situation regarding funding that caused him to fuck off, rather than some other issue that had suddenly emerged?