O'Neill speaks

[Chris Harte]

Shouldn't the title of this thread be "O'Neill says fuck all"?

[sfx412]

as one of those who never bought the myth, who thought his departue typical of the man I see this part of the expected and inevitable rewrite of history he will need to have any hope of further work.
As Dave made clear in other threads those in the know know exactly what a shit O'Neill is.
So sad that even now so many still live the myth.

[pauliewalnuts]

  Love him or hate him he gets results.

That's what they say about Fat Sam.

[dave.woodhall]

Love him or hate him, we were moving in the right direction.

No we weren't.

[Archie]

Love him or hate him, we were moving in the right direction.

No we weren't.

100% Agree, unless one thinks that playing long balls tactics, snobbing the Europa League,  and throwing money for average players with high wages is moving in the right direction.

[pauliewalnuts]

Love him or hate him, we were moving in the right direction.

No we weren't.

100% Agree, unless one thinks that playing long balls tactics, snobbing the Europa League,  and throwing money for average players with high wages is moving in the right direction.

I was a frequent critic of the way we played under MON, especially the last two years, but I  don't think we played the long ball, that's a bit unfair on him.

What we did do - at home particularly - was play balls in from the wings almost exclusively, which in itself is like the long ball game because it too is a percentages game - just hit as many in as you can, and percentages say that you'll get someone on the end of enough, or enough of them will take a nick off someone to get results. If we weren't getting results from doing that, we'd just carry on regardless.

That was the problem for me, we were just so crushingly predictable. I appreciate our away results were excellent, where hitting on the break with speed worked well, but at home, for two whole years, it was horrible, uninspired, archaic football to watch.

I couldn't for the life of me see how a team who played that style was going to do any better than we did under him, there comes a point where you need tactical flexibility and nous to move to the next level, and I never really thought he had that. It says a lot that, four or five league games into the Houllier era, it still surprises me when I see us do things like make substitutions at times in the game other than 75 minutes, and the feeling of seeing a changed line up still seems odd.

I know a lot of the less-than-devoted-to-MON brigade actually disliked his personality too, but until he vindictively shat on us, I genuinely liked the bloke, i found it hard not to when he'd be there bouncing up and down on the touchline, I found him witty, erudite and very hard not to like.

The problem is that that is not enough, and whilst I think the long ball thing is unfair, I don't think the accusation that we played outmoded, predictable football from a different era is.

I certainly don't see how we were moving in the right direction - we finished sixth three years running, adding just two points total per year. That's not moving anywhere, it's staying where you are.

A few of us pointed out that whilst for supporters we might be seen as moving in the right direction, players see it differently and are staking a chunk of their careers on it.

I wonder if - topically - Ashley Young is thinking "well, I've been here for four years, for the last three we've stood still, this one has been written off due to managerial turmoil, do i really want to sign up for an extended stay"?

[WA Villan]

His obviously making the first tentative steps to protect and increase his mythical status. Look out Liverpool

[pauliewalnuts]

His obviously making the first tentative steps to protect and increase his mythical status. Look out Liverpool

I don't think he's even doing that.

That article looks like a few snatched words on a golf course, none of which was about Villa beyond "we had a disagreement".

[Brigada1874]

Fuck him he's in the past!

The futures bright..........................

[Rip Van We Go Again]

His obviously making the first tentative steps to protect and increase his mythical status. Look out Liverpool

The likes of Patrick Barclay at The Times will do that for him, the likes of him are regularly chowing down on his cock.

[JUAN PABLO]

As much of a knob I now think he is(I think we all loved him when he was here), fair play to him for not gobbing off about Villa.

I didnt  ;-)    Maybe the Golds will give him a call.....   thats his level

[robbo1874]

Loved o'Neill when he was at Villa. was very disappointed when he droped us in the shit and really thought we would struggle to replace him. I don't mind admitting that I might have been wrong about him although the results haven't been fantastic so far with Houllier on board, the football is a lot easier to watch and I don't think we've been doing to much wrong - Sunderland a case in point - decent football, plenty of chances, none of them taken, but all said and done a pretty good performance.

[villa for life]

didn't like him, glad he's gone, but unfortunately his myth is just going to be perpetuated now that we have fallen back to being a mid-table team rather than being a top six one. That's how outsiders will see it whereas of course if he'd done the decent thing and resigned a couple of months before, we would have been prepared for this season.

[pablopicasso_10]

didn't like him, glad he's gone, but unfortunately his myth is just going to be perpetuated now that we have fallen back to being a mid-table team rather than being a top six one. That's how outsiders will see it whereas of course if he'd done the decent thing and resigned a couple of months before, we would have been prepared for this season.

but then he ran the risk of someone else actually taking us forward and his media gained reputation would have taken a dent... as it is, he left us in the shit, so if we now drop below 6th, his wanker media mates will claim how brilliant o'neill was to get us "over achieving" and we were wrong not to spunk more money on crap like mcgeady (and in a seperate article, criticise other clubs for not balancing the books)...

thats why he left when he did... he is a vindictive self absorbed c*** of the highest order...

[Hammer]

Love him or hate him, we were moving in the right direction.

No we weren't.

100% Agree, unless one thinks that playing long balls tactics, snobbing the Europa League,  and throwing money for average players with high wages is moving in the right direction.

We were going in the right direction under O'Neill up to the 93rd minute of the Stoke home game in 08/09.  Then we plateaued. As long as the results were improving, then I could look past his faults. But his tactics and strategy got ruthlessly exposed.