A Ship Without A Rudder

[not3bad]

The good thing about the club at the moment is that everyone seems to be pulling together in the same direction. Whilst to some that direction might appear to be backwards, sometimes you have to take a step back to take two steps forward.

The problem before seemed to be that there was MON, his little band of merry men, and his first 11, then there was the rest of the club. There was also another seeming problem, that despite MON's admirable results, he just didn't have a sustainable approach, neither financially nor technically.

The professionalism that is now endemic in almost every club in the premier league runs through every area of a club, clubs now have to be tightly run ships that utilise and maximise every single resource they have available to them to often just bring about survival, never mind success at the top. This is one reason why things are so tight this season, other clubs are now learning how to maximise their resources.

Whilst MON was good at many things, his flaws and shortcomings were just too costly for the overall structure of a modern premiership club. Overpriced, overpaid players, some of which he then ignored, a seeming reluctance to buy foreign players, not utilising his full squad, not maximising fitness, debatable training techniques, not developing a smoother transition between the reserve and senior squads, debatable tactical nous, etc. All in all I think MON was sailing against the prevailing wind of change in modern football. If he'd been able to adapt, to incorporate the new with the very good sound old principles and knowledge he had, then he could have been a great manager. But I always got the feeling that he stopped learning a few years ago and was too stubborn and set in his ways to change and so improve.

I think that now we once again have a united club that are all singing from the same hymn sheet and will be more integrated. We are certainly not a rudderless ship, for we have a targeted destination and a plan of how to get there, and it is indeed the best thought out route we could choose, though it  means going back on ourselves slightly to get to that route. Whilst some of the scenery was nice on the journey he took us upon, most people could see the rocks ahead lying just under the surface.
MON thought he was bigger than the ship, treated it's owners with contempt and almost stirred up a mutiny against himself by his actions to the crew, he didn't seem to care of course, for as many times before, he had his little escape pod for him and his close cohorts to escape in if things got troubled. And oh how he chose his moment to jump ship.

McDonald steadied the ship, Houllier has now come in to get us back on course, but it's a big job, for our results perhaps disguised how far off course we had been blown, and exactly how much damage was done below the waterline. Of course there are those that only see above the waterline, that only care about results, positions and the short term picture; draws, loses, lack of goals, injuries, etc. But the thing to remember is that unless things are sound under the waterline, everything will eventually come crashing down. I have confidence that within a couple of years we will be in sight of the promised land,  and that even if Captain Houllier doesn't take us all of the way there, he will get us most of the way there. 

Excellent post.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

Whilst MON was good at many things, his flaws and shortcomings were just too costly for the overall structure of a modern premiership club. Overpriced, overpaid players, some of which he then ignored, a seeming reluctance to buy foreign players, not utilising his full squad, not maximising fitness, debatable training techniques, not developing a smoother transition between the reserve and senior squads, debatable tactical nous, etc. All in all I think MON was sailing against the prevailing wind of change in modern football. If he'd been able to adapt, to incorporate the new with the very good sound old principles and knowledge he had, then he could have been a great manager. But I always got the feeling that he stopped learning a few years ago and was too stubborn and set in his ways to change and so improve.
 

Spot on.

[hawkeye]

Exactly as I see it Dribbler great post

[pauliewalnuts]

Whilst MON was good at many things, his flaws and shortcomings were just too costly for the overall structure of a modern premiership club. Overpriced, overpaid players, some of which he then ignored, a seeming reluctance to buy foreign players, not utilising his full squad, not maximising fitness, debatable training techniques, not developing a smoother transition between the reserve and senior squads, debatable tactical nous, etc. All in all I think MON was sailing against the prevailing wind of change in modern football. If he'd been able to adapt, to incorporate the new with the very good sound old principles and knowledge he had, then he could have been a great manager. But I always got the feeling that he stopped learning a few years ago and was too stubborn and set in his ways to change and so improve.
 

Spot on.

Agreed, excellently summed up, Dribblinho.

[davevillan]

MON was the right man at the time.
However, with his ways/methods, he had taken us as far as he could.
He also never had to deal with the major injuries we have atm, do people think, we would be that much better off this season with him, with the current injuries?
This time next season, with 2 transfer windows under his belt, with GH we will be back up challenging the top 4/6 again.
To those who wish he was still here, he has had more money then any Villa manager in history, dont you think that after 4 years and £120m to spend, when he did leave, should we have been left with a stronger squad then he left us with??