Where's O'Neill Now?

[LeeB]

I have nothing much to contribute to this thread except my fervent hope that O'Neill gets raped by a herd of rhinoceroses.

That would be tremendous.

[Fergal]

How much of the money MoN spent was wasted? Including gross salaries for less than average players?

[dave.woodhall]

O'Neill certainly never spent more than 12 million on any one player, whereas our rivals for champions league places  were spending 15 million plus routinely.

That depends on your definition of rivals. Everton, Newcastle and even teams such as Blackburn and West Ham would all see themselves as in with a chance of top six and therefore our rivals during some or all of this period.

[Clampy]

How much of the money MoN spent was wasted? Including gross salaries for less than average players?

He did'nt buy bad players, we would'nt have finished in the top 6 three season's in a row otherwise. He just spent far far too much on those he did bring in. Warnock for £8m is the main example.

[eastie]

Interestingly looking at that website we are the 6th highest spenders since the premiership began and under randy the 4th highest spenders after spurs overtook us last summer- seems results wise we haven't had value for money on the overall outlay.

[TheSandman]

I have nothing much to contribute to this thread except my fervent hope that O'Neill gets raped by a herd of rhinoceroses.

That would be tremendous.

I'd much rather he was strapped to a chair and made to read these circuitous and tedious Spurs-wage-bills-did-he-or-did-he-not-waste-Randy's-money arguments.

[freakypete]

ok i feel sorry for oneils wife being ill, but iv realitives in glasgow celtic fans too.he fell out with there board aswell, mon was a myth

[pauliewalnuts]

How much of the money MoN spent was wasted? Including gross salaries for less than average players?

He did'nt buy bad players, we would'nt have finished in the top 6 three season's in a row otherwise. He just spent far far too much on those he did bring in. Warnock for £8m is the main example.

He made some good purchases, the problem was that for every Milner, there were far too many Habib Beyes, Curtis Davies's, Nicky Shoreys and Emile Heskeys.

It was all a bit random, really, no inclination to look abroad, to try and get value for money, just shopping exclusively in the most expensive market, in the hope that you'd get away with it.

We're now seeing the downside of it, in terms of the wages being sapped away by some of the dross he bought.

I think that the best illustration of the problems with MON's transfer policy was that, when we really needed a striker, he went and bought Marlon Harewood.

Incidentally, I'm not having this "he's a shit manager" nonsense - he quite clearly isn't, not unless you've got a very strange definition of "shit manager".

I just think he's got certain limitations, and his particular limitations were in precisely the areas where you need to be really on the ball if you're going to go from being 6th to being 4th - and, no, whatever you say about how many points of fourth we were, it might have well as been 100 points.

Seeing how well Spurs have done in the CL makes me wonder what it'd have been like watching us in the same competition, playing his brand of football, and, to be honest, the answer is "embarassing" and "brief".

[eastie]

Not sure freaky, I remember him doing a lap of honour with Celtic scarf round his neck and getting  a standing ovation at his last game, it's on YouTube somewhere.

A lot of Celtic fans rate him 2nd only to jock stein- although he won things there whereas here he won nothing.

[PaulWinch again]

How much of the money MoN spent was wasted? Including gross salaries for less than average players?

He did'nt buy bad players, we would'nt have finished in the top 6 three season's in a row otherwise. He just spent far far too much on those he did bring in. Warnock for £8m is the main example.

He made some good purchases, the problem was that for every Milner, there were far too many Habib Beyes, Curtis Davies's, Nicky Shoreys and Emile Heskeys.

It was all a bit random, really, no inclination to look abroad, to try and get value for money, just shopping exclusively in the most expensive market, in the hope that you'd get away with it.

We're now seeing the downside of it, in terms of the wages being sapped away by some of the dross he bought.

I think that the best illustration of the problems with MON's transfer policy was that, when we really needed a striker, he went and bought Marlon Harewood.

I agree, and possibly more strange is that he clearly believed Harewood was worth signing and then barely ever played him. I'd love him to explain the logic behind that signing.

[freakypete]

he played players out of position. bought 4 centre halfes yet let cahill go...... enough said

[LeeB]

Not sure freaky, I remember him doing a lap of honour with Celtic scarf round his neck and getting  a standing ovation at his last game, it's on YouTube somewhere.

A lot of Celtic fans rate him 2nd only to jock stein- although he won things there whereas here he won nothing.

To me, he's second only to a very sweaty Jock Strap.

[pauliewalnuts]

How much of the money MoN spent was wasted? Including gross salaries for less than average players?

He did'nt buy bad players, we would'nt have finished in the top 6 three season's in a row otherwise. He just spent far far too much on those he did bring in. Warnock for £8m is the main example.

He made some good purchases, the problem was that for every Milner, there were far too many Habib Beyes, Curtis Davies's, Nicky Shoreys and Emile Heskeys.

It was all a bit random, really, no inclination to look abroad, to try and get value for money, just shopping exclusively in the most expensive market, in the hope that you'd get away with it.

We're now seeing the downside of it, in terms of the wages being sapped away by some of the dross he bought.

I think that the best illustration of the problems with MON's transfer policy was that, when we really needed a striker, he went and bought Marlon Harewood.

I agree, and possibly more strange is that he clearly believed Harewood was worth signing and then barely ever played him. I'd love him to explain the logic behind that signing.

At this point, someone will say "Marlon did a job / didn't cost much / did his bit then was replaced by a better player".

I wonder what kind of "job" he did for the price of 4.5m plus, what, 25k a week for 3 years - that's more or less 10 million pounds. What a great investment that was.

[KevinGage]

Hindsight being 20/20 vision and all that, but Cahill, Ridgewell, Davis and Gardner have all gone on to have decent careers too.

Not many wept when most of those departed, it's true. But it's hard to make a genuine argument that the players who kept them out of the side (or replaced them altogether) were drastically superior, despite the huge outlay.

[Villa'Zawg]

You doubt that Man City spent more than Villa over the course of Martin O'Neill's time at Villa?

Yes. Now prove it.

Would you care to explain why you don't think Man City spent more?

I don't have to; I don't know either way although the posts above do seem to provide some evidence. You, on the other hand, are quick to claim that Martin O'Neill was veritably impoverished, but can't actually prove it.

I didn't claim anything of the sort, I merely said people should look at the facts.

And the facts are........?

Pieces of information about real events that have happened or circumstances that exist.