O'Neill Rejects west ham interest!

[spangley1812]

I've seen it all now. You really know people have lost all sense of reality when they're comparing DOL favourably to MON. Yes he dropped us in it but you're making yourselves look a little silly by the rewriting of history. In case you hadn't noticed before MON arrived we were a bit shit.

Leave it Chris..........some people just do not get it at all..........they will still be blaming MON in 3 years time

[Jimbo]

Who's rewriting history? I've never questioned the fact that MON improved us with the many millions of pounds at his disposal (don't forget, he arrived at the same time as a certain, free-spending millionaire). I do not question that he is a fine motivator of the kind of average player that he likes to sign for lots of money and on huge wages in relation to their ability. I've already stated in this thread that he's the ideal choice for a team battling relegation - he will make a difference. Is he a titanic, self-obsessed dick with no regard whatsoever for Aston Villa? Yes, he's that too.

 

[Risso]

It frustrates me so much.

A wage to income percentage similar to that of Portsmouth 2 years ago.

£30million's worth of players stuck on long, very expensive contracts.

A manager who was asked to shift them before he was able to add to the squad as if the wage bill got any worse we'd be in serious trouble, not willing to do so. Before trying to force the board into buying more of his shit.

How can they put the blame on Randy ffs?

In all cases, the buck stops with the owner.  They agree what managers can spend on players and on wages.  Unless he's completely clueless, the wage bill shouldn't have come as a surprise to Randy.

[Eigentor]

In case you hadn't noticed before MON arrived we were a bit shit.

But then again MON had a lot of money to get things better. I don't agree with Mr. Kelly that MON is a joke, but I certainly believe that there are better managers around, and certainly managers who would have done better than MON considering the extremely benign circumstances he worked under.

Anyway, his reputation will always be stained because of the way he left us. His record is decent, but not much more. His methods work, to some extent, but he simply doesn't have the nous to get a Premier League team into the top four.

Also, as an aside, and as it never goes out of fashion to compare Houllier and MON: the former was employed at a Premiership club for five season, cannot (at least according to, and to the annoyance of, some) stop talking about them and clearly has some affinity for his former employers. What is MON's opinion of Villa? Of any of his former employers? Were they anything else than a vehicle to enhance his reputation and ego?

[Nev]

I've seen it all now. You really know people have lost all sense of reality when they're comparing DOL favourably to MON. Yes he dropped us in it but you're making yourselves look a little silly by the rewriting of history. In case you hadn't noticed before MON arrived we were a bit shit.

Leave it Chris..........some people just do not get it at all..........they will still be blaming MON in 3 years time

I'm afraid people will believe what they want to believe, as is their right.

[Chris Smith]

Yes, Randy spent a lot of money but a lot less than the owners of Spurs (who have also been doing it for longer) and it is therefore unreasonable to expect us to out perform them. We needed another couple of years at the same level of investment I reckon but he was't prepared to do it. I can understand why he did from a business point if view but from a football perspective we have taken a couple of steps backwards.

[pauliewalnuts]

MON did a decent job, in my opinion. Most of the rows about him on here tended to be between those who thought he did an excellent job and those in the 'decent but not amazing' camp. 

Of course he's a better manager than O'Leary but one area that does bear comparison is their best league placing.

Other thing i would add is that great managers leave a legacy. MON's legacy was turmoil

[Lizz]

If MON does to to West Ham, I reckon Karen Brady or someone else has played a master stroke [from the owners' perspective]. They've helped show him for what he is, let him know they're not averse to washing dirty linen in public and managed to tarnish his image. Apart from the possibility of keeping West Ham up, this is going to be one headline grabbing, page filling soap opera.

[OzVilla]

Have to agree with Mr Kelly to a certain degree. DOL was an unctuous tick, but he was nowhere near the dick that MON was. I don't think DOL would have committed the atrocity at Moscow (or Hamburg, by the way, which I wasted hundreds of pounds on, though the lapskause was nice), and neither would he have walked out the way MON did, leaving us in the shit. DOL had a geriatric Ellis to contend with, while MON had Randy's millions and all the freedom that came with it (until his policy of leaving millions on the bench began to snag). I would say that MON edges it in the charisma and intelligence stakes, but his vindictive, churlish and arrogant nature takes him above DOL in the all time top ten of Villa twats. 

DOL is without doubt THE most odious little runt ever to manage our club - MON doesn't even come close imo.

[Jimbo]

Fair enough, that's your opinion, but are we agreed that MON did more damage? And willfully so.

[seanthevillan]

Hayward is an awful journalist who unfortunately has the status to write whatever tired, biased piece he wants in the knowledge that he'll be employed. Should be confined to Sky's Sunday morning show, grandstanding with that moron Custis.

In that article he claims that Rick Parry missed out on appointing O'Neill when Houllier left, mysteriously ascribing this to the 'Politikburo era' - bet in Istanbul the year after Parry was really kicking himself about that one.

[Dave]

Hayward is an awful journalist who unfortunately has the status to write whatever tired, biased piece he wants in the knowledge that he'll be employed.

There's nothing biased about that piece.

It's just ignorant.

[Chris Smith]

Typical football fan stance, the writer having a different opinion makes him an "awful journalist". Hayward is actually a witty and intelligent reporter who writes well about a range of sports, one of the few around, in my opinion, who is worth reading even when I disagree with what he is saying.

[Nev]

Fair enough, that's your opinion, but are we agreed that MON did more damage? And willfully so.

No. The timing of his departure was shitty, but no-one knows the exact circumstances, other than vague comments from both parties regarding a failure to agree on the future direction of the club. One can speculate of course, as many have on here but I know of no evidence to back up the theory that MON deliberately tried to damage the club.

[seanthevillan]

Typical football fan stance, the writer having a different opinion makes him an "awful journalist". Hayward is actually a witty and intelligent reporter who writes well about a range of sports, one of the few around, in my opinion, who is worth reading even when I disagree with what he is saying.

Not a typical football fan stance - my opinion is based on his profession, or more specifically his lack of professionalism.

And in answer to Dave, his bias is pro-O'Neill, leading him to ignore the facts about his managerial career to spin this piece.