In that alternative universe....

[SoccerHQ]

About 8th or 9th or so.

This squad wasn't going to manage top six this season (mind you, look at how mediocre Liverpool are and where they are right now and it makes you wonder), but there's no way we should have spent most of the season in the bottom six, which is Houllier's fault.

On the flip side, MON's striker solution being Robbie Keane rather than Darren Bent, god knows where the goals would have come from.

Yep agree with that.

We wouldn't have been as close to the top 4 as we'd have been in the previous two seasons, the home form would've probably remained the same as it has under Houllier ut I'm sure we would've won a few more away games under him given how good away we generally were under MON.

At the moment Everton are 7th but only 7 points clear of us which given how shite we've been shows how mediocre the league is below 6th. I'd imagine we'd be 7-8 points better off at least if MON had stayed so that looks a decent estimate.

Finishing 7th though 5 years into his reign would've lead to a mutual seperation at the end of the season anyway I'd have reckoned.

[SoccerHQ]

P.S Bent would've been brilliant in an MON team which would've got the ball forward more quickly and where the set piece delivery was better. He'd also have played next to Carew or Gabby so a lot of the build up play would've been their responsibility.

Always baffles me why he never seemed to go after DB as I reckon we would've finished 4th with him in the team last season instead of Heskey plodding around to little effect.

[cdbearsfan]

2007/8 60 pts
2008/9 62 pts
2009/10 64 pts
...2010/11 66 pts

If O'Neill had been given Ireland and the money Gerard spent in January we'd be challenging for top 4.

Are you suggesting that if we'd kept O'Neill we'd inevitably keep getting two more points every season for ever? I would have enjoyed those successive league titles from 2020 onwards.

If he'd had that much money to spend he would've purchased Keane and MacGeady and kept the change for a last-ditch unfathomable splurge on a fourth-choice right-back on £3,000,000-a-week.

[eamonn]

Got to be impressed with Villadawg's unwavering support for the man that could do no wrong.

[eamonn]

As to the question...there's no way MON would have stood for all those leads being thrown away. We would have been tough buggers to beat as usual, a few of the defeats would have been draws and a couple of the draws would have been wins. Meaning we would have been battling Everton for 7th. And we would have been cursing him for not giving Liverpool or Spurs runs for their money considering neither have been great shakes this season in the league (well Liverpool until Dalglish took over).

[cdbearsfan]

As to the question...there's no way MON would have stood for all those leads being thrown away. We would have been tough buggers to beat as usual, a few of the defeats would have been draws and a couple of the draws would have been wins. Meaning we would have been battling Everton for 7th. And we would have been cursing him for not giving Liverpool or Spurs runs for their money considering neither have been great shakes this season in the league (well Liverpool until Dalglish took over).

Fair enough, but you'd have to then say some of the wins might've been draws... West Ham and Wolves away for instance. I also don't think we'd have beaten Man City without the boost (and the goal) that signing Darren Bent brought. I can't see Robbie Keane having the same effect somehow.

It's all guesswork anyway. The only thing we can be sure of is we would DEFINITELY have won the league if that useless bastard Platt had scored that penalty against Wimbledon...

[KevinGage]

And Garry Parker hadn't missed that sitter v Norwich away in 1992/93.

We'd have had two league titles in 3 years, Fergiescum would have been history and everything in the world would be just dandy.

Still probably wouldn't have won the FA Cup mind.

[cdbearsfan]

We would've won the FA Cup if we'd been drawn to play Oldham on a football pitch rather than a massive tennis court.

[Mazrim]

I dont know where we'd be but judging by how lacklustre, disinterested and shabby we looked in pre season, players and manager, we'd probably have struggled so I cant imagine we'd be much better off, if at all.

There isnt a chance in hell we would have made the top 6. He wouldn't have bought Bent with the money Houllier had, more like Keane and McGeady.
Oh and he'd probably have given Carew a new £80k a week contract until he was 36.

If we're talking alternate Universe, Hiddink would have got the job when Randy took over and we'd have been in the Champions League a couple of times at least by now. Oh well.

[eamonn]

As to the question...there's no way MON would have stood for all those leads being thrown away. We would have been tough buggers to beat as usual, a few of the defeats would have been draws and a couple of the draws would have been wins. Meaning we would have been battling Everton for 7th. And we would have been cursing him for not giving Liverpool or Spurs runs for their money considering neither have been great shakes this season in the league (well Liverpool until Dalglish took over).

Fair enough, but you'd have to then say some of the wins might've been draws... West Ham and Wolves away for instance. I also don't think we'd have beaten Man City without the boost (and the goal) that signing Darren Bent brought. I can't see Robbie Keane having the same effect somehow.

It's all guesswork anyway. The only thing we can be sure of is we would DEFINITELY have won the league if that useless bastard Platt had scored that penalty against Wimbledon...

It depends how this alternate universe works. If it's MON from scratch at the start of the season none of the scenarios in games played-out this season which you have alluded to would have happened. (ie, the West Ham or Wolves matches are completely different where we wouldn't have needed last-gasp wins  cos they were the type of away games we usually won with MON, though we even had a few last-minute away wins under him aswell - that, er, Everton game, away to Hull a couple of weeks later etc.).

I concede that I don't think we would have beat Man City at home though. At best, I could imagine a performance similar to at home to Spurs last season. Get a scruffy early goal from a set-piece and spend the rest of the game defending. Actually not too different to this season but O'Neill wouldn't have had poacher-supreme Darren Bent in his ranks....

Christ, of all the futile exercises to do....I haven't thought about him for a while and still resent him for walking out on us but compared to this season, the gang mentality we had under MON, and  his calm sense of righteousness which seemed to foster respect among the press and fans of other teams is something I quite miss when I think of what's happened since.

[eamonn]

I dont know where we'd be but judging by how lacklustre, disinterested and shabby we looked in pre season, players and manager, we'd probably have struggled so I cant imagine we'd be much better off, if at all.

There isnt a chance in hell we would have made the top 6. He wouldn't have bought Bent with the money Houllier had, more like Keane and McGeady.
Oh and he'd probably have given Carew a new £80k a week contract until he was 36.

I don't buy that from you Maz. Come on, you're never anything but positive about the team and club. I'm not arsed trawling back through old posts but I'm sure a week before the season started you were confident that we'd at least do as well as last season and even after Milner going you would have been waxing lyrical at who we could buy with the money and how good Ireland could be.

You constantly talk us up and I'm glad you (and Chrismith to an extent) do because most of us are far too much the other way.

[Greg N'Ash]

top half and comfortable. anywhere from 6th downwards to 10th. no doubt we'd have another 3 or 4 duffers cluttering up the reserves and Dunne would be POTY.

[Villa'Zawg]

In that parallel universe…

Villa are on 61 points and with 3 games to go till the end of the season, are about to beat the Blues once again in our challenge to qualify for the Champions League. We’re on a run of 23 games in all competitions since the start of the year in which we’ve lost once in the league at Chelsea and two other games at Wembley to Man Utd and Chelsea in the League cup final and FA cup semi-final. Gabby has bagged himself 7 goals and John Carew has yet to score his 12th goal during that run from January to the end of the season.

Things are bad, really bad and nobody can quite believe how shit the manager is nor understand why we haven't got any strikers.

It’s a weird alternative universe.

[eamonn]

He doesn't deserve all your loving VD.

[Villa'Zawg]

He doesn't deserve all your loving VD.

I just like to throw a few pebbles onto the H&V scales of justice ;-)