Would you have MON back!!

[Lambert and Payne]

Seems like a pointless thread in the fact that anyone who doesn't want him you disagree with completely and anyone who shows the slightest bit of praise towards him is a "brave lion". You may aswell just started off with and "and if you don't, your wrong". The fact that only about 5 people have said a catagorical yes speaks volumes
To answer the question, unsurprisingly its a no. He left us in the shit, and I genuinly believe he did it on purpose. He's still costing us money now with wages and the tribunal! The man has made us look like fools and given us a bad name. What "top name singings" did he bring in? Fair play to spotting AY but I can't remember a top name coming in. His signing grew painfully obvious and uninspiring. Much as I loved coker - 8 mill for someone receiving death threats from his own fans, desperate for the club to sell him and the club desperate to sell and we still paid too much! 4 million for harewood, playing at barnsley now. 10 mill for davies? I could go on but its all been said...

[Greg N'Ash]

No. Discounting the fact he's a tactical half-wit, and a treacherous bottler, he took an absolute fortune and got no higher than 6th. Something that most of the previous encumbants achieved or improved on with a fraction of the money. In the table of honours won and league positions reached in the last 30 years he's barely above DOL.

[Mister E]

No - he was the right manager at the time he came in, but definitely not now. His spiteful, flouncing departure shows a serious character flaw.

[Richard C]

Absolutely not, see above.

[Ads]

No. He's a bog eyed, gutless ******.

[pauliewalnuts]

There aren't many things we could do now to make ourselves look even more of a mess but humiliating ourselves and bringing back that selfish ****** would be one of them.

[Nelly]

No chance. Are we Villa or Martin O'Neill FC?

[jonzy85]

It won't happen, but it is a yes for me. Dream world stuff really.

But,

 I'm amazed that everyone still holds MON 100% to blame for his departure and Randy 0%. We dont know the details behind his decision, but what we do know now is that he took the club to arbitration for unfair dismissal and was awarded a sum of money. The matter wouldnt have got to that stage if he didny have a case, which means that Randy/the board did something which he (and an arbitrator) felt he could not continue. We can only speculate what that was, most likely transfer money. For the record, I think he was wrong to walk out, he should have stayed one more year. I just  dont get the vitriol levied at him, when Randy gets off scot free in most fans eyes.

 There will never be agreement about his time here, but some of the stuff posted is ridiculous. The fact is he did spend quite a lot of money, but what people seem to forget that he only spent an amount to try keep up with the big boys, not surpass them, which is what he did. To get to the next level we needed more investment. City have shown us this year the investment needed. We could talk all night about the individual signings and let people be as selective as they wish but the fact of the matter is as a whole his signings improved us greatly and brought us to the brink of Champions League football.

[PaulTheVillan]

No.

[PaulWinch again]

Not a chance.

[PeterWithesShin]

I agree they were good signings Holtenderinthesky, but my point is that GV claimed MoN should be considered as manager again partly because of his signings. Milner was an obvious one we would all have made after his loan spell. So that really leaves only AY as talent spotted and it was obvious he had something at Watford, fair play it was us who stumped up the cash.

But the amount we spunked on fees and wages under MoN far outweighs the profit we will make on those 2, or even 3 if we sell Downing.

(Milner was an obvious one we would all have made after his loan spell. So that really leaves only AY as talent spotted and it was obvious he had something at Watford, fair play it was us who stumped up the cash.)

It was so abvious that other scouts/pundits who may have been watching at the time didnt stick their neck out to sign him. Again the facts are that MON also saw the potential (as with AY) and signed him up before any other club manager.   And in the case of AY, remember when the 9 mill transfer fee was mention some on here (inc myself) questioned RL/MON paying such a high fee at the time. Guess who have now been proven to be right?

So we're agreed then, Milner needed no scouting as he'd already spent a year at the Villa, AY was an obvious talent and thanks to RL we had the money to pay for them. And as i've said, their profit will help recoup some of the money we lost on Sidwell, Davis, Harewood etc.
Or you can choose to ignore the millions we lost on dud signings and pretend their profit paid for Bent. You may prefer to look only at his 2 or 3 signings that we'd make a profit on, I prefer to look at the bigger picture.

[Greg N'Ash]

Milner is the only player MON signed who you can say we made a massive profit on. But then if DOL had the money we'd have probably have signed him earlier for half what we paid. Of the rest, Downing looks the only other one. Young, we'll be lucky to make 5m on him. Looking at our squad minus them 3, there's no-one bought in by MON who's a major asset.. Overall if you work out how much Cahill is worth now, then the whole MON period was a massive waste of resources, with nothing much to show a year later than old men, duds, Houllier's buys and our promising youth squad

[Villa'Zawg]

It won't happen, but it is a yes for me. Dream world stuff really.

But,

 I'm amazed that everyone still holds MON 100% to blame for his departure and Randy 0%. We dont know the details behind his decision, but what we do know now is that he took the club to arbitration for unfair dismissal and was awarded a sum of money. The matter wouldnt have got to that stage if he didny have a case, which means that Randy/the board did something which he (and an arbitrator) felt he could not continue. We can only speculate what that was, most likely transfer money. For the record, I think he was wrong to walk out, he should have stayed one more year. I just  dont get the vitriol levied at him, when Randy gets off scot free in most fans eyes.

 There will never be agreement about his time here, but some of the stuff posted is ridiculous. The fact is he did spend quite a lot of money, but what people seem to forget that he only spent an amount to try keep up with the big boys, not surpass them, which is what he did. To get to the next level we needed more investment. City have shown us this year the investment needed. We could talk all night about the individual signings and let people be as selective as they wish but the fact of the matter is as a whole his signings improved us greatly and brought us to the brink of Champions League football.

A calmly expressed and well-reasoned post.

I do find it surprising that so many people appear to know exactly what happened when O'Neill left and are unable to imagine any circumstances that might have made his position untenable.

[Villa'Zawg]

Milner is the only player MON signed who you can say we made a massive profit on. But then if DOL had the money we'd have probably have signed him earlier for half what we paid. Of the rest, Downing looks the only other one. Young, we'll be lucky to make 5m on him. Looking at our squad minus them 3, there's no-one bought in by MON who's a major asset.. Overall if you work out how much Cahill is worth now, then the whole MON period was a massive waste of resources, with nothing much to show a year later than old men, duds, Houllier's buys and our promising youth squad

Probably the best crop of youth players to come through at any club in recent years. It was about time someone mentioned his youth player legacy, I'm surprised it was you though ;-)

[adrenachrome]

For some reason, I am reminded of this Harry Enfield character.