Stephen Warnock

[olaftab]

No wonder we always ran out of gas in March.
Cant stand MON and will never forgive him for putting his ego above everyone else.Wanker.

Indeed, and we were openly known as a 60 minute team amongst opposition players.

[tony scott]

It makes you wonder what if, some promising games, Milner great player for us. Mon the ultimate let down, never be forgiven for legging it a week before the start of season. Whatever possessed him?

[The Left Side]

He shows a lot of love for the Villa when commentating.

[john e]

He’s the best pundit when it comes to analyzing the game for me

[VILLA MOLE]

No wonder Gabby downed tools after MON left .  He was made to train and lost his 4 day jollies here there and everywhere

[Somniloquism]

You're not taking O'Neill's side on this, are you... ?

Interesting that Milner questioned the lazy regime. 15 years on he's still playing. Maybe Gabby would be too if he hadn't been emboldened by Derry's Woody Allen to take the piss.

GA: "Boss, can I take an extra day off from training, I want to spend some time with the kids".
MON: "You are spending time with your kids? Best take the whole week off then."

[Nev]

He always comes across as reasonably balanced and well informed which, it has to be said, is something of a rarity.

As for MON, this shows how far behind the times he was and how personality and man management alone doesn't cut it anymore. See Gerrard. S

[Drummond]

No wonder Gabby downed tools after MON left .  He was made to train and lost his 4 day jollies here there and everywhere

Quite. O'Neill left such a shot show behind, timing, culture, attitudes. All wrong. Wanker.

[eamonn]

No doubt we all.kissed his arse at the time though, us fickle heroes and villains.

[brontebilly]

You're not taking O'Neill's side on this, are you... ?

Interesting that Milner questioned the lazy regime. 15 years on he's still playing. Maybe Gabby would be too if he hadn't been emboldened by Derry's Woody Allen to take the piss.

Long post alert!

I'm not a MON fan. He never moved with the times and so became yesterday's man very quickly. I found him a bit lazy at Villa and Ireland despite his Woody Allen/Brian Clough-isms. But it's a bit like in his time with Ireland when pundits like Keith Andrews at the time were complaining about his old school antics like picking the team an hour before kick off. Nobody complained when results were going well. Same for Villa really.

But let's look at the facts - is there any data backing  up the assertion that his teams always collapsed around March?
- Certainly in MONs last season 09/10, after his and our meltdown in that 7-1 hiding at Chelsea we won 5 of the next 6 to in my mind bring it down to a winner takes all game at Man City which ended our CL hopes.
- the previous season 08/09, the one we blew really, there was a collapse for sure but for me that was more a tactical one. The disastrous attempt to shoe horn Heskey into the team after his signing in January left our midfield exposed. That was the classic lazy MON signing.
- 07/08 - were we ever in contention for top 4? Liverpool finished 16 points above us in 4th so unlikely. Three losses in a row in March were followed up with three wins in a row in April including the 5-1 derby win. From memory I thought we played great football that season with 71 PL goals.

Asides
- Milner played the best football of his career under MON in 09/10 when he effectively replaced Gareth Barry in the centre of the park. He was nothing more than a utility player for club and country afterwards.
- Gabby also played his best football of his career under MON. The fact he barely tried a leg afterwards is surely his responsibility and nobody else's.
- maybe with the exception of Gareth Barry, and only maybe, did any of those players kick on again post MON? Milner and Young won medals elsewhere but declined as players Id argue. Downing flopped at Liverpool. Warnock ended up in the championship?
- MON certainly flounced out at a terrible time and was given far too much authority with his budget. But that was far from a bad team he left behind that Houllier spectacularly mismanaged. If MON had been allowed to spend the Milner money on a Darren Bent/Robbie Keane a few months earlier (avoiding complete duds like Ireland and Makoun in the process), that squad should have been capable of a similar finish again.

[PeterWithesShin]

07/08 We won 5 of the last 16
08/09 We won 3 of the last 15
09/10 We won 7 of the last 20

[Steve67]

No wonder the other manager’s coming in after O’Neill struggled so much to get the culture right and the likes of James Collins and Richard Dunne were such tools. Iirc

[brontebilly]

No wonder the other manager’s coming in after O’Neill struggled so much to get the culture right and the likes of James Collins and Richard Dunne were such tools. Iirc

The same James Collins that ripped up a short term contract Dean Smith gave him after he got injured. Playing PL football with West Ham until he was 35. Far superior defender that "concrete" Ron who replaced him from memory.

Dunne was a pisshead for sure. But was on the PL team of the year with us. We only started improving when McAllister put him back in the team.

[LeeB]

No wonder the other manager’s coming in after O’Neill struggled so much to get the culture right and the likes of James Collins and Richard Dunne were such tools. Iirc

I remember arguing back then that the reason Dunne and Collins had good records under O'Neill was beacuse they never moved from the edge of our box, and it wasn't sustainable with how football was changing.

Houllier was a massive twat but he recognised this and set about changing it, and no doubt those pair were put out by being pushed out of their comfort zone.

[SamTheMouse]

Under MON we played a lot like Dirty Leeds did against us the other day. It was obvious they were going to run out of steam well before the end.