5% Villa- Oliver Holt Interview

[Hopadop]

It does make more sense to me than the 'spiteful MON dropped us in the shit on purpose' arguments.

To me too, but I guess it depends on whether you were still an admirer of MON prior to his big flounce.

[Hopadop]

I do think that where he got it wrong was in the way other clubs have reacted to it. If he'd have left Villa at the end of the season before, he might have had a chance of a better job. Leaving when he did, he just made himself look a chequebook manager prone to petulant strops.

Maybe, but wouldn't he have known this?  Walking out on your club just before the season starts,  short of massively mitigating circumstances, isn't going to look good to anyone.  Not even his sycophants in the press could convincingly spin it.

He's not an idiot, he surely could see how it would play out.

I agree though, I can't see him at a club as big as Villa again. Rightly or wrongly his ship's sailed.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

I agree though, I can't see him at a club as big as Villa again. Rightly or wrongly his ship's sailed.

I wonder if he'll go down the O'Leary route, bleating to his press mates about how he's worthy of a job at a top Premier club.

Still think he could end up at Newcastle if they lose patience with Pardew.

[hilts_coolerking]

Still think he could end up at Newcastle if they lose patience with Pardew.

I don't know.  I don't think Ashley wants a big-spending manager up there.

[Greg N'Ash]

I think word has got around about him. A  manager who finished top6 3 times who can't get a job almost a year after resigning? Back to scotland is my bet, and the big fish in a small pond philosophy he thrives on - best he can hope for here is a mid-table job with an unfashionable club and i don't think he wants to do that again.

[KevinGage]

For those that still say we don't know why he walked out (and I notice a few on either side of the debate are of that opinion)  we've had the General say it was a wage bill issue right from the get go. Now at the time you could maybe take a 'well he would say that, wouldn't he' approach.

But with plenty of opportunity since to contradict that (via the media, via sympathetic Fleet Street pals and finally via a tribunal) MON hasn't. So are posters on here now putting themselves in a position to defend actions even he -serious litigator that he is- wouldn't?

I must say I find that a bit odd.

For my part, I don't have any difficulty in imaging that Paul Faulkner misjudged something and made O'Neill's position untenable. On that basis, until I learn more about what happened, I'm willing to give O'Neill the benefit of the doubt.

Priceless. Facts are sacred. Unless you feel it in your water.  I assume the 'until I learn more about what happened,' is code for 'until I hear something that gives my argument even a vague slither of credibility.' You could be waiting a while. But then that suits you, in a weird way. By that criteria, it's open ended enough to continue forever.

You've already demonstrated that you'll ignore facts when it suits, the General's quotes don't count apparently. Nor MON's. Nor Stephen Ireland's (the signing that was the straw which broke the camels back -only it turns out MON was more than OK with it). Or Bannan's.  What you have -and which is odd for someone with your tagline- actually sounds like faith, bordering on religious zeal. And no amount of facts can help you with that.

Just a shame this faith is in an individual who has long since left the club, rather than the club itself.

[Eigentor]

The wage bill was/is the issue. It was getting out of control, and that meant that we had to get someone off the wage bill before we could get someone new on it. In other words, sell before we could buy. So sell-to-buy didn't necessarily mean that we had to generate our transfer budget from player sales. If my understanding is correct, that is.

[Chris Smith]

The wage bill was/is the issue. It was getting out of control, and that meant that we had to get someone off the wage bill before we could get someone new on it. In other words, sell before we could buy. So sell-to-buy didn't necessarily mean that we had to generate our transfer budget from player sales. If my understanding is correct, that is.

However, in practice that is pretty much what we have been doing.

[TheTimVilla]

For someone who goes on so much about how "facts are sacred" you don't half stretch them. I've never said I know why he left. I know he did so at a time that could appear to have been inspired by malice, behaving in a way that caused maximum inconvenience. Why he did so is something I have no idea about. I've left it to others to infer that he did so because his working conditions had been made intolerable.

The "facts" you use in evidence are, indeed, compelling. Unfortunately for you, they undermine your case. When you're having to bring up the likes of Osbourne, Davies and Sidwell as evidence of the sort of economies that would make O'Neill's job impossible, you really are on dodgy ground. You missed out Salifou and a handful of reserves as well so I'll add them for you. Now let's look at the other side, namely Darren Bent. I would hardly say that such a purchase is the act of a club whose manager had been told he had to make so many economies he couldn't do his job properly. 

With regard to the Darren Bent purchase, I wonder how much of that was due to the fact that we were well on course for relegation as we simply weren't scoring enough goals? Therefore, the situation was different to last Summer and they HAD to gamble.

[VillaZogmariner]

MoN was a vainglorious egomaniac who thought he could call the bluff of Randy about the wage bill issue and that failed. And the way he left makes him a goatmilker in the same mould as that ferrous crankshaft Hodge. Nothing would satisfy me more than to shove a pineapple up his duplex flange. If he never got a job again I would find it splendiferous. As far as I'm concerned he is about as much use as a Tugboat in Dry Dock.

Oh, and have I mentioned I think he is a ******?

[Surrey Villain]

For someone who goes on so much about how "facts are sacred" you don't half stretch them. I've never said I know why he left. I know he did so at a time that could appear to have been inspired by malice, behaving in a way that caused maximum inconvenience. Why he did so is something I have no idea about. I've left it to others to infer that he did so because his working conditions had been made intolerable.

The "facts" you use in evidence are, indeed, compelling. Unfortunately for you, they undermine your case. When you're having to bring up the likes of Osbourne, Davies and Sidwell as evidence of the sort of economies that would make O'Neill's job impossible, you really are on dodgy ground. You missed out Salifou and a handful of reserves as well so I'll add them for you. Now let's look at the other side, namely Darren Bent. I would hardly say that such a purchase is the act of a club whose manager had been told he had to make so many economies he couldn't do his job properly. 

With regard to the Darren Bent purchase, I wonder how much of that was due to the fact that we were well on course for relegation as we simply weren't scoring enough goals? Therefore, the situation was different to last Summer and they HAD to gamble.

Absolutely!  If not exactly panic it was "oh shit we have to do something or we will be in deeper shit"!

[Lambert and Payne]

MoN was a vainglorious egomaniac who thought he could call the bluff of Randy about the wage bill issue and that failed. And the way he left makes him a goatmilker in the same mould as that ferrous crankshaft Hodge. Nothing would satisfy me more than to shove a pineapple up his duplex flange. If he never got a job again I would find it splendiferous. As far as I'm concerned he is about as much use as a Tugboat in Dry Dock.

Oh, and have I mentioned I think he is a c***?

So do you or do you not like him?

[Chris Smith]

In the rush to call him names people have not stopped to think what might have been behind MON walking out. Everyone wants to think the worst so that they can have a pantomime villain but don't appear curious as to what prompted it and why the LMA tribunal sided with him.

We're a club that sells our best player every year, maybe even 2 this summer, and have just resorted to tapping up the manager from a relegated side. Doesn't that get you thinking?

[Eigentor]

I'm not ruling out the possibility that MON could have a legitimate reason to be unhappy with the board. But I struggle to think that said reason would justify the decision to walk out on us at the worst possible time.

[Chris Smith]

I'm not ruling out the possibility that MON could have a legitimate reason to be unhappy with the board. But I struggle to think that said reason would justify the decision to walk out on us at the worst possible time.

It doesn't justify it but by concentrating on the timing we're not looking to see if there is a bigger issue.