5% Villa- Oliver Holt Interview

[Villa'Zawg]

Don't care what anyone says. I had it on good authority that dalglish wanted him and had talked to him, and then he was railroaded by the yanks and MON got left out in the cold. The comments of bannon seems to hold that up and i very much doubt it hadn't come to  the attention of Lerner and caused maybe a a re-appraisal of the sort of control they gave MON.

You should offer your services to the Daily Mirror. O'Neill is suing them for libel following their claim he had talks with Liverpool. You and your good authority could be the Daily Mirror's last-minute star witness and get O'Neill jailed for perjury.

[Ger Regan]

You should offer your services to the Daily Mirror. O'Neill is suing them for libel following their claim he had talks with Liverpool. You and your good authority could be the Daily Mirror's last-minute star witness and get O'Neill jailed for perjury.

Maybe Bannan should be called as a witness as well, considering he gave quotes seemingly backing up this theory?

[hilts_coolerking]

I find it hard to reconcile the fact that O'Neill is extremely litigious in defence of his reputation with the fact that he treated the club, staff, players and fans with such disrespect in quitting when he did.

[Greg N'Ash]

You should offer your services to the Daily Mirror. O'Neill is suing them for libel following their claim he had talks with Liverpool. You and your good authority could be the Daily Mirror's last-minute star witness and get O'Neill jailed for perjury.

Maybe Bannan should be called as a witness as well, considering he gave quotes seemingly backing up this theory?

Indeed. Strange that he would sue the mirror but not bannan for saying he was close to joining Liverpool.  And still no law suit against the myriad of papers who accused him of plotting behind Grant's back - surely as bad a deal as the Liverpool rumours.  Its almost as if he somehow knows the likes of Dalglish won't confirm they were tapping up another premiership manager *scratches chin*

[Villa'Zawg]

You should offer your services to the Daily Mirror. O'Neill is suing them for libel following their claim he had talks with Liverpool. You and your good authority could be the Daily Mirror's last-minute star witness and get O'Neill jailed for perjury.

Maybe Bannan should be called as a witness as well, considering he gave quotes seemingly backing up this theory?

Indeed. Strange that he would sue the mirror but not bannan for saying he was close to joining Liverpool.  And still no law suit against the myriad of papers who accused him of plotting behind Grant's back - surely as bad a deal as the Liverpool rumours.  Its almost as if he somehow knows the likes of Dalglish won't confirm they were tapping up another premiership manager *scratches chin*

You honestly believe that he is suing the Daily Mirror on the basis that he is confident that Dalglish is going to perjure himself? 

For someone who takes such an interest in courtroom shenanigans, you don't seem to have much idea about how these things work. He is suing the Mirror because he believes they libelled him but he isn't suing Bannan or you for that matter because all you are doing is repeating the Mirror's libellous story.

As I said, you could settle this by offering your "good authority" to the Daily Mirror couldn't you? *scatches bollocks*

[Monty]

Can we have these Bannan quotes? They must have passed me by. Seems strange for him to get involved in something like this.

[Whiney MacWhineface]

Can we have these Bannan quotes? They must have passed me by. Seems strange for him to get involved in something like this.

Hi Monty. Try here

“I was on the touchline watching the under-21 boys train when I started getting lots of text messages through on my phone. I was shocked in a way but, looking back, in our pre-season games he wasn’t as hands-on as normal. He was sitting back and hardly got out of his seat to say anything to the players.

“If you add that all up, he was acting a bit differently. He wasn’t the Martin O’Neill that we knew, but we still didn’t think he would walk out like that. He was close to going at the end of last season to Liverpool and either it fell through or he sorted out his differences [with the Villa board] so we thought he was going to stay.”

[Monty]

Cheers RR62. Oops, wee Barry, big oops.

[Ger Regan]

Doesn't sound like it was Bannan just repeating a mirror story, it seems to me to be something that the whole squad were clued in on, and they would be a lot closer to the action than any of us.

[Billy Walker]

You should offer your services to the Daily Mirror. O'Neill is suing them for libel following their claim he had talks with Liverpool. You and your good authority could be the Daily Mirror's last-minute star witness and get O'Neill jailed for perjury.

Maybe Bannan should be called as a witness as well, considering he gave quotes seemingly backing up this theory?

Indeed. Strange that he would sue the mirror but not bannan for saying he was close to joining Liverpool.  And still no law suit against the myriad of papers who accused him of plotting behind Grant's back - surely as bad a deal as the Liverpool rumours.  Its almost as if he somehow knows the likes of Dalglish won't confirm they were tapping up another premiership manager *scratches chin*

When Bannan said what he did, my take on it was that he had read about the O'Neill-Liverpool link in the papers and was simply commenting on it from that perspective.  I don't believe he had any inside scoop or knowledge.

EDIT: I've just Read Rocket Reducer's post.  Hmmm.  I remember reading those quotes at the time of O'Neill's departure and my initial reaction to them was that Bannan was simply speculating from what he had read in the press.   On reading them again I can see how they could be interpreted differently.

[KevinGage]

There were plenty of staff at other clubs who knew he was touting himself for the Liverpool job too. It wasn't exactly a secret. 

[Dave Cooper please]

You and your good authority could be the Daily Mirror's last-minute star witness and get O'Neill jailed for perjury.

Is Greg's "Good authority" not as good as your "I heard" and "My understanding" then?

[Chris Smith]

Given that the Mail and the E & S are both saying that McLeish will not get the Young money it appears that bringing down the wage bill was only part of the issue and that Lerner is also cutting back on what he makes available for transfers.

Why?

Clearly it's his money and he can do what he likes but it flies in the face of their stated ambitions and it seems that we have given up any pretence of trying to compete with the top 6.

[Ger Regan]

Given that the mail and the E & S are both saying that McLeish will not get the Young money it appeasr that bringing down the wage bill was only part of the issue and that Lerner is cutting back on what he makes available for transfers.

Why?

Clearly it's his money and he can do what he likes but it flies in the face of their stated ambitions and it seems that we have given up any pretence of trying to compete with the top 6.

If that's true then it really is worrying. I suppose we'll be more certain one way or the other by the start of September.

[KevinGage]

We'll see how it plays out -and how much we pay in transfer fees total before the end of the summer.  McLeish did say at the supporters get together that his quotes re the Young money were as much to do with not wanting to show his hand to other clubs as much as anything else.