Return of O'Neill - divided opinion

[mrfuse]

He did a decent job here - not great but decent enough and i feel took us as far as he could- it was time for him to go when he did, but it now seems clear randy was cutting back and instead of moving on and getting a top manager we have slid backwards at speed.

O neill had ambitions for the club but randy tightening the purse meant o neill had little choice but to walk or take us backwards against clubs with greater resources.

A good villa manager but with many flaws- not in the saunders or taylor ,atkinson bracket but better than most .

Good luck to him although he will never get a better crack at the top 4 than he had at villa!

That's pretty much my take on the situation and I'm not lucking forward to the mindless idiots shouting abuse at him, people will say its his fault were in this situation but I think Randy seems to get off pretty lightly.

[JUAN PABLO]

He did some good things in his time with us, but he also helped saddle us with a terrible wage bill and a lot of ageing players. Also any good he did was kind of squashed by the manner and timing of his departure.

thats about it

[The Man With A Stick]

I've nothing against him personally, although I hope he falls down the stairs and breaks his arse.

[Brend'Watkins]

He did a decent job here - not great but decent enough and i feel took us as far as he could- it was time for him to go when he did, but it now seems clear randy was cutting back and instead of moving on and getting a top manager we have slid backwards at speed.

O neill had ambitions for the club but randy tightening the purse meant o neill had little choice but to walk or take us backwards against clubs with greater resources.

A good villa manager but with many flaws- not in the saunders or taylor ,atkinson bracket but better than most .

Good luck to him although he will never get a better crack at the top 4 than he had at villa!

That's pretty much my take on the situation and I'm not lucking forward to the mindless idiots shouting abuse at him, people will say its his fault were in this situation but I think Randy seems to get off pretty lightly.

Did Randy walk out 5 days before the season started?  No he didn't.  MON knew the situation at the end of the previous season which was sell the players you have bought if you want to replace them with new recruits.  Not an unreasonable request given our spiraling wage bill and an already high spend. 

If MON wasn't prepared to work under those conditions he should have made it known in the May allowing the club sufficient time to get a suitable replacement.  He didn't and we now find ourselves where we are as a result.  Randy is blameless in any of this.  He's made some poor decisions since for sure but no blame can be put his his way regarding MON's wall out.

[ktvillan]

Fact is all that's is history and MON has no bearing whatsoever on whats happening at Villa now.

So the massive wages we are still paying average/mediocre player like Beye, Heskey, Dunne, Warnock, Collins, and others,  have no bearing on our ongoing limited ability to recruit new players or the need to reduce the wage bill?  Not to mention the huge amounts wasted on players like Sidwell, Shorey, Davies and NRC who barely got a look in.  And that's before you look at the transfer fees as well - 8m for Warnock? 10m for Davies? It's not all O'Neill's fault, but to say he's not to blame for our current predicament at all is ludicrous.

[Concrete John]

If MON wasn't prepared to work under those conditions he should have made it known in the May allowing the club sufficient time to get a suitable replacement.  He didn't and we now find ourselves where we are as a result.  Randy is blameless in any of this.  He's made some poor decisions since for sure but no blame can be put his his way regarding MON's wall out.

Can't agree with that.

Firstly, we don't know the exact sequence of events and what MON was/was not asked to do.  Did the goal posts get moved for him over the course of the summer?  Did he try to make it work, but something happened that tipped him over the edge?

Guess we don't know and can only speculate on that.

However, once he left the board has made two poor managerial appointments.  That's not his fault.  Some will say that the timing of his departure meant we couldn't get anyone good, yet 12 months later thay had the whole summer and still came up with McLeish, so I simply don't buy that argument.

[Concrete John]

Fact is all that's is history and MON has no bearing whatsoever on whats happening at Villa now.

So the massive wages we are still paying average/mediocre player like Beye, Heskey, Dunne, Warnock, Collins, and others,  have no bearing on our ongoing limited ability to recruit new players or the need to reduce the wage bill?  Not to mention the huge amounts wasted on players like Sidwell, Shorey, Davies and NRC who barely got a look in.  And that's before you look at the transfer fees as well - 8m for Warnock? 10m for Davies? It's not all O'Neill's fault, but to say he's not to blame for our current predicament at all is ludicrous.

We/he did put some poor to average players on too much money.  But I will defend him on fees given the money recouped on the players that left, meaning his 'net spend' was relatively small and shouldn't be having a longterm effect on the club.

[damon loves JT]

So long as we get three points, he can have a 21 gun salute for all I fucking care.

[Vanilla]

I do not believe he planned to quit at the time he did to cause maximum damage.

Fully agree.

I just can't see him sitting in his office in early June checking the calendar as saying "Yep, that'll be about the right time - 5 days to go and that'll really screw 'em up!"

What I blame for the timing was the inability of the three men involved, MON, Randy and Faulkner, not te realise the situation wasn't going to work earlier and acting in the best interests of the club.  OK, you could argue they tried to make it work, but ultimately it was a mess that cost us.

As to his record while here, the money will always be the sticking point.  Should he have done more with it?  Maybe, but my own criticism, once you can analyse it after the event, is that he could have done the same with less, as evidenced by the amount of players not getting a game and the youth hardly featuring.

A good manager with faults.  I'll be joining the applause for him.

Wasn't the story that he kept trying to have a face-to-face with RL but kept getting one of the stooges? The fact AV paid him a hefty out of court settlement shows there is still much we don't know went on, or didn't go on behind the scenes.

[Dr Butler]

So long as we get three points, he can have a 21 gun salute for all I fucking care.

aimed at the away dug-out.

[Merv]

Hmmm. I've felt less angry about O'Neill with every passing week since the day he left. I look at some of the decisions made by the club in the last 18 months, the way things have been done, the way the club is run, and can understand how he felt disillusioned enough to suddenly leave.

[Brend'Watkins]

If MON wasn't prepared to work under those conditions he should have made it known in the May allowing the club sufficient time to get a suitable replacement.  He didn't and we now find ourselves where we are as a result.  Randy is blameless in any of this.  He's made some poor decisions since for sure but no blame can be put his his way regarding MON's wall out.

Can't agree with that.

Firstly, we don't know the exact sequence of events and what MON was/was not asked to do.  Did the goal posts get moved for him over the course of the summer?  Did he try to make it work, but something happened that tipped him over the edge?

Guess we don't know and can only speculate on that.

However, once he left the board has made two poor managerial appointments.  That's not his fault.  Some will say that the timing of his departure meant we couldn't get anyone good, yet 12 months later thay had the whole summer and still came up with McLeish, so I simply don't buy that argument.

The point is about MON walking out the way he did, nothing to do with RL's piss poor managerial appointments since.

MON did know the conditions he was working under.  He did talk with RL after the season finished, that is what he said he and the club would do.  He could have made his intentions known soon after that if he wasn't prepared to comply with they way the club wanted to move.  The General intimated on here, I assume it was genuine that we needed to get rid of players before new ones could come in and MON was aware of this.  Not unreasonable demands baring in mind current spend and wages to income.

[The Left Side]

So long as we get three points, he can have a 21 gun salute for all I fucking care.

Well said Damon

[Concrete John]

MON did know the conditions he was working under.  He did talk with RL after the season finished, that is what he said he and the club would do.  He could have made his intentions known soon after that if he wasn't prepared to comply with they way the club wanted to move.  The General intimated on here, I assume it was genuine that we needed to get rid of players before new ones could come in and MON was aware of this.  Not unreasonable demands baring in mind current spend and wages to income.

So he decided he didn't want to work like that, but bided his time until 5 days before the season started to make sure he really fucked us up?  Sorry, but I don't believe such a machevellian interpretation of events.

What I think happened is they agreed to sell players, but this did not materialise.  Then something blew up over the Milner transfer.  I think it was a problem waiting to happen that both parties should have realised and acknowledged before it went too far.

[Vanilla]

What I think happened is they agreed to sell players, but this did not materialise.  Then something blew up over the Milner transfer.  I think it was a problem waiting to happen that both parties should have realised and acknowledged before it went too far.

You get the feeling that the exit may not have happened if RL had said at the time 'you can use the Milner money to buy Darren Bent and another midfielder'.