Return of O'Neill - divided opinion

[Somniloquism]

but beating O'Neill in this match and not being relegated will at least bring about some kind of cheer.

lets hope its 2/2!

The first would definitely lead to the second unless every team below us won every single match and we lost all our others 5-0.

[PeterWithesShin]

Was Harewood that bad a signing? Yes he was shit but £4m wasn't a particularly big fee for an established PL striker. He didn't work out, it happens.

It was if you think that the likes of Roque Santa Cruz was signing for Blackburn a week later and then going on score 20 odd goals that season.

Not that I wanted him but Harewood scored 20 odd goals and 16 goals 3 and 2 seasons before he signed for us. As for Santa Cruz, in the 4 seasons since that season he has scored 10 goals. Blackburn were lucky Hughes left to manage Moneybags Citeh and could pay £18 mill for a crock. Unfortunately MON never went there so we could have £20mil for Heskey.

He had scored 3 league goals in 30 odd games the season before we signed him. The 20 goal season was in the Championship.

He'll be 33 later this year. Unless i'm mistaken, only once in his career has he scored more than 5 league goals in a season in our top flight.

I still can't believe we ever signed him.

[Somniloquism]

He had scored 3 league goals in 30 odd games the season before we signed him. The 20 goal season was in the Championship.

He'll be 33 later this year. Unless i'm mistaken, only once in his career has he scored more than 5 league goals in a season in our top flight.

I still can't believe we ever signed him.

Sorry, you are correct about the 20 odd but he did get the 14 PL goals the two seasons before.  But I was more comparing with RSC who has only got into double figures once whilst in his 12 seasons in Europe. I agree with you on the signing but he probably paid for his transfer fee as his 5 league goals must have got us a place or two in the league.

I would have said MON bought him as 3rd choice behind Carew and Gabby and as normal managed to overpay for a reservist, but his return of 5 in 23 isn't that bad, especially as he came on as sub for most of the season.

[PeterWithesShin]

I'm sure a few of goals were what I call icing goals (icing on the cake of a game already won). Reading and Derby spring to mind. Off the top of my head Liverpool away is the only game I can think of where he made an impact and we got a point, that was counterbalanced by THAT game at Spurzzzzz.

I still can't believe he once scored a hat-trick against us. File that under "things that I will never get my head round".

I agree, RSC was very much a one season wonder. I don't even know where is he is now or if he's even still playing.

[Handsworth Wood Villa]

My favourite Villa manager.

[DR PETERS]

I am stunned that people still can't see that him walking out 5 days before the season was a disgrace and no I don't think we have recovered. Was he backed into a corner ? Maybe, but one of the arguments for him being such a great manager is that he can get the best out of players, if that was the case when Randy put a stop on spending he should have proved to everyone that he was a great manager. I don't think Randy stopped spending, he paid the money for Bent, my guess is when O'Neill went to him with the list of players he wanted to sign they were all along the lines of Heskey and Beye to which Randy replied no.
Yes he made some good signings but he made more bad ones. Remember Gary Cahill left because Curtis Davies and Zat Knight were being picked ahead of him when the whole world could see that Cahill was a better player.
I will leave you with this question, if MON is such a great manager, why does he never sign a top class player ? Why won't they play for him ? Every club he has been at he has signed average players, players past their best or takes a punt on a youngster that occasionally comes off. Oh and before I get jumped on I don't class Milner or Downing as top class players both over rated, although think Milner would have been great for us had he stayed.

[maigrait]

yes milner would have been great for us if he had stayed... Sure look at him now, pretty anonymous in the city side... forget he is playing half the time...

[Drummond]

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.

And a bit of the home one too perhaps?...

[Drummond]

He signed average players for a lot of money and got them to over perform.

He made himself look like a better manager/motivator as a, result.

He left us in the shit.

He hasn't improved his standing or level of club and we've certainly not improved on standard of manager. Plus we've a distinctly average squad of players that cost us a fortune.

Nobody wins and nobody looks good.

[Hookeysmith]

Excellent essay eamonn but the final sentence sums MON up for me. He has his strengths as a manager but the ability to get his team playing good football is not one of them. He probably spent one season too long at Villa Park and you are correct that many home performances were drab, predictable affairs. Most other Premiership managers out thought MON tactically and even the combined experience of his management team couldn't work out how to deal with it. For all the talk of MON's intellect, he made the same mistakes time and again which suggests either a lack of imagination or an arrogant approach to his trade.

Harry Rednapp is another manager adept at managing his reputation at the expense of the clubs that pay them well. I can't remember the details of what happened to Southampton or West Ham soon after he left but it was either relegation or a comlete shambles. At Portsmouth he over spent on players and jumped ship just before it all went so badly wrong - strangely enough none of his chums in the media were prepared to link the two. After a couple of good years at Spurs with an excellent squad and a supportive Chairman he's just about to make a quick exit to the England job just before it goes sour. Bale will leave in the Summer and so will Modric. They won't pay Adebayor's wages and VDV is a stroppy git already moaning in the press. Big Brad can't go on for too much longer and after that you have an average squad of players. Would Rednapp really have the will to rebuild the Spurs squad when he can leave an impending mess to manage England?

Having friends in the media helps - MON and Rednapp are good to journalists, provide easy copy and cultivate the relationships which help them to avoid unwanted criticism. They also fail to expose the mess and turmoil that managers like this leave in their wake.

Excellent post and bang on the mo ney about both of them

Empoers new clothes as far as the media are concerned

[cheltenhamlion]

Harewood cost 4m, 27 grand a week wages for 3 years, and over a million quid signing on fee.

He started one league game in those 3 years.

[N'ZMAV]

Harewood cost 4m, 27 grand a week wages for 3 years, and over a million quid signing on fee.

He started one league game in those 3 years.

I feel sick.

[asgpaul]

Its almost like a marriage followed by divorce (obviously talking from experience here), loved him whilst he was here, but find it unforgivable for the way he left, whatever the reasons I still find the timing inexcusable.

[Dave]

He had scored 3 league goals in 30 odd games the season before we signed him. The 20 goal season was in the Championship.

He'll be 33 later this year. Unless i'm mistaken, only once in his career has he scored more than 5 league goals in a season in our top flight.

I still can't believe we ever signed him.

Sorry, you are correct about the 20 odd but he did get the 14 PL goals the two seasons before.  But I was more comparing with RSC who has only got into double figures once whilst in his 12 seasons in Europe. I agree with you on the signing but he probably paid for his transfer fee as his 5 league goals must have got us a place or two in the league.

Surely the important thing isn't what MFH did at West Ham or what Santa Cruz did at Bayern, but what they did once they moved to their new club?

MFH was dreadful, Santa Cruz was a total success. Hughes identified a player who would fit in well and score goals, O'Neill didn't.

What happened before and after in their careers isn't particularly relevant to their respective merits that season.

[pauliewalnuts]

Harewood cost 4m, 27 grand a week wages for 3 years, and over a million quid signing on fee.

He started one league game in those 3 years.

How anyone can think his signing was anything but a huge waste of money is beyond me

He is precisely the type of signing that explains why we are in the shit now.

10 million pounds frittered away. And he was far from the only one.