Return of O'Neill - divided opinion

[ktvillan]

Under John Gregory we reached an FA Cup final and were top the league at one point if i remember correctly?

Top of the league twice in fact.  Gregory had his faults, but I really did enjoy the majority of his time in charge, even if it never really hit the heights.  There were just enough good times, like topping the league and also his initial results after Little left to make me kook back on his time with fondness.

Yeah overall I enjoyed his reign as well.

Some good times under Gregory but my overall memory of his reign is one of pretty dire, safety first football occasionally leading to some very good runs of form. The problem is for every good run there was an equally long bad one not far round the corner. I never really had faith that he knew what he was doing, when things were going well or not.
There are a number of similarities with McLeish I think, most notably their fondness for functionality over flair, however the biggest difference is of course we haven't had any sort of good run of form under McLeish to give him the credit Gregory managed to build up.

Mixed feelings about Gregory's reign overall but have never forgiven him for the negatve approach to the FA Cup Final, our only one in over 50 years.  Wasted.  With good footballers like Carbone, Merson, Barry and Hendrie at his disposal we could at least have gone out and had a go and put on a show.  It was a performance straight out of the Alec McLeish school of football.

[Merv]

Some good times under Gregory but my overall memory of his reign is one of pretty dire, safety first football occasionally leading to some very good runs of form. The problem is for every good run there was an equally long bad one not far round the corner. I never really had faith that he knew what he was doing, when things were going well or not.
There are a number of similarities with McLeish I think, most notably their fondness for functionality over flair, however the biggest difference is of course we haven't had any sort of good run of form under McLeish to give him the credit Gregory managed to build up.

I sometimes think that awful cup final performance v Chelsea obscures much of what Gregory did. We were dreadfully dull in that game. As far as similarities with McLeish go, I don't see that at all. Gregory did have a real appreciation of defensive organisation, but his defence was solid. For much of his spell in charge, the team had some very exciting players and I recall being really disappointed when he left.

Just like O'Neill, for the majority of his time in charge, Villa were top six material and genuinely challenging for trophies.

[brontebilly]

I guess the heat has died down to some extent where we can properly assess his time at the club.

I would say he did a decent job. Not outstanding, not awful but got the club back into a place where we could be proud of it again. He was an excellent PR man, important attribute to have in the modern game, he also brought some good players to the clubs and had us believing we would get to the holy grail of the Champions League.

But the Champions League did elude him. Spending 100m on transfer fees and not making it at a time when City were only starting to move with the Arab money, was disappointing. Arry and maybe even now Alan Pardew are showing that it could be done with less money.

His signings were very mixed, he was like KKKenny just buying random average British based players for stupid money and discarding them later. His biggest weakness though was his inability to learn. He was able to manage a team but not a squad. The collapse around March time was utterly predictable. Failure to play better ball players at home also a common theme. Daft decisions playing the likes of Barry, Reo Coker, Milner, Gardner at full back certainly didnt help our football. That said we were far better organised as a team particularly at set pieces. The likes of Milner, Barry, Young, Gabby, Dunne, Collins etc thrived under his leadership. But despite his supposed intelligence, he was unable to learn from his mistakes. He hit the ceiling as best of the also rans in the EPL and was unable to go further.

When I see Sunderland signing Wayne Bridge, being linked with Kevin Davies and playing the same group of players twice in 4 days, getting hammered by Everton second day out, we should know that he hasnt learned one iota from the Villa experience.

[Holte L2]

Some good times under Gregory but my overall memory of his reign is one of pretty dire, safety first football occasionally leading to some very good runs of form. The problem is for every good run there was an equally long bad one not far round the corner. I never really had faith that he knew what he was doing, when things were going well or not.
There are a number of similarities with McLeish I think, most notably their fondness for functionality over flair, however the biggest difference is of course we haven't had any sort of good run of form under McLeish to give him the credit Gregory managed to build up.

I sometimes think that awful cup final performance v Chelsea obscures much of what Gregory did. We were dreadfully dull in that game. As far as similarities with McLeish go, I don't see that at all. Gregory did have a real appreciation of defensive organisation, but his defence was solid. For much of his spell in charge, the team had some very exciting players and I recall being really disappointed when he left.

Just like O'Neill, for the majority of his time in charge, Villa were top six material and genuinely challenging for trophies.

I was very dissapointed with Gregory's departure.  We had some solid players - Southgate,Ehiogu,Boateng and Talylor. And this allowed Merse to run the show.  I really enjoyed Angel and Vassell's developing partnership during the season he left.

[HK Villan]

The walk to the dugout will be harder for us than for him, he honestly wont care.

I hve some wonderful memories of his time at the club but the way he left was unforgivable.

This sums up exactly how I feel.

[Mister E]

Mixed feelings about Gregory's reign overall but have never forgiven him for the negatve approach to the FA Cup Final, our only one in over 50 years.  Wasted.  With good footballers like Carbone, Merson, Barry and Hendrie at his disposal we could at least have gone out and had a go and put on a show.  It was a performance straight out of the Alec McLeish school of football.

Yeah, agree with this.
Being at Wembley that day was excruciating and undid so much of his earlier heroics.

[PeterWithesShin]

Apart from the first 12 months or so he was in charge, I always thought we were pretty awful to watch most of the time under Gregory. 5 at the back against Chester in the LC, at home to Bradford in the league and so on.
Transfer wise very much like MON, spent a fortune on average milk bottle English players. And then proceeded to do the same with foreign ones.

I'll never forgive him for how shit we were in the 3 semi's and 1 final we played in 2000. 0 goals scored in total in those games, and apart from maybe the Leicester home leg didn't really look like scoring.

[tomd2103]

Mixed feelings about Gregory's reign overall but have never forgiven him for the negatve approach to the FA Cup Final, our only one in over 50 years.  Wasted.  With good footballers like Carbone, Merson, Barry and Hendrie at his disposal we could at least have gone out and had a go and put on a show.  It was a performance straight out of the Alec McLeish school of football.

Yeah, agree with this.
Being at Wembley that day was excruciating and undid so much of his earlier heroics.

Can't remember feeling so flat after a game as I did that day at Wembley.  His autobiography (the one released at during his time as manager) is a decent read and it is apparent that he is very passionate about the club.  Like others have said, he had a pretty mixed record in the transfer market, but Luc Nilis will always be the great "what if".

[martin o`who??]

Spunked all our cash up the wall, left us in the shit 5 days before a new season, and had the cheek to sue us for constructive into the bargain, now, what sort of reception would your ex-employers give you for that???........

[astonvillan]

the sunderland team were booed off at half time and in particular full time, when boo's rang around the stadium. i wonder if o'neill will have a paddy about it like he did at the villa..?

[pauliewalnuts]

the sunderland team were booed off at half time and in particular full time, when boo's rang around the stadium. i wonder if o'neill will have a paddy about it like he did at the villa..?

Crikey, they're even more *f word* than us.

[Brend'Watkins]

Matt Le Tiss' was covering their game on Sky.  He wanted to say what he was watching was a pile of shite, you could see by the expression on his face, but he somehow managed to refrain from doing so.

[joe_c]

the sunderland team were booed off at half time and in particular full time, when boo's rang around the stadium. i wonder if o'neill will have a paddy about it like he did at the villa..?

Crikey, they're even more *f word* than us.

Or perhaps they're less tolerent of myopic, tactically inept, treacherous c***s than us.

[john e]

the sunderland team were booed off at half time and in particular full time, when boo's rang around the stadium. i wonder if o'neill will have a paddy about it like he did at the villa..?

is that true they were booed of ? 
 where did you hear this, not saying your wrong but it seems a very quick turnround of attitudes

[astonvillan]

the sunderland team were booed off at half time and in particular full time, when boo's rang around the stadium. i wonder if o'neill will have a paddy about it like he did at the villa..?

is that true they were booed of ? 
 where did you hear this, not saying your wrong but it seems a very quick turnround of attitudes

it is indeed. i made the bizarre decision to find a stream and watch the game. i ignored the booing at half time initially as it could possibly have been directed at the referee after failing to award sunderland a penalty on 42. although it was a pretty half-hearted appeal and unlikely to be for that reason. the loud booing at full time confirmed that it was the sunderland team (and manager?!) that the fans were directing their frustrations towards.

oh and wolves took about three hundred fans so it wouldn't have been them either!