Return of O'Neill - divided opinion

[PeterWithesShin]

He got 8 points more than Mr Fickle got in his last season. Not exactly an earth shattering improvement.

[Louzie0]

It is difficult to truly comment on his departure unless we have the full facts, but based on what we do know, or at least what seems to be the case I see it more from Martin's point of view than the owner.  Fact is if we had any hope of pushing forward we needed to reinvest and you should only sell a player like Milner if you intend to spend that money on a replacement.  Where Martin let himself down was the timing of his departue, I agree that was poor on his part, but that still should not change what he did for us.

This point about him not taking over at the end of the 05/06 season, but during the next pre-season is all well and good, but the point is he still had to start the season with O'Leary's squad and was only able to bring in one or two during his first year in change, so I think it is fair to say that he got the very best out of a fairly weak group who were not far off the bottom three the previous season.

You are MON's solicitor and I claim my £5.

[Dr.Feelgood]

so I think it is fair to say that he got the very best out of a fairly weak group who were not far off the bottom three the previous season.

I think it IS fair to say that. His abilities (and his shortcomings) as a Manager were clear for all to see when he was here. BUT the timing of his departure was selfish in the extreme... why not do the decent thing & give fair notice ?
Would we be in this mess now if he had , -say - stayed until the January transfer window ? I doubt it.  We would have had the time to find a (more) suitable replacement, instead of the knee-jerk Houllier. (Now we just have a jerk.)  Sorry, but my opinion is he let a lot of people down - including himself. Respect is hard won,- but easily lost.

[stubbsyandy]

In his interview with Pat Murphy, he said that he took the job on when we had just escaped relegation and left us having just finished sixth with a much better calibre of player, naming Young, Downing and Milner.
But what he left out was that he also left us with a lot of over priced, over paid players who he did not even play himself. As a result of him jumping ship and not finishing the job, we were left with these players who no-one wanted ( due to high wages, poor quality) so we could only sell the players we could which were the good uns..I hold him responsible for that and object to his simplification of events to paint a picture in his favour.

[Greg N'Ash]

Well if he said that it just proves what an egocentric, stranger to reality muppet he really is. In what way is finishing 8 points off the highest relegated team just escaping relegation? It wasn't even close.

[Dave Summers]

That man should have come back to a Heroes reception yesterday.   If he had left us, as in retrospect he should have, at the end of the previous season then I believe he would have been applauded from the tunnel to the "Doug Out".

However and at long last he recognised it yesterday, to leave us 5 days before the season, at a time to cause the maximum damage he lost any good will that most people had for him.   

I can't recall ever booing a former Villa manager before and if the likes of Gregory, Little, Taylor etc ever brought a team back I would stand an applaud.   I have nothing but contempt for the little weasel though

[Ger Regan]

I was pleasantly surprised to hear Pat Murphy throwing him some searching questions after the game.

To which he candidly replied that the timing of his departure was poor and that he was sorry and that he took us from near relegation to top 6 (a statement of fact to which he's entitled)

larf. Near relegation ? Did he actually say that or are you putting words in his mouth? If that was near relegation when MON took over, then what the fuck are we now?

Well too be fair if we had started the next season still under O'Dreay then I think we would have been one of the favourites to go yes.

I attended the match yesterday and I thought the amount of abuse O'Neill got was a disgrace.  Sure I expected some boos, but I thought the majority would see past how he left us and look at the bigger picture. 

I'm not sure where to start with this.

Agreed. Surely the "bigger" picture would be the legacy left behind after he walked. Going by this logic above then Portsmouth fans should just be happy with Redknapp, Mandaric et al for winning the FA cup, rather than vilifying them for the mess the club is in now.

[Gregorys Boy]

Yes, but we only secured safety with about three games left, so it was a pretty close call, and like I said if we had started the next season under DOL then we may well have been relugeted and anyone who thinks any different is just dreaming.

[Ger Regan]

Yes, but we only secured safety with about three games left, so it was a pretty close call, and like I said if we had started the next season under DOL then we may well have been relugeted and anyone who thinks any different is just dreaming.

But it doesn't have to be a straight choice between MON and DOL, does it? I'm confident that there are plenty of managers other than him who could have improved us by 8 points or so.

[Gregorys Boy]

so I think it is fair to say that he got the very best out of a fairly weak group who were not far off the bottom three the previous season.

I think it IS fair to say that. His abilities (and his shortcomings) as a Manager were clear for all to see when he was here. BUT the timing of his departure was selfish in the extreme... why not do the decent thing & give fair notice ?
Would we be in this mess now if he had , -say - stayed until the January transfer window ? I doubt it.  We would have had the time to find a (more) suitable replacement, instead of the knee-jerk Houllier. (Now we just have a jerk.)  Sorry, but my opinion is he let a lot of people down - including himself. Respect is hard won,- but easily lost.

The last bit is what I said in my post, the only way we differ is that I think when a manager does the sort of job MON did for four years!  Then he deserves more respect than he has gotten since leaving.

[Gregorys Boy]

Yes, but we only secured safety with about three games left, so it was a pretty close call, and like I said if we had started the next season under DOL then we may well have been relugeted and anyone who thinks any different is just dreaming.

But it doesn't have to be a straight choice between MON and DOL, does it? I'm confident that there are plenty of managers other than him who could have improved us by 8 points or so.

Of course not, but O'Neill was and still is seen as one of finest British managers around and in terms of picking up a deflected dressing room he is one of the best.  His appointment was a very popluar one, didn't see many complaining at the time.

[Gregorys Boy]

He got 8 points more than Mr Fickle got in his last season. Not exactly an earth shattering improvement.

Ok, but we still had a much better season overall, and were never going to go down.  Also DOL never got three back to back top six finishes and never got us to a Cup Final and Cup Semi, so I find this idea that MON was not much better a little strange.

[5ft811st2 Durham]

He didn't clap for Petrov.  Says it all - self absorbed LITTLE Man

Neither did Eck.

I thought Murphy's most interesting question to MON for sheer cheek alone , was  "What sort of legacy do you think you've left at Villa Park". The truthful answer is of course absolutely no legacy whatsoever seeing as we are evidently now back to square one (if we're lucky) and not surprisingly O' Neill declined to answer.

[PeterWithesShin]

He got 8 points more than Mr Fickle got in his last season. Not exactly an earth shattering improvement.

Ok, but we still had a much better season overall, and were never going to go down.  Also DOL never got three back to back top six finishes and never got us to a Cup Final and Cup Semi, so I find this idea that MON was not much better a little strange.

Mr Fickle never got to spend nearly unlimited money. And he did get us to a cup semi final.

[Trinitymiddle]

I think the little rat got off lightly yesterday.

There was surprisingly little abuse aimed at MON from around me in the LTR. I was expecting it to get a bit tasty but there was nothing really.

There was also less abuse of Eck than at previous games

When Eck started bollocking Marc Albrighton for no good reason ( & good chance his head would go down)
it was suggested to Eck to "pick on someone your own size..." - I stood up & volunteered & he did smile...
F##k knows what Hutton has on him... something to blackmail him, surely. How else does he get a game ?

To be fair, McLeish did drop him yesterday.