Return of O'Neill - divided opinion

[Holte L2]

One thing that struck me yesterday was that MON might've stood in the dug out and felt some regret.  He must know that he won't take Sunderland any higher than he took us, maybe he won't even get them as far, and I think that might've dawned on him.

I thought MON looked a little down and very restrained.How I yearn for the times when Randy was the greatest Chairman in the Prem..Agbonlahor had searing pace and terrified defenders..and MON was the darling of the fans and the media.

I miss that.

Me too. I had some great times following the Villa under O'Neill.

[WALTERS WARRIORS]

Ye remember how i felt when MON Came to Villa Park and the crowd what greeted him. The feel good factor was back and i felt this was the start of something big. God how times have chamged ...........

[German James]

45 pages

Yay!

[eamonn]

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.

A squad containing international quality players in their prime - Laursen, Mellberg, Cahill, Bouma, Barry, Berger, Angel and Baros; and emerging, quality youngsters - Cahill, Davis, Gabby and Moore; was good enough to stroll to midtable at the very least. Even Samuel, Ridgewell, Hendrie and McCann were solid players on their day - the type O'Neill is getting the best out of at Sunderland at the moment while six years on, Sorensen and Aaron Hughes are still regularly playing at teams in midtable.

O'Leary underachieved dismally in his last season, hence our delight in his departure. O'Neill added Petrov to that squad and finished a fairly modest 11th place in his first year. Randy then threw money at him and we got the three 6th places in a row so it's not as if overnight MON transformed us into something special as he hinted at in his interview on Sky yesterday.

I haven't heard the Pat Murphy one but I'm glad to see his head has finally been removed from O'Neill's arse to finally ask him some searching questions.

[bertlambshank]

That's because he spent all the money before he left. He knew it would go tits up. That's why he fucked off.

Congratulations on what I feel is a most accurate summation of the situation

A more accurate summary would be:

1. American Billionaire owner arrives trying to buy success,
2. Makes grand promises to manager and fans
3. Billionaire owner realises that there are other Billionaires with more money.
4. Pulls plug, loses interest
5. Manager upset, walks out
6. Club end up with shit players, shit manager and absent owner
7. Amercian sells up and buys art work

So you think continuing to spend money we didn't have was a viable business model?

Presumably you also think O'Neill was right to fuck off as soon as they asked him to actually try to manage the team he had purchased rather than giving him money to buy a new team again?

You can put words into my mouth if you wish.

The business model was Randy's not O'Neills. I find it odd that he is blamed for wasting money - surely the ultimate sanction is with the chairman? He either thinks its a good idea or not.
Its like asking a child what they want for Christmas and giving them your credit card. (But in this case the manager bought a good team)

The manager actually got us just outside the top 4 in a decent timescale and the majority of the big name signings were huge successes. Perhaps you can argue Habib Beye and the like should never have been on such huge salaries, but how much were the actual transfer fees...

Why he left the club in the manner he did... broken promises.  If you have financial security, its pretty easy to walk.

You make it sound like Lerner was forcing these players on MON. How many times did he threaten to walk out before they finally closed the purse strings? - I can imagine the reaction at the height of the fan's Saint Martin hysteria if Lerner hadn't agreed to buy Milner for example and MON had walked out. He'll do the same at Sunderland, where it will be "buy who i want or i walk and you'll have 40,000 mackems on your back."

anyway, ignoring all the conspircy theories of why he walked out, i still don't understand why anyone would applaud him for his record at least. The most expensively put together 6th placed team in premiership history and probably world football is hardly something you'd want to thank him for.

wrong what about Whitepool,and they done it in a season.

[isamion]

From Daily Express:
"MARTIN O’NEILL could be heading for a frustrating summer after being told by Sunderland owner Ellis Short that there will be no extensive transfer budget for the Black Cats boss."

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/315941/Afraid-there-ll-be-no-big-spending-Martin-O-Neill

Wonder what will happen next?

[Ian.]

From Daily Express:
"MARTIN O’NEILL could be heading for a frustrating summer after being told by Sunderland owner Ellis Short that there will be no extensive transfer budget for the Black Cats boss."

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/315941/Afraid-there-ll-be-no-big-spending-Martin-O-Neill

Wonder what will happen next?

This might get worse if they have to sell anyone....God forbid.

[VillaAlways]

From Daily Express:
"MARTIN O’NEILL could be heading for a frustrating summer after being told by Sunderland owner Ellis Short that there will be no extensive transfer budget for the Black Cats boss."

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/315941/Afraid-there-ll-be-no-big-spending-Martin-O-Neill

Wonder what will happen next?

This might get worse if they have to sell anyone....God forbid.

I especially liked this bit :-

O’Neill is paying the price for the lavish spending of predecessors Steve Bruce 

[TaxDodger]

From Daily Express:
"MARTIN O’NEILL could be heading for a frustrating summer after being told by Sunderland owner Ellis Short that there will be no extensive transfer budget for the Black Cats boss."

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/315941/Afraid-there-ll-be-no-big-spending-Martin-O-Neill

Wonder what will happen next?

Does this mean he won't be buying Collins? Please buy Collins.

[ktvillan]

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.

See my post making a comparison with the situation at Portsmouth.

For the record, I'm not saying Lerner is blameless in all this. At the end of the day he's meant to have the final say when it comes to finances. The thing is though (and I've said this before), had Lerner been more cautious in backing MON, he would have walked sooner. And I am fairly certain that those people criticising Lerner now for not having more control on finances would be some of the same people who would have criticised him for "interfering" with MON's work had he done so.

That's probably true, but all Randy would have needed to do was let everyone know MON wanted to pay Habib Beye 42 grand a sodding week. We'd have all been right behind him, and if MON stropped out because of it, nobody would have blamed Lerner.

I can't remember an occasion when fans have backed an owner against a manager who wanted more money.

You're probably right, but there were plenty of Villa fans who didn't think O'Neill should have been given 10m or whatever it was if the intention was to spunk it on McGeady, and plenty who backed Lerner for making a stand when they realised how high the wages to turnover ratio had risen under O'Neill's regime.

[Concrete John]

From Daily Express:
"MARTIN O’NEILL could be heading for a frustrating summer after being told by Sunderland owner Ellis Short that there will be no extensive transfer budget for the Black Cats boss."

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/315941/Afraid-there-ll-be-no-big-spending-Martin-O-Neill

Wonder what will happen next?

Does this mean he won't be buying Collins? Please buy Collins.

Why?  He's been in good form lately and I'd keep him at the club.

[Concrete John]

You're probably right, but there were plenty of Villa fans who didn't think O'Neill should have been given 10m or whatever it was if the intention was to spunk it on McGeady, and plenty who backed Lerner for making a stand when they realised how high the wages to turnover ratio had risen under O'Neill's regime.

Those same fans also didn't want him to buy Robbie Keane.

[VillaAlways]

From Daily Express:
"MARTIN O’NEILL could be heading for a frustrating summer after being told by Sunderland owner Ellis Short that there will be no extensive transfer budget for the Black Cats boss."

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/315941/Afraid-there-ll-be-no-big-spending-Martin-O-Neill

Wonder what will happen next?

Does this mean he won't be buying Collins? Please buy Collins.

Why?  He's been in good form lately and I'd keep him at the club.

Agree.I'd much rather he buy Dunne

[Rick_avfc]

From Daily Express:
"MARTIN O’NEILL could be heading for a frustrating summer after being told by Sunderland owner Ellis Short that there will be no extensive transfer budget for the Black Cats boss."

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/315941/Afraid-there-ll-be-no-big-spending-Martin-O-Neill

Wonder what will happen next?

Does this mean he won't be buying Collins? Please buy Collins.

Why?  He's been in good form lately and I'd keep him at the club.

Agree.I'd much rather he buy Dunne

Cant disagree with either of you there.  Collins has been great at the back and become an important figure at the centre of defence.

[not3bad]

From Daily Express:
"MARTIN O’NEILL could be heading for a frustrating summer after being told by Sunderland owner Ellis Short that there will be no extensive transfer budget for the Black Cats boss."

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/315941/Afraid-there-ll-be-no-big-spending-Martin-O-Neill

Wonder what will happen next?

He hopes Spurs come in for him?