O'Neill XI

[tomd2103]

All the chat this week about the return of O'Neill and whether he did a good or bad job at the Villa, got me thinking about some of the players we had at the club during his reign and what a best XI of his time would look like.  He undoubtedly signed some shockers, but he also made some great buys and definitely got the best out of some of the players already at the club when he arrived.  Career ending injuries and players moving on meant it was not to be, but can you imagine if we had been able to field this side on a regular basis:

GK - Friedel

RB - L Young
CB - Mellberg
CB - Laursen
LB - Bouma

RW - A Young
CM - Milner
CM - Barry
LW - Downing

CF - Carew
CF - Gabby

That would have been some side and if you could have added Bent in place of Gabby, I think we would have been serious challengers.

[luke25]

Stick Bent in the 07/08 team.

[TheSandman]

Kiraly

Beye
Davies
Knight
Shorey

Agathe
Sidwell
Salifou
Routledge

Heskey
Harewood

[Fergal]

Kiraly

Beye
Davies
Knight
Shorey

Agathe
Sidwell
Salifou
Routledge

Heskey
Harewood

That team is why we are fucked, possibly a poor Championship team at best.
I do like the took of Tomds team though.

[sideshow]

Kiraly

Beye
Davies
Knight
Shorey

Agathe
Sidwell
Salifou
Routledge

Heskey
Harewood

At a rough estimate, that team was on about £320,000 per week.  Or 16-17 million a season.

I still maintain that Randys biggest issue with MON and the finances, wasnt the big transfer fee's or big wages to top players, but the fact that we had a reserve team getting paid so much money, that MON wasnt willing to rotate into the side despite being the one that paid out for them, and was seemingly unable or unwilling to move them on before spending more.

[Irish villain]

Stick Bent in the 07/08 team.

Title challengers, easily. Oh what might have been....

[Tokyo Sexwhale]

All the chat this week about the return of O'Neill and whether he did a good or bad job at the Villa, got me thinking about some of the players we had at the club during his reign and what a best XI of his time would look like.  He undoubtedly signed some shockers, but he also made some great buys and definitely got the best out of some of the players already at the club when he arrived.  Career ending injuries and players moving on meant it was not to be, but can you imagine if we had been able to field this side on a regular basis:

GK - Friedel

RB - L Young
CB - Mellberg
CB - Laursen
LB - Bouma

RW - A Young
CM - Milner
CM - Barry
LW - Downing

CF - Carew
CF - Gabby

That would have been some side and if you could have added Bent in place of Gabby, I think we would have been serious challengers.

Interesting that six of those (including Milner) were at Villa before O'Neill.

[The Villa Werewolf]

Stick Bent in the 07/08 team.

Title challengers, easily. Oh what might have been....

Scoring goals was far from our problem that year - we were the third highest scorers in the league.

It was the fact that we shipped more than 50 goals that was the problem. If we'd kept Cahill instead of signing Knight or Davies and got a far better 'keeper than Carson, that may have made the difference.

[usav]

All the chat this week about the return of O'Neill and whether he did a good or bad job at the Villa, got me thinking about some of the players we had at the club during his reign and what a best XI of his time would look like.  He undoubtedly signed some shockers, but he also made some great buys and definitely got the best out of some of the players already at the club when he arrived.  Career ending injuries and players moving on meant it was not to be, but can you imagine if we had been able to field this side on a regular basis:

GK - Friedel

RB - L Young
CB - Mellberg
CB - Laursen
LB - Bouma

RW - A Young
CM - Milner
CM - Barry
LW - Downing

CF - Carew
CF - Gabby

That would have been some side and if you could have added Bent in place of Gabby, I think we would have been serious challengers.

Interesting that six of those (including Milner) were at Villa before O'Neill.

Indeed - and contains Luke Young who we know he refused to play.   Still boils my piss that does.

[Simon Ward]

Kiraly

Beye
Davies
Knight
Shorey

Agathe
Sidwell
Salifou
Routledge

Heskey
Harewood

Some expensive reserves there!

[Concrete John]

Kiraly

Beye
Davies
Knight
Shorey

Agathe
Sidwell
Salifou
Routledge

Heskey
Harewood

Some expensive reserves there!

A lot of freebie and sub £5m signgings, which is relatively cheap by modern standards.  Wages are another issue, of course.

And it's unfair not to class Milner as an MON signing. 

[darren woolley]

I'm with you Tomd What a team that would have been we could add Bent aswell.

[The Left Side]

The teams that are listed above show the greatness and madness that was MON, still I guess when you buy so many players they will be quite a fluctuation in ability.

[cdbearsfan]

Just stick Dunne in for Olof in Tom's team. Mellberg was past his best (and out of position) during O'Neill's reign. Dunne got voted in Premier League Team of the Year.

The only other changes I would consider is sticking Milner out wide and having Petrov take Downing's place in the team, or sticking Petrov in for Carew/Gabby and playing 4-5-1.

We could always just change around depending on how the game was going. Oh no, my mistake. O'Neill would be manager, so we wouldn't.

[Steve R]

Just my opinion of course, but there has never been a day in Dunne's life when he has been a better centre half than Olof.

Players inherited but sold/released/retired under MON :-

Sorensen
Cahill, Mellberg, Laursen, Bouma
Gardner, McCann, Barry, Whittingham
Luke Moore, Angel

Not a great team, but surprisingly strong.