Takeover rumours

[paul_e]

But you can't say we didn't spend money - I bet we paid Heskey not much a dissimilar wage to that Arsenal paid to Arshavin.

It's Martin O'Neill. It was always Martin O'Neill. For all his good points, it was he who was entrusted with large amounts of money to establish us in the top tier of football, and he pissed it away on inadequate plodders and played the most retrograde, consciously, brutishly stupid football anyone in his position could possibly have played.

This will inevitably start the old arguments but I do find it strange that O'Neill's getting shit yet he was the last manager who had us anywhere near being a half decent side on the pitch.

That's the problem though, MON made a team with a short shelf life, and then took his ball and left when it started to go a bit rotten.  Spending the amounts he did on players who were 28+ wasn't going to be sustainable, and he gave them all big enough contracts that they were never going to be easy to get rid of.  I do wonder how he'd have handled that if he had made the top 4, I can only assume he thought he'd be able to buy a whole new squad and leave that lot sitting on the bench.

[Ron Manager]

Yes Martin O'Neill was arrogant enough to believe not only was he the manager he was in full charge of the club in every respect.

The club owner let it go on far too long. He was well meaning but naive in the extreme and was taught a harsh lesson.

But if MON had bought Darren Bent instead of Heskey we could have made the promised land of top European competition.

He didn't and we didn't .

[Meanwood Villa]

Those are all valid criticisms of him and the failure to make the champions league is a mark against him but we've been pretty much useless on the pitch since he left and I don't see how it's fair to blame him for that. When he was actually at the club we were better. 

[Rudy Can't Fail]

I do wonder how he'd have handled that if he had made the top 4, I can only assume he thought he'd be able to buy a whole new squad and leave that lot sitting on the bench.

Ha! One thing's for sure, we'd have been knocked out in the first round of the Champions League qualifier. His football was from the Dark Ages.

[brian green]

But MON had two rocket boosters behind him namely Randy's money and the departure of Doug Ellis.   I have thought a lot about this - just like you have - and I have concluded that any competent manager from those available when Lerner bought the club would have done at least as well as O'Neill and probably better.   Three sixth place finishes was, in my opinion, a poor return for the once in a lifetime uplift the club experienced when Randy Lerner came.

[eastie]

Those are all valid criticisms of him and the failure to make the champions league is a mark against him but we've been pretty much useless on the pitch since he left and I don't see how it's fair to blame him for that. When he was actually at the club we were better. 

He achieved 3 top 6 finishes and got us to a cup final but given the situation at the time and the money at his disposal he underachieved  in my view .

[Monty]

People always say that about Darren Bent, but we actually didn't create enough chances to justify needing an extra finisher. We didn't need another striker that window, we needed a creative midfielder as we always have done, but MON wanted to revert to 4-4-2 from the 4-3-3 which was actually working well because...you know...4-4-2. It was screamworthy.

Those are all valid criticisms of him and the failure to make the champions league is a mark against him but we've been pretty much useless on the pitch since he left and I don't see how it's fair to blame him for that. When he was actually at the club we were better. 

Because he had all the money to spend! Almost any manager in the top two divisions could have got somewhere with that cash. A lot of the players he signed have been useless since he left because he bought them when they were at or just over their peak on big wages and long contracts, and we couldn't shift the now useless (and, in the bargain, thuggish, unprofessional and arseholeish) wage-drains we had hanging around the club and lost even more money. He was an inadequate scheister who got found out.

[paul_e]

But MON had two rocket boosters behind him namely Randy's money and the departure of Doug Ellis.   I have thought a lot about this - just like you have - and I have concluded that any competent manager from those available when Lerner bought the club would have done at least as well as O'Neill and probably better.   Three sixth place finishes was, in my opinion, a poor return for the once in a lifetime uplift the club experienced when Randy Lerner came.

I agree totally, he spent a lot of money in his last 2 summers (not counting the one where he flounced off) with a net spend of £65m.  Even with the Crazy Man City money now I'd expect that kind of spending, on a side who had finished 6th, to do more than 2 more 6th place finishes.  In truth mon can have no excuses for not making the champions league places in those seasons, the real reason for it was that he ran the team into the ground and every year we limped over the line whilst teams around us were getting stronger.

[Meanwood Villa]

As it stands the team that's been variously described as arseholes, thuggish and unprofessional are our last vaguely successful team. What does that make the current mob? No one knows whether any other manager would have done better, it is just guesswork to say that someone would. I don't like O'Neill for leaving when he did and his later career does suggest he'd lost it but really nearly 4 years down the line how is he still getting the blame for the dross currently on offer?

[Monty]

Well, we didn't have a bottomless pit of money and he spent it all on those players. And yes - Dunne and Collins physically threatened a Villa legend, for one thing, and they and Warnock spent a lot of the GH and Eck years mouthing off at the young players whenever he messed up. Those three were a poisonous influence, for which privilege, thanks to MON, we paid six figures a week. The current mob are just cheap and trying their best. That's not to mention the money spent on the likes of Sidwell, Heskey, Harewood, Shorey, Carson, Davies, Knight. Yes he also signed good players, but they were hardly amazing finds - everyone in the league knew about Milner and Young, and he inherited Stan Petrov at Celtic, he didn't go out to find him, as he inherited Henrik Larsson, Martin Laursen and Gareth Barry. His scouting was UKIP-esque and his spending was like Mike Tyson's circa 1995.

As for guesswork, well, look at Moyes and Pardew - hardly the game's greatest thinkers but they assembled teams more cheaply than MON which played better football, had better squad depth and finished higher.

Martin O'Neill wasted the best opportunity this club had had in years, and he did so in such a spectacularly obnoxious, gratingly dislikable and flouncingly prima-donna-ish way that I can't believe he still has even one defender among Villa fans.

[Legion]

Well, we didn't have a bottomless pit of money and he spent it all on those players. And yes - Dunne and Collins physically threatened a Villa legend, for one thing, and they and Warnock spent a lot of the GH and Eck years mouthing off at the young players whenever he messed up. Those three were a poisonous influence, for which privilege, thanks to MON, we paid six figures a week. The current mob are just cheap and trying their best. That's not to mention the money spent on the likes of Sidwell, Heskey, Harewood, Shorey, Carson, Davies, Knight. Yes he also signed good players, but they were hardly amazing finds - everyone in the league knew about Milner and Young, and he inherited Stan Petrov at Celtic, he didn't go out to find him, as he inherited Henrik Larsson, Martin Laursen and Gareth Barry. His scouting was UKIP-esque and his spending was like Mike Tyson's circa 1995.

As for guesswork, well, look at Moyes and Pardew - hardly the game's greatest thinkers but they assembled teams more cheaply than MON which played better football, had better squad depth and finished higher.

Martin O'Neill wasted the best opportunity this club had had in years, and he did so in such a spectacularly obnoxious, gratingly dislikable and flouncingly prima-donna-ish way that I can't believe he still has even one defender among Villa fans.

[paul_e]

What Monty said, I don't understand how people don't see that.  MON was exactly what we wanted after DOL but was also the last thing we needed.

[MoetVillan]

I feel dirty and used knowing I have to agree with the Pardew comment.  Urgh.

Mind you, its been proven you can spend well over 100 million on a squad and go backwards.  Take a bow Levy, take a bow son.  When do we next get to compare our wages with Spurzzzzz

[PeterWithe]

You wonder if any PL club is particularly attractive to the super rich any more, by definition they are used to being top dogs, anyone with that mindset would have to invest  400m to see a team in the top 4, for those kind of folk why spend that to finish 4th, why not invest in  a club in a country where you could spend a lot less and challenge, and more importantly, be adored?

[Jimsta]

Well, we didn't have a bottomless pit of money and he spent it all on those players. And yes - Dunne and Collins physically threatened a Villa legend, for one thing, and they and Warnock spent a lot of the GH and Eck years mouthing off at the young players whenever he messed up. Those three were a poisonous influence, for which privilege, thanks to MON, we paid six figures a week. The current mob are just cheap and trying their best. That's not to mention the money spent on the likes of Sidwell, Heskey, Harewood, Shorey, Carson, Davies, Knight. Yes he also signed good players, but they were hardly amazing finds - everyone in the league knew about Milner and Young, and he inherited Stan Petrov at Celtic, he didn't go out to find him, as he inherited Henrik Larsson, Martin Laursen and Gareth Barry. His scouting was UKIP-esque and his spending was like Mike Tyson's circa 1995.

As for guesswork, well, look at Moyes and Pardew - hardly the game's greatest thinkers but they assembled teams more cheaply than MON which played better football, had better squad depth and finished higher.

Martin O'Neill wasted the best opportunity this club had had in years, and he did so in such a spectacularly obnoxious, gratingly dislikable and flouncingly prima-donna-ish way that I can't believe he still has even one defender among Villa fans.

Amen to that.