MO'N on Goals on Sunday

[dave.woodhall]

How many hundreds of millions of pounds did he think it would take to be a suitable custodian of the club when he bought us? Why would we have to pay it back? I get the criticism of O'Neill wasting money but the subsequent pulling of the plug is what's left us where we are now. Sad as it is, the game's all about money. Our owner's cut the budget and as a direct result we're shite. Personally I'd rather he'd have put shitloads of money in and we were good. Harsh on a personal level perhaps but frankly all I'm interested in with Randy is his wallet.

Look back at what you've just written and think about it. You expect a football club owner to invest an unlimited amount of money - which by now would be in the region of half a billion pounds - and you don't expect his club to have to pay it back. Seriously?

[Meanwood Villa]

How many hundreds of millions of pounds did he think it would take to be a suitable custodian of the club when he bought us? Why would we have to pay it back? I get the criticism of O'Neill wasting money but the subsequent pulling of the plug is what's left us where we are now. Sad as it is, the game's all about money. Our owner's cut the budget and as a direct result we're shite. Personally I'd rather he'd have put shitloads of money in and we were good. Harsh on a personal level perhaps but frankly all I'm interested in with Randy is his wallet.

Look back at what you've just written and think about it. You expect a football club owner to invest an unlimited amount of money - which by now would be in the region of half a billion pounds - and you don't expect his club to have to pay it back. Seriously?

Well he'd get to keep the money from Sky and all the prize money from our multiple trophies every season. Speculate to accumulate. I dunno, it's just all depressing how it's turned out. I was more excited about Randy joining than O'Neill because I thought he'd buy us success.

[four fornicholl]

ive said it loads of times but I really cant blame lerner
he is, imo,being very badly advised

[tomd2103]

ive said it loads of times but I really cant blame lerner
he is, imo,being very badly advised

Oh no, Randy Lerner has to take his share of the blame.  There have been a succession of very poor decisions which he is ultimately responsible for.

[dave.woodhall]

How many hundreds of millions of pounds did he think it would take to be a suitable custodian of the club when he bought us? Why would we have to pay it back? I get the criticism of O'Neill wasting money but the subsequent pulling of the plug is what's left us where we are now. Sad as it is, the game's all about money. Our owner's cut the budget and as a direct result we're shite. Personally I'd rather he'd have put shitloads of money in and we were good. Harsh on a personal level perhaps but frankly all I'm interested in with Randy is his wallet.

Look back at what you've just written and think about it. You expect a football club owner to invest an unlimited amount of money - which by now would be in the region of half a billion pounds - and you don't expect his club to have to pay it back. Seriously?

Well he'd get to keep the money from Sky and all the prize money from our multiple trophies every season. Speculate to accumulate. I dunno, it's just all depressing how it's turned out. I was more excited about Randy joining than O'Neill because I thought he'd buy us success.

You mean like Manchester United (£380 million in debt), Chelsea (£1 billion), Liverpool (£127 million), Manchester City (somehow debt free despite one annual profit in the past seven years so how they do it is beyond me) or Arsenal (£240 million)? That sort of speculating to accumulate?   

[The Edge]

ive said it loads of times but I really cant blame lerner
he is, imo,being very badly advised

For me it's not just about lack of investment. I think the players might get a bit of a boost  (or kick up the arse) to actually see the owner in his seat a la
Roman Abramovich. It can't be great to look up to the directors box and see a block of empty seats. 2 years since he showed his face in B6.

[kippaxvilla2]

MON taking credit for Downing is a bit much, he was crap that season for us. Came good the year after MON left.

It wasn't the net spend that the problem was, it was the wage bill that spiraled out of control with the likes of Beye, Sidwell, Davies and Heskey chewing up crazy wages for no return. Selling Cahill and Davis wasn't a good idea either.

Interesting that he mentioned about two players Villa bought after his time that cost more. Bent and who was the other one?

Jean II Makoun

[four fornicholl]

ive said it loads of times but I really cant blame lerner
he is, imo,being very badly advised

Oh no, Randy Lerner has to take his share of the blame.  There have been a succession of very poor decisions which he is ultimately responsible for.

tom fox has more to answer for
end of story

[LeeB]

ive said it loads of times but I really cant blame lerner
he is, imo,being very badly advised

Oh no, Randy Lerner has to take his share of the blame.  There have been a succession of very poor decisions which he is ultimately responsible for.

tom fox has more to answer for
end of story

I'm not sure about that.

[four fornicholl]

ive said it loads of times but I really cant blame lerner
he is, imo,being very badly advised

Oh no, Randy Lerner has to take his share of the blame.  There have been a succession of very poor decisions which he is ultimately responsible for.

tom fox has more to answer for
end of story

I'm not sure about that.

who is running our club.it isn't lerner its fox

[The Edge]

How many hundreds of millions of pounds did he think it would take to be a suitable custodian of the club when he bought us? Why would we have to pay it back? I get the criticism of O'Neill wasting money but the subsequent pulling of the plug is what's left us where we are now. Sad as it is, the game's all about money. Our owner's cut the budget and as a direct result we're shite. Personally I'd rather he'd have put shitloads of money in and we were good. Harsh on a personal level perhaps but frankly all I'm interested in with Randy is his wallet.

Look back at what you've just written and think about it. You expect a football club owner to invest an unlimited amount of money - which by now would be in the region of half a billion pounds - and you don't expect his club to have to pay it back. Seriously?

Well he'd get to keep the money from Sky and all the prize money from our multiple trophies every season. Speculate to accumulate. I dunno, it's just all depressing how it's turned out. I was more excited about Randy joining than O'Neill because I thought he'd buy us success.

You mean like Manchester United (£380 million in debt), Chelsea (£1 billion), Liverpool (£127 million), Manchester City (somehow debt free despite one annual profit in the past seven years so how they do it is beyond me) or Arsenal (£240 million)? That sort of speculating to accumulate?   

I'm not too up on how football finances run but if your asking if I'd swap places with those clubs then yes I would in a heartbeat. I understand Real Madrid have always run costantly in debt.

[tomd2103]

ive said it loads of times but I really cant blame lerner
he is, imo,being very badly advised

Oh no, Randy Lerner has to take his share of the blame.  There have been a succession of very poor decisions which he is ultimately responsible for.

tom fox has more to answer for
end of story

Which is why I said Lerner has to take his share of the blame.  As does Faulkner, as does Fox and as do the managers who have been in the hot seat.  All have made poor decisions at various times over the past five years that have contributed to where we now find ourselves.

[dave.woodhall]

How many hundreds of millions of pounds did he think it would take to be a suitable custodian of the club when he bought us? Why would we have to pay it back? I get the criticism of O'Neill wasting money but the subsequent pulling of the plug is what's left us where we are now. Sad as it is, the game's all about money. Our owner's cut the budget and as a direct result we're shite. Personally I'd rather he'd have put shitloads of money in and we were good. Harsh on a personal level perhaps but frankly all I'm interested in with Randy is his wallet.

Look back at what you've just written and think about it. You expect a football club owner to invest an unlimited amount of money - which by now would be in the region of half a billion pounds - and you don't expect his club to have to pay it back. Seriously?

Well he'd get to keep the money from Sky and all the prize money from our multiple trophies every season. Speculate to accumulate. I dunno, it's just all depressing how it's turned out. I was more excited about Randy joining than O'Neill because I thought he'd buy us success.

You mean like Manchester United (£380 million in debt), Chelsea (£1 billion), Liverpool (£127 million), Manchester City (somehow debt free despite one annual profit in the past seven years so how they do it is beyond me) or Arsenal (£240 million)? That sort of speculating to accumulate?   

I'm not too up on how football finances run but if your asking if I'd swap places with those clubs then yes I would in a heartbeat. I understand Real Madrid have always run costantly in debt.

Of course you'd swap places with them. Two clubs bankrolled by bottomless wealth, the biggest club in the English-speaking world, probably the widest-supported, the one with the biggest matchday income in the world and a final one who are the biggest anywhere. Please tell me how we'd compete with them because I'd love to know.

[kippaxvilla2]

MO'N's three biggest mistakes.

1. Heskey signing
2. Heskey starting the cup final ahead of Carew.
3. Moscow

[stuart445]

While the timing of O'Neill's departure was spiteful, we shouldn't be blaming that on our current problems. It was in 2010.

The correct appointments since would have made the situation recoverable. FWIW I think Houllier would have proved to be the correct appointment had his health not let him down.

Me too. The real disaster was the lunacy of replacing him with TSM.  Soild downhill ever since.

Houllier was the wrong appointment because of his health issues. It didn't suddenly crop up.

If we'd have got someone with a similar profile abroad, and not insisted on bloody "premier league experience", we might have had a bloody chance.

Correct. It was a gamble, on our future competitiveness as a premier league team. The more I think about it the more gambles there have been under this regime. That houllier's health will hold, that the fans will accept mcleish, that deals can be done in the last year of a player's contract. Solskjær would have been a punt. Replacing your prize assets with unproven French players has been a disastrous punt. Sherwood, garde. This era has been characterised by a perverse will to take the left field option and it's fucked us.

Edit - of course, to bring it back to MON, it all started with a gamble, with the front loaded investment and lack of proper accountability when he was first in place. This all makes the safe stewardship stuff sound pretty hollow.

If there was accountability from the start then O'Neil would never of been our manager.  This situation we find ourselves in isn't 1 persons fault it was started by O'Neil massive over spend on limited players then his perfectly timed departure to cause maximum impact.  Then the calamity of managerial appointments following that have brought us to where we are today, Lerner and O'Neil are both to blame.