MO'N on Goals on Sunday

[The Edge]

We're where we are because we as a club bought Darren Bent, Jean II Makoun, Jermaine Jenas, Charles N'Zogbia, Stephen Ireland, Shay Given and paid them all silly money for no return. Players bought with money earnt from sales of the much better players we  bought during O'Neills tenure. He bought some players that didn't return much, but not huge sums individually were spent on them. Beye and Heskey were probably the worst.

(I'll add that I think had Fabian Delphs contract been handled better by the club, he'd have been another £20m sale. £8m for him was a steal.)

His impact was over after we'd struggled in the league the season after, then clambered up to 9th in the last few games.

At that point the club appointed Alex McLeish.

The lack of structure could have been looked at then, couldn't it?

We are where we are, because the owner hasn't put the right people in charge of his investment. He's a rich boy who inherited wealth and businesses, and has pretty much failed at all of them.

100% right mate.

[The Edge]

What did for Lerner and MON was man city.  Their wealth effectively ended our hopes of getting in the champions league.  Lerner knew it and pulled the plug on spending to get in it, and refocused the spending on staying in the premier league.  The shit managerial appointments since then have had an impact but in truth are a result of the limitations around budgets.

That's a really interesting point.

[SheffieldVillain]

I think the O'Neill haters are behaving like a jilted boyfriend. He bought some rubbish and bought some quality.All managers do that. I genuinely believe that if we had backed him when he was asking we would of made champions league football with all the riches that brings. He just pulled off a miracle and will be at the next World Cup pitting his wits against the top coaches in the World. We are still fighting relegation 5 YEAR after he left. He can maybe blamed for 2010/11 season but all the utter shite we have endured since? I don't think so.

Pulled off a miracle? Is that not overstating it somewhat? It was the European Championships not the World Cup, and Ireland finished 3rd in the group above Scotland, Georgia and Gibraltar. Hardly achievement of the century.

Nobody is blaming him for everything that has happened since, but the amount of money he spent on players he then changed his mind on and left out the team kickstarted the problems.

[dave.woodhall]

We're where we are because we as a club bought Darren Bent, Jean II Makoun, Jermaine Jenas, Charles N'Zogbia, Stephen Ireland, Shay Given and paid them all silly money for no return. Players bought with money earnt from sales of the much better players we  bought during O'Neills tenure. He bought some players that didn't return much, but not huge sums individually were spent on them. Beye and Heskey were probably the worst.

(I'll add that I think had Fabian Delphs contract been handled better by the club, he'd have been another £20m sale. £8m for him was a steal.)

His impact was over after we'd struggled in the league the season after, then clambered up to 9th in the last few games.

At that point the club appointed Alex McLeish.

The lack of structure could have been looked at then, couldn't it?

We are where we are, because the owner hasn't put the right people in charge of his investment. He's a rich boy who inherited wealth and businesses, and has pretty much failed at all of them.

100% right mate.

Except the bits that are wrong.

[Risso]

What did for Lerner and MON was man city.  Their wealth effectively ended our hopes of getting in the champions league.  Lerner knew it and pulled the plug on spending to get in it, and refocused the spending on staying in the premier league.  The shit managerial appointments since then have had an impact but in truth are a result of the limitations around budgets.

I don't buy the Man City excuse sorry. If anything, it should make the top 4 slightly easier to achieve, because every year there's going to a big team like Liverpool missing out. What did for Lerner was idiocy at every key step. When you look at his tenure as a whole it's been an unmitigated disaster leading to where we are now.

[glasses]

We're where we are because we as a club bought Darren Bent, Jean II Makoun, Jermaine Jenas, Charles N'Zogbia, Stephen Ireland, Shay Given and paid them all silly money for no return. Players bought with money earnt from sales of the much better players we  bought during O'Neills tenure. He bought some players that didn't return much, but not huge sums individually were spent on them. Beye and Heskey were probably the worst.

(I'll add that I think had Fabian Delphs contract been handled better by the club, he'd have been another £20m sale. £8m for him was a steal.)

His impact was over after we'd struggled in the league the season after, then clambered up to 9th in the last few games.

At that point the club appointed Alex McLeish.

The lack of structure could have been looked at then, couldn't it?

We are where we are, because the owner hasn't put the right people in charge of his investment. He's a rich boy who inherited wealth and businesses, and has pretty much failed at all of them.

100% right mate.

Except the bits that are wrong.

We didn't buy Jermaine Jenas. Care to elaborate

[Brian Taylor]

With Eire he can only pick the players who are available..grealish err? Good luck to them man. No chance he will ever darken VP doorstep again

[joe_c]

He has more financial backing that any other Villa manager in history, and yet he opted for the likes of Harewood, Heskey and co.  The unimaginative dullard.

Nowhere near as good a manager as Sir Brian was for us, or even JG, for that matter.

think the O'Neill haters are behaving like a jilted boyfriend. He bought some rubbish and bought some quality.All managers do that. I genuinely believe that if we had backed him when he was asking we would of made champions league football with all the riches that brings. He just pulled off a miracle and will be at the next World Cup pitting his wits against the top coaches in the World. We are still fighting relegation 5 YEAR after he left. He can maybe blamed for 2010/11 season but all the utter shite we have endured since? I don't think so.

I think the opposite is true. There remains a sizeable faction of our support who still want his babies despite the manner of his departure and the state that he left the club in. You picked a fine time to leave us, O'Neill.

[eamonn]

I'd love MON to face these charges as brought against him by the good folk of H&V. He's so defensive, it would be hilarious. There's a clip of him on youtube I can't find, where his reaction is priceless to a more delicate question by an interviewer than he's used to.

[Dave]

You picked a fine time to leave us, O'Neill.

Loving your work Joe.

[glasses]

You picked a fine time to leave us, O'Neill.

Loving your work Joe.

Yes, despite me arguing that the effect of said departure really should have ended years ago, that line deserves a cap doffing

[Rudy Can't Fail]

I genuinely believe that if we had backed him when he was asking we would of made champions league football with all the riches that brings.

Riches? We'd have been knocked out in the pre-qualification round. The man was/is a footballing dinosaur. You only have to look at our home record under him to see how limited he was. Still, it never stopped him constantly referring post match to us playing "scintillating football", the delusional twat.

[PeterWithesShin]

But as for top 4 and a trophy, "nearly" might just as well be "miles away". Both count as fuck-all. DOL, JG, HWWOW, BFR, SGT, you have to go quite a way back to find a Villa manager who failed to make top six.

Since we got back into the top flight 40 years ago I think Turner & Lambert are the only managers that spent more than a year at the club and didn't manage a top 6 finish.

[dave.woodhall]

We're where we are because we as a club bought Darren Bent, Jean II Makoun, Jermaine Jenas, Charles N'Zogbia, Stephen Ireland, Shay Given and paid them all silly money for no return. Players bought with money earnt from sales of the much better players we  bought during O'Neills tenure. He bought some players that didn't return much, but not huge sums individually were spent on them. Beye and Heskey were probably the worst.

(I'll add that I think had Fabian Delphs contract been handled better by the club, he'd have been another £20m sale. £8m for him was a steal.)

His impact was over after we'd struggled in the league the season after, then clambered up to 9th in the last few games.

At that point the club appointed Alex McLeish.

The lack of structure could have been looked at then, couldn't it?

We are where we are, because the owner hasn't put the right people in charge of his investment. He's a rich boy who inherited wealth and businesses, and has pretty much failed at all of them.

100% right mate.

Except the bits that are wrong.

We didn't buy Jermaine Jenas. Care to elaborate

We got plenty of return from Bent, right up until he suffered a career-ruining injury. The other players were on the whole more miss than hit but none of them damaged us either then or now as much as O'Neill's behaviour. As I've said before, I believe that his, and to a lesser extent Houllier's, behaviour altered Lerner's ideas to a radical and detriimental extent.

[eamonn]

But as for top 4 and a trophy, "nearly" might just as well be "miles away". Both count as fuck-all. DOL, JG, HWWOW, BFR, SGT, you have to go quite a way back to find a Villa manager who failed to make top six.

Since we got back into the top flight 40 years ago I think Turner & Lambert are the only managers that spent more than a year at the club and didn't manage a top 6 finish.

Crackin' Villa-quiz question that.