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Author Topic: MO'N on Goals on Sunday  (Read 40385 times)

Offline cheltenhamlion

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Re: MO'N on Goals on Sunday
« Reply #180 on: December 21, 2015, 07:25:31 PM »
The high water mark came when he was told by Faulkner he would not sign off on signing Aiden McGeady from some Russian club for 2 reasons.

Fairly trivial compared to the rest of it, but that bit's not right - McGeady only joined Spartak four days after O'Neill quit. He'd have been signing him from Celtic.

If that is all I fucked up from my recollection of 5 years ago I will live with it!

Online Dave

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Re: MO'N on Goals on Sunday
« Reply #181 on: December 21, 2015, 07:30:34 PM »
The high water mark came when he was told by Faulkner he would not sign off on signing Aiden McGeady from some Russian club for 2 reasons.

Fairly trivial compared to the rest of it, but that bit's not right - McGeady only joined Spartak four days after O'Neill quit. He'd have been signing him from Celtic.

If that is all I fucked up from my recollection of 5 years ago I will live with it!

Indeed.

Just wouldn't want what looks to be a highly plausible story to be discredited on a technicality.

Offline brontebilly

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Re: MO'N on Goals on Sunday
« Reply #182 on: December 21, 2015, 07:51:20 PM »
The high water mark came when he was told by Faulkner he would not sign off on signing Aiden McGeady from some Russian club for 2 reasons.

Fairly trivial compared to the rest of it, but that bit's not right - McGeady only joined Spartak four days after O'Neill quit. He'd have been signing him from Celtic.

He signed for Spartak for 9m or so, a farcical fee given the individual involved.

Thought MON wanted Keane and McGeady in that summer?

Offline cheltenhamlion

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Re: MO'N on Goals on Sunday
« Reply #183 on: December 21, 2015, 08:02:44 PM »
We haven't had one of these debates in a while! For my two penneth as to why he is the devil incarnate, then read on.

A few points of order first though. What I post about his departure is based at least 90% in fact (others here can comment on the bona fides of my ITK info). In small part I have had to read between the lines but they are very much educated guesses based on what I do know to be fact.

The time line of events started around the time Chelsea smashed us (by 7?). Anyhow, it was the third year and not long before his Wembley trips.

Faulkner was in post by then and MON had kicked up a storm about it. He had seen off proper business types before and wasn't going to accept having to report to this fucker.

The first questions had started to be asked about his lack of use of the expensively assembled squad he had and the players were getting pissed off by the lack of progress on the pitch, as well as annoyed by his archaic methods.

That day broke the spirit in the team. An injured Milner forced to travel to the game at the 11th hour. Luke Young thrown in as a sacrificial lamb as he was pissed off at being questioned as to why we were playing anyone at right back but the one you spent £5m and £60k a week on. Shortly after,  he announced his own bomb squad.

You all know what happened on the Wembley visits. The season ends. Now this is where my first dig at the club comes. They knew it wasn't right but didn't have the bollocks to remove him. And so started the battle of Randy/Faulkner/MON.

MON was convinced that he could keep the doors to the bank vault open if he could just get the annoying call centre bloke out of the way. It had always worked on the past with better qualified business types. But he misread Lerner and the fact he wanted shot of him. Therefore, Faulkner stays.

The club put up what were perfectly reasonable requests of how he ought to approach the summer business, that couldn't possibly fall foul of a tribunal evidentially, but did so knowing he wouldn't stand for it and would likely jack it in at the end of season 4 when diminishing performance would start to damage brand MON.

He had been a prickly fucker all of the pre season for what should have been year four. He realised he wasn't going to win with the chairman chucking another £30m in the mix without some being moved on and that Faulkner was sharing Lerner's position, rather than it being his own.

The high water mark came when he was told by Faulkner he would not sign off on signing Aiden McGeady from some Russian club for 2 reasons.

For one, we already have 2 England international wingers in the squad, and 2, you haven't shifted Luke Young, Davies etc as requested for the bank to open again.

Man Citeh then pile in with a bid for Milner. Ireland plus the money for McGeady and another?  Do the deal.

But he didn't immediately get the money as he wanted to spend it on McGeady and had not come up with a good reason as to why he was a vital signing.

At the 11th hour he tried again. Luke Young to Liverpool. Little fee but his wage was gone (Young decided against it and we found out at Walsall away when Percy and I were eavesdropping a Sky journo on the premise of a fag break outside the ground at half time).

Young hasn't gone and you can't sign a player we don't need Martin. Randy will support you, but you have to explain who you want and why. I will be part of the discussion. Says Faulkner.

MON knew the game was up. We won't do better than last year ever if I am asked to manage like everyone else. I can't have brand MON damaged.

A last ditch meeting was arranged with just Randy so he could reconcile himself with what Faulkner was saying and get closure that Randy meant it. He did.

And ten days later, for no good reason why that day should be the catalyst (other than Randy was half way home and would have to turn back Mid Atlantic) he jacks it in. 5 days before the season starts and spends the next year hitting out time and again at the club through his mates in the media. Like a cleverer version of Sherwood.

Come the tribunal,  it was very much "pay him off and finish this unedifying episode" rather than him having a winnable case.

And with that burning his arse and fortune, Lerner gave up on being involved. Personally feeling brutalised and let down by a man he trusted.

He has done himself no favours since and has plenty of accountability. But do not dare to defend that self serving, 4 eyed, snivelling, bottler in my presence. He is a malignant little bastard.

I just wish you'd say what you think and stop sitting on the fence. 😉

Apologies. I got all Trevor Brooking!

Offline cheltenhamlion

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Re: MO'N on Goals on Sunday
« Reply #184 on: December 21, 2015, 08:09:15 PM »
The high water mark came when he was told by Faulkner he would not sign off on signing Aiden McGeady from some Russian club for 2 reasons.

Fairly trivial compared to the rest of it, but that bit's not right - McGeady only joined Spartak four days after O'Neill quit. He'd have been signing him from Celtic.

He signed for Spartak for 9m or so, a farcical fee given the individual involved.

Thought MON wanted Keane and McGeady in that summer?

There was talk of Keane but McGeady was where it hit the buffers.

Online ChicagoLion

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Re: MO'N on Goals on Sunday
« Reply #185 on: December 21, 2015, 08:13:37 PM »
Thanks Cheltenhamlion, I am in the same corner mate and get pretty angry when people try to defend the snivelling little s**t.

Offline four fornicholl

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Re: MO'N on Goals on Sunday
« Reply #186 on: December 21, 2015, 08:16:47 PM »
lets make randy feel wanted then
he aint the devil incarnate
he really could,if he wanted to
make us great again

Offline cheltenhamlion

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Re: MO'N on Goals on Sunday
« Reply #187 on: December 21, 2015, 08:17:54 PM »
Thanks Cheltenham very enlightening. For me it damns Lerner more for not pulling the trigger when he knew it was all over with MON. Why try and manage out a man like him, who, whether you love or hate him, has a clear gift for wily self preservation. Why not just sack him, which in this scenario would be more straightforward and dignified and with less risk of long term fallout?

I mean, if MON was being asked to justify purely football related decisions (why mcgeady not player X) by Faulkner and they knew he wouldn't tolerate it, then they were in a ridiculous situation. He shouldn't have still been in the position he was. Can you then blame MON if he reacts exactly the way they expect? And if they are trying to push him out why should he resign at a convenient time for them?

On the last point, sorry but that does grind my gears. Am I to be sympathetic with a billionaire who abandons us to nosedive into the championship because he has his ego bruised by his one time ally? Sorry but grow a set, randy.

In part I agree, and I can assure you that my post is not to exonerate our board of blame. They thought they were playing a canny game. Fucked it up. Decided that there would be no more games, they knew best and would only deal with "nice" blokes from thereon out.

I have hammered this point in the fanzine many times. From MON to Houllier? Chalk and cheese football wise but the right idea. From Houllier to next big thing Martinez? Makes sense from a football perspective.

From Martinez to McLeish? Alarm bells. And that is where the board have fucked it in recent years. They are a very long way from lacking in culpability. But, when as recent my as last February when Lambert got his cards, he was still citing how tough a job he had fixing MON's profligacy with finances, it is very hard to take when people argue he is some latter day Messiah for crippling the club financially to finish in the Intertoto a few times. 

Offline brian green

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Re: MO'N on Goals on Sunday
« Reply #188 on: December 21, 2015, 08:48:20 PM »
Stuart, I don't know whether you are old enough to remember the Burgess and McLean spy scandal, probably not, but this Keane and McGeady plot reminds me of it because the peripheral characters, Kim Philby, Wystan Auden and the rest, are more interesting than the known individuals.   I raise this because I thought Scott Parker played a role in the big pre flounce showdown with pubehead.   Did he? and were there others he wanted but could not have?

Offline cheltenhamlion

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Re: MO'N on Goals on Sunday
« Reply #189 on: December 21, 2015, 09:01:06 PM »
You know what, there was talk of Parker at one point, but that was also a bit of a smokescreen. Part of the same "have you sold them yet?" argument.

Offline KevinGage

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Re: MO'N on Goals on Sunday
« Reply #190 on: December 21, 2015, 09:04:44 PM »
As selfish and self centered as he was (and as many football managers need to be, TBF) I still don't think he sat on his hands and waited for the perfect moment to phuck us up as has often been suggested on here and elsewhere.

For one thing, if that was the mindset, why not bail the day before the first game of the season? Leaving KMac or whoever virtually no time at all to rally the troops. Better yet, if he hated the club that much, why not ditch Milner for whatever he could get, move a few more on to technically play by the 'sell to buy' mantra, and then pack the wage bill with a few David Nugent-types on long contracts before bailing on September 1st?

I have long been of the belief that when he initially agreed to the sell to buy condition in April/May 2010 (when the list of names available were circulated to the dailies and nationals) he did so in the belief that it most likely wouldn't apply to him anyway, as he'd soon be on his way to Anfield.  His mate Kenny Dalglish had touted him as a successor to Benitez, and had even had a lengthy newspaper article on the subject printed in one of the Sunday's around that time.

Hicks and Gillett had personally asked Dalgish who he recommended for the role. He said O'Neill and they went with the tepid Woy Hodgson instead. It's probably understandable that they wanted some one a bit less volatile and prone to tantrums after their various spats with FSW.

Woy becomes Liverpool boss on July 1st 2009.

O'Neill then has to wrap his head around the fact that the Villa job and its new limitations is as good as its going to get for the foreseeable.   He agrees to the Milner deal, with Ireland coming in the opposite direction, thinking the loss of such a key player will give him some room for maneuver with the board.

But the issue has always been the combined wages of Shorey, Harewood, Davies, Luke Young and NRC and co, so losing one high earner isn't going to cut it.

He wants Keane and McGeedy on top of the Ireland deal, and thinks he is close when Liverpool come in for Luke Young and Blackburn express an interest in Nigel Reo Coker. Both players decline those respective moves around the time we play Valencia and -with little interest in the other deadbeats and (crucially) RL no longer being as malleable as previous years- the game is up.

O'Neill doesn't get his way and flounces off.

I have seen nothing in Aiden McGeedy either before or since that makes me believe we missed out on a special talent.



« Last Edit: December 21, 2015, 09:15:45 PM by KevinGage »

Offline brian green

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Re: MO'N on Goals on Sunday
« Reply #191 on: December 21, 2015, 09:09:36 PM »
It must have been when I was in the shower with Bobby Ewing but somebody told me that MON agreed to pay Parker £100k a week and it was blocked.   Such a pity that the most interesting footballers are too thick to write their own biographies so we never get to know the things that get buried.

Online Steve67

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Re: MO'N on Goals on Sunday
« Reply #192 on: December 21, 2015, 09:22:05 PM »
I had the fortune of working for the ex Leicester chairman, Phil Smith. He relayed a story to me that put me in no doubt whatsoever that Martin O'Neill is a horrible little bastard who looks after number one. I fully believe Chelts story. O'Neill is a shithead of the highest order.

Offline stuart445

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Re: MO'N on Goals on Sunday
« Reply #193 on: December 21, 2015, 09:53:33 PM »
What are you going on about? Maybe you're not Very bright so I'll dumb it down for you. Randy Lerner was at Remi Gardes first match
« Last Edit: December 21, 2015, 09:55:44 PM by stuart445 »

Offline peter w

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Re: MO'N on Goals on Sunday
« Reply #194 on: December 21, 2015, 10:07:22 PM »
What are you going on about? Maybe you're not Very bright so I'll dumb it down for you. Randy Lerner was at Remi Gardes first match

Really? Fucking O'Neill truly is a cu*t.

 


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