John Terry - Gone

[Matt Collins]

Yeah we basically matched Everton despite spending miles more than then and then were overtaken by Spurs who spent less than us too

MON bought a handful of excellent players, but the mistake was that While Spurs were buying modric, defoe, VDV, plus players for the future in Walker, Bale, Naughton etc - we were spending similar amounts on Shorey, Cuellar, NRC, Sidwell etc

It's unfair to cherry pick as I've done there but the above is indicative of the different strategies. Ours worked best initially but was limited by its own caution, as was our style of football

[Ad@m]

Yeah but how did Spurs wage bill compare?

[PeterWithesShin]

Yeah but how did Spurs wage bill compare?

If only there was a poster we could ask.

[cheltenhamlion]

I will tell you what. That whole induction singalong thing actually made me feel a bit better about his signing. He clearly is up for the challenge at least.

[PeterWithesShin]

I've made my views on him plain, but he does seem to be doing and saying the right things so far.

[Ad@m]

Given the amount of interviews he's done over the years he'd have to be an absolute imbecile to not be good at them by now. It's all very standard, media-trained guff.

[Tayls_7]

If Terry had acted to type he'd be in China or the Middle East now but he's clearly at Villa for the challenge and his belief that he still has a lot to offer. I felt I'd misplaced my moral compass when I noticed myself coming around to the idea of him joining us, but as many people have said, we've probably had to tolerate bigger arseholes. I hope during his time at Villa he conducts himself professionally both on and off the field. I have a feeling he will.

[pauliewalnuts]

Mon had 2 problems.

He couldn't find a decent striker to offer an alternative to Gabby and Carew  If you look at how he spent the money he was given the spending on defence and midfield was totally out of line with the lack of spending up front and it showed, we were defensively sound but just didn't have the options up front if Gabby and Carew weren't doing it and neither of them was quite good enough to turn games on their own.

He also had zero tactical nous.

Whatever the opposition, try hit them on the break (unless they don't fall into that trap, in which case just bang your fucking head against the wall for 90 minutes). So many home league matches against dross opposition who weren't going to put us under pressure in the first place, toiling away with endless crosses in the general direction of the box.

That whole MON period, we were great away from home (playing on the break) and absolutely crap otherwise.

Every season he was there, we'd score 27 or 28 home league goals. Only 10 of them would be spread across two drubbings we'd dished out to clubs who were stupid enough to fall into our trap (Bolton always seemed to play an insanely dangerous high line against us) which would leave a ratio of 1 goal per match across the other 17 matches.

Two totally different experiences, home and away.

Oh and his substitutions - 75 minutes, Sidwell on, and usually something involving moving a non right back to right back (to replace the non right back who was already playing there).

[paul_e]

Mon had 2 problems.

He couldn't find a decent striker to offer an alternative to Gabby and Carew  If you look at how he spent the money he was given the spending on defence and midfield was totally out of line with the lack of spending up front and it showed, we were defensively sound but just didn't have the options up front if Gabby and Carew weren't doing it and neither of them was quite good enough to turn games on their own.

He also had zero tactical nous.

Whatever the opposition, try hit them on the break (unless they don't fall into that trap, in which case just bang your fucking head against the wall for 90 minutes). So many home league matches against dross opposition who weren't going to put us under pressure in the first place, toiling away with endless crosses in the general direction of the box.

That whole MON period, we were great away from home (playing on the break) and absolutely crap otherwise.

Every season he was there, we'd score 27 or 28 home league goals. Only 10 of them would be spread across two drubbings we'd dished out to clubs who were stupid enough to fall into our trap (Bolton always seemed to play an insanely dangerous high line against us) which would leave a ratio of 1 goal per match across the other 17 matches.

Two totally different experiences, home and away.

Oh and his substitutions - 75 minutes, Sidwell on, and usually something involving moving a non right back to right back (to replace the non right back who was already playing there).

That was problem 2 that I didn't include for some reason, I think I got distracted.

[Matt Collins]

Yep - completely agree on both

On paper our midfield should have been capable of some really fluid stuff. But I remember the cup semi v Chelsea and just realising that a MON team could never compete with those clubs. It was like watching England play one of the major foreign powers

[brentastonb6]

Without ambushing the John Terry signs thread even more , MON to me is the man more than any other who put us on the road to where we are- For every James Milner or Ashley Young there were ten Marlon Harewoods , Nicky Shoreys , Curtis Davies's, Habib Beyes et al on £40k per week contracts for four years , jumped ship when told he'd emptied the till, meant we'd never really know whether the managers who followed him in were good bad or indifferent as they had virtually peanuts to spend. I detest him possibly more than Ellis

[ciggiesnbeer]

I still cant figure MON out. I go back and forth between remembering him fondly and detesting him. Sometimes in the space of a minute. I probably need another decade or so to decide.

[Damo70]

I would defend his managerial results and even his signings. But I can't defend the timing and the way he walked out.

[peter w]

I wouldn't. I wanted him out at the end of the second season.

[Clark W Griswold]

I wouldn't. I wanted him out at the end of the second season.

His second season was his best. He took us from 12th (his first season) to 6th and hadn't really spent that dramatically in the summer before. He actually did really well that season. It started to go south towards the end of the third season when the points made in previous posts about lack of plan B, tactics working away but not at home, playing people out of position and predictable (bad) substitutions started to take their toll. He rallied with some changes in personnel for season 4 but by the end he'd well and truly run out of ideas. Lerner putting the brakes on more changes meant he was only going to go backwards with us so he walked. I think it showed he hadn't got what it took to manage a team near the very top.