Richard O'Kelly

[villa `cross the mersey]

Maybe ROK wasn't expecting to remain as #4 following the departure of Terry and  the recruitment of McPhee.
I hope the club (Lange?) is looking at recruiting a younger coach with a fresh outlook of the game- I'm not being ageist - I am the same age as ROK, and am probably too set in my ways to make wide ranging changes to my approach to work and modern working practices.
Hopefully the decision was not "personal" and it will not affect Smiths` day to day management of things at the club.
It will be interesting to see who is recruited for the position. Good look to ROK wherever he chooses to go to.   

[dave.woodhall]

Strange timing I guess but i doubt whether he sprung it on Smith at the last moment. From what's been said if he was asked to stay on when Terry left then it makes sense with pre-season over. Wouldn't be surprised if we see Tony Adams arrive with MacPhee here now

Tony Adams?

That video of him running that training session is very funny.

Aye. Played evil accountant Adam Chance. Used to come into the kitchen criticising MacPhee wasting food and MacPhee would storm off. Noele Gordon would then have to persuade him to come back.

Sid Hooper from the garage nearly bought Villa didn’t he?

He was part of the showbiz consortium that allegedly included Max Bygraves.

[Chico Hamilton III]

Strange timing I guess but i doubt whether he sprung it on Smith at the last moment. From what's been said if he was asked to stay on when Terry left then it makes sense with pre-season over. Wouldn't be surprised if we see Tony Adams arrive with MacPhee here now

Tony Adams?

That video of him running that training session is very funny.

Aye. Played evil accountant Adam Chance. Used to come into the kitchen criticising MacPhee wasting food and MacPhee would storm off. Noele Gordon would then have to persuade him to come back.

Sid Hooper from the garage nearly bought Villa didn’t he?

He was part of the showbiz consortium that allegedly included Max Bygraves.

Wasn’t there a tale on here years ago about Max Bygraves being a Villa fan? Or did I dream it

[paul_e]

Maybe ROK wasn't expecting to remain as #4 following the departure of Terry and  the recruitment of McPhee.
I hope the club (Lange?) is looking at recruiting a younger coach with a fresh outlook of the game- I'm not being ageist - I am the same age as ROK, and am probably too set in my ways to make wide ranging changes to my approach to work and modern working practices.
Hopefully the decision was not "personal" and it will not affect Smiths` day to day management of things at the club.
It will be interesting to see who is recruited for the position. Good look to ROK wherever he chooses to go to.   

If you accept the comments from Smith and ROK it was 'personal' but not in a bad way. By all accounts we were looking to move some of the coaches around which would've meant ROK working largely with the U23s and he decided that wasn't the move for him. There doesn't appear to be any animosity, in fact apparently he agreed to stay in position for a few extra weeks because of Smith isolating and Terry leaving and has moved now because the timing works.

[villa `cross the mersey]

Strange timing I guess but i doubt whether he sprung it on Smith at the last moment. From what's been said if he was asked to stay on when Terry left then it makes sense with pre-season over. Wouldn't be surprised if we see Tony Adams arrive with MacPhee here now

Tony Adams?

That video of him running that training session is very funny.

Aye. Played evil accountant Adam Chance. Used to come into the kitchen criticising MacPhee wasting food and MacPhee would storm off. Noele Gordon would then have to persuade him to come back.

Sid Hooper from the garage nearly bought Villa didn’t he?

He was part of the showbiz consortium that allegedly included Max Bygraves.

Wasn’t there a tale on here years ago about Max Bygraves being a Villa fan? Or did I dream it

My late father was friendly with George Edwards, Harry Parkes and Stan Lynn and attended a few events with them - Max Bygraves was often in attendance and part of that particular social group - he was probably a Villa "fan" in the same way as Tom Hanks is considered one

[Footy-Vill]

Why does someone leave 2 days before a new season

Has there been any explanation?
Or at least a PR version .

Very interesting for something like this to happen. And it's clearly had an impact on Saturday performance of the players .
As has Grealish and Terry leaving.

[not3bad]

Why does someone leave 2 days before a new season

Has there been any explanation?
Or at least a PR version .

Very interesting for something like this to happen. And it's clearly had an impact on Saturday performance of the players .
As has Grealish and Terry leaving.

The explanation given was that he would have left earlier but with John Terry leaving and Dean Smith isolating he stayed a little past the date he planned to leave to keep things ticking over at Bodymoor Heath.

[Drummond]

Why does someone leave 2 days before a new season

. And it's clearly had an impact on Saturday performance of the players .
As has Grealish and Terry leaving.

1. Because that's the right time for them to go.
2. No, it clearly didn't. What's the evidence gun going had anything at all to do with it?
3. Grealish will have done as he was obviously a key part of the team, but Terry not so much.

[Footy-Vill]

Well to me it looked clear because that's the first time Villa performance was like that since 2018/19.

[AlexAlexCropley]

Strange timing I guess but i doubt whether he sprung it on Smith at the last moment. From what's been said if he was asked to stay on when Terry left then it makes sense with pre-season over. Wouldn't be surprised if we see Tony Adams arrive with MacPhee here now

Tony Adams?

That video of him running that training session is very funny.

Aye. Played evil accountant Adam Chance. Used to come into the kitchen criticising MacPhee wasting food and MacPhee would storm off. Noele Gordon would then have to persuade him to come back.

Sid Hooper from the garage nearly bought Villa didn’t he?

He was part of the showbiz consortium that allegedly included Max Bygraves.

Wasn’t there a tale on here years ago about Max Bygraves being a Villa fan? Or did I dream it

My late father was friendly with George Edwards, Harry Parkes and Stan Lynn and attended a few events with them - Max Bygraves was often in attendance and part of that particular social group - he was probably a Villa "fan" in the same way as Tom Hanks is considered one

Pretty sure Bygraves was Millwall

[Bad English]

He’s also 64 maybe he’s decided you know what, I’m done.

It looks like I'm going to have to work until I'm 64. I won't be doing a day more than necessary. I don't care if it is in the middle of a term.

[eamonn]

Teachers get tired long before 64.

[passport1]

Most teachers that I know retire at the earliest opportunity. It's a tough gig.

[ChicagoLion]

Most teachers that I know retire at the earliest opportunity. It's a tough gig.

I can think of tougher gigs.

[eamonn]

By the way, O'Kelly didn't really walk-out on the eve of the season. He told Dean at the beginning of the summer that he wanted to leave but offered/agreed to stay on longer than his notice period.