Past Managers, Love or Hate?

[Rudy Can't Fail]

O'Leary - thought he was bigger than the club. Did decent job to start with but alienated people so much, in the end even Chris Smith had had enough of him.

Ha! In defence of Chris he was right that we needed to break the three year managerial cycle.  The problem with his demand was we kept hiring poor managers. Hopefully now he's happy to be finally right regarding managers.

[Villa in Denmark]

That would help explain why he’s never worked again.  Neither in the game nor as a pundit. I’m not surprised at all, the massive sugar bag.

Financially he didn't need to work again. He had a gig out in Saudi, naturally enough, after us. Big payoff there too. Baros, maybe his big signing, disappointed really.

The only good thing about Baros was that Houllier somehow deemed him worth one John Carew, which is also the best thing Houllier did for us.

I think that was MON wasnt it? Carew came in the same January window as Ashley Young didnt he?

Houllier was manager of Lyon at the time so sanctioned the Baros/Carew deal from their side.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

I've said it many times but the biggest mystery of the lot to me was how O'Leary behaved. If he'd kept quiet he would have ridden the protest wave and been reasonably popular but instead he went out of his way to alienate everyone.

I was informed by an ex pro that O’Leary was universally disliked by everyone in the game.

That would be because he was a disreputable morally defunct shitbag of a human being.
If he was a tradesman doing work at my house I would be worrying about him ripping me off.
If I was in a group drink with him I would be worried if he was going to stand his round.
If I had been a professional footballer and he was my manager I would be talking to my agent,

[VillaTim]

Every summer DOL took us to Sweden to play a plethora of Scandinavian pub teams.

[Risso]

I seem to recall Steve Stride said that even though it didn't work out, he always got on alright with O'Leary.

[RamboandBruno]

That would help explain why he’s never worked again.  Neither in the game nor as a pundit. I’m not surprised at all, the massive sugar bag.

Financially he didn't need to work again. He had a gig out in Saudi, naturally enough, after us. Big payoff there too. Baros, maybe his big signing, disappointed really.

The only good thing about Baros was that Houllier somehow deemed him worth one John Carew, which is also the best thing Houllier did for us.

I think that was MON wasnt it? Carew came in the same January window as Ashley Young didnt he?

Houllier was manager of Lyon at the time so sanctioned the Baros/Carew deal from their side.

Ah, ok, i read it wrong, stand corrected

[ChicagoLion]

Tony Cascarino said that when they were in the RoI squad O'Leary would talk about anything except football.

I’m surprised O’Leary ever talked about anything other than himself.

That was him.

[VillaTim]

When he started talking about himself in the third person I knew then we had a problem.

[Tokyo Sexwhale]

When he started talking about himself in the third person I knew then we had a problem.

Tokyo Sexwhale hates that.

[Deano's Mullet]

Baros I didn't mind but he seemed to like to hit the deck a lot which was extremely frustrating when he was probably in a better position to try and go for go.

[Risso]

Baros I didn't mind but he seemed to like to hit the deck a lot which was extremely frustrating when he was probably in a better position to try and go for go.

Startd off OK, but soon showed his limitations. He just ran with his head down looking at the ball the whole time, which seemed like a bit of an issue for a footballer. No awareness around him whatsoever.

[SoccerHQ]

Remember that Berson guy we signed? Was huge hype, he came in and looked neat and tidy and then didn't play again and was just loaned out for a year or two.

Pretty much identical to Sanson. Our record with French players isn't the best.

[VillaTim]

Remember that Berson guy we signed? Was huge hype, he came in and looked neat and tidy and then didn't play again and was just loaned out for a year or two.

Pretty much identical to Sanson. Our record with French players isn't the best.

Ginola, Amavi, Makoun II, Veretout, Six. It's a long list.

[Risso]

Remember that Berson guy we signed? Was huge hype, he came in and looked neat and tidy and then didn't play again and was just loaned out for a year or two.

Pretty much identical to Sanson. Our record with French players isn't the best.

Ginola, Amavi, Makoun II, Veretout, Six. It's a long list.

Guilbert, N'Zogbia, Pires...

Thankfully, Digne, Kamara and Diaby seem to have broken the curse.

[paul_e]

I'd put a pretty heavy * next to Amavi and Guilbert in that list. 1 was a good player who did ok despite a horrible injury but was always going to look at moving on (and being moved on) after relegation once he proved his fitness and the other was a player signed by a championship club who unexpectedly got promotion before he actually arrived and despite that he did ok for us.