The End of the Line - David O'Leary

[adrenachrome]

Can't disagree with the general sentiment, but one good moment was when he rushed onto the pitch when Luke Moore was injured.
Honest bunch of lads.

[Pete3206]

Colossal twat. Despised him.

[ADVILLAFAN]

I'm not fickle, I still don't like him.

[Archbishop Herbert Cockthrottle]

He should have been sacked straight after this.

Doug was doing a book signing the following day that I went to. He was fucking fewmin.

[eamonn]

He's toxic and hasn't been touched since we dumped him - aside from less than a year in the middle-east when he got sacked after 9 months and is still living-off his £3m pay-off.

[VillaTim]

He's literally vanished off the face of the earth. Not even a pundit or anything.

[eamonn]

I think I read recently he does occasional corporate hospitality for Arsenal.

[Villa in Denmark]

I think I read recently he does occasional corporate hospitality for Arsenal.

Imagine paying a grand or more for corporate hospitality and getting that miserable chunt as your legend.

[VillaTim]

I think I read recently he does occasional corporate hospitality for Arsenal.

That'd be up his street , talking to a box full of people who can't get out all about himself.

[kippaxvilla2]

I wrote to Doug about him slagging off the youth system.  Doug wrote back to me almost telling me he agreed he was a twat.  It caused quite a furore at the time.

[SoccerHQ]

Always remembering his talking up the opposition and how good they were, how much money they spent etc.  Had a reputation for being lazy and was disliked from within the game too.  I must be one of those sugarbags he referred to.

“We can’t compete with the Middlesbrough’s and Charlton’s of this world.”

In fairness in that time Boro took Southgate, Ugo and Boateng from us in 12 months and also signed likes of Mendieta and Yakubu when he was very good for Portsmouth.

O'Leary wanted Hasselbaink one summer and he went to Middlesborough and they also signed Viduka who'd been prolific under O'Leary for Leeds.

Charlton was a stranger comparison as they never spent that much but just massively overachieved under Curbishley. Also sold Scott Parker for big money to Chelsea and then fell down the table.

Back then we were exactly like Everton are now really The odd good player at the back or upfront but mostly a collection of workmanlike players who were capable of grinding out the odd good result (remember we used to have a pretty decent record v Chelsea in those times) but also some horrific cup exits if we weren't on it.

An "honest bunch of lads" was the phrase frequently used in that era.

[SoccerHQ]

I wrote to Doug about him slagging off the youth system.  Doug wrote back to me almost telling me he agreed he was a twat.  It caused quite a furore at the time.

It was annoying at the time given the hype they got after winning the 2002 youth cup (and then seeing Rooney got straight into the Everton team) but in fairness he played many of them and they simply weren't of the same ilk as what came through under him at Leeds.

The Moore brothers, he quickly decided Stefan wasn't good enough and he didn't do anything to prove him wrong after leaving. Luke he did play and he had a decent scoring season before falling out of favour under O'Neill.

Stephen Cooke was one constantly put forward as a saviour around 2003/04. After leaving us he was playing for Halesowen Town in 2007. Instead went with the late Peter Whittingham who was a big success in his first season.

He also put in Ridgewell and Steven Davis for long spells (probably in Ridgewell's case due to lack of options with Laursen's injuries but Davis probably reminded him of Stephen McPhail at Leeds) and also gave Cahill a run of 5-6 games right at the end of his tenure.

There was no catastrophic mishandling as MON selling Cahill when he did and how he turned out a few years later.

We tended to get misty eyed about the youth team 20 years ago and thinking they were all going to seamlessly come into the first team and be the second coming of what Man. United did in the early 90s but the reality was generally there to see.

I personally think the ones that got to the Youth cup final a few years later had more potential, that was Albrighton, Bannan, Fonz and Gabby and Gardner had come through the year before.

Those were the days when FFP was just a figment of imagination concerning youth graduates.