I feel a lot of sympathy for Lerner. I see him as the good-natured homeowner who hired the wrong guy to do the work. O'Neill didn't lack talent, just his methods were outdated.
To go back to the abstract analogy, O'Neill put some great stuff in the house - a nice flat screen TV, some water features, but they all had to be sold off when it became apparent that the foundations were knackered.