Martin O'Neill

[AVFC-Prideofbrum]

I can't believe you're glad MON's gone. He's as good manager as we will ever get.

Premier League is extremely competitive, the fact we competed top 6 regularly shows what a good job he did. 65 points, Wembley visits in his last season. Fantastic season.

Can't believe what I'm reading, thought was stupid at the time he was in charge, think it's even more evident now of what a good manager he was.

[CI]

It's just sour grapes

MON was brilliant for us

[MMFy]

All he had to do was buy a striker. He couldn't do it. His net spend on strikers was ZERO.

He failed to establish a squad he could use and failed to use substitutes, therefore the eleven player who played every game were always bloody knackered by February/March. Did he ever win a game in March? In four seasons?

His total abandonment of the Europa League was frankly embarrassing. Playing the kids against CSKA and failing to get past the qualifying round the following season was unforgivable. If we were better then with him here, why couldn't we get past Rapid **** Vienna? The Noses and Stoke have made it past Christmas in that competition and we couldn't get past the **** qualifier.

MON hit his ceiling with us. I expect him to pick Sunderland up and do better than Bruce, but I also expect it will cost them and the success will be short lived.

He is a better manager than McLeish, but we were so close to 4th in those last two seasons, a good striker would have sealed the deal. Get Champions League football and we could have kept Barry, Milner, Young and Downing, and we would have been a force.

It is showing now how **** stupid it was not to buy that striker then. Bent would have cost us a maximum of £15m at the time and we would probably still be up in the top 4/5 now.

MON = limited. He will never take a team to 4th or beyond.

[Mantis]

I can't believe you're glad MON's gone. He's as good manager as we will ever get.

Premier League is extremely competitive, the fact we competed top 6 regularly shows what a good job he did. 65 points, Wembley visits in his last season. Fantastic season.

Can't believe what I'm reading, thought was stupid at the time he was in charge, think it's even more evident now of what a good manager he was.

I'm glad he's gone because I honestly believe that we would've been in serious financial trouble had his level of spending continued. Obviously Randy has to shoulder some of the blame for this as well.

Nope, the two managers failing after him does not make him great. People are only looking on him fondly because of what's happened since he left.

[TheDrums]

All he had to do was buy a striker. He couldn't do it. His net spend on strikers was ZERO.

He failed to establish a squad he could use and failed to use substitutes, therefore the eleven player who played every game were always bloody knackered by February/March. Did he ever win a game in March? In four seasons?

His total abandonment of the Europa League was frankly embarrassing. Playing the kids against CSKA and failing to get past the qualifying round the following season was unforgivable. If we were better then with him here, why couldn't we get past Rapid **** Vienna? The Noses and Stoke have made it past Christmas in that competition and we couldn't get past the **** qualifier.

MON hit his ceiling with us. I expect him to pick Sunderland up and do better than Bruce, but I also expect it will cost them and the success will be short lived.

He is a better manager than McLeish, but we were so close to 4th in those last two seasons, a good striker would have sealed the deal. Get Champions League football and we could have kept Barry, Milner, Young and Downing, and we would have been a force.

It is showing now how **** stupid it was not to buy that striker then. Bent would have cost us a maximum of £15m at the time and we would probably still be up in the top 4/5 now.

MON = limited. He will never take a team to 4th or beyond.

And we'll never be 4th under the clubs current stewardship.

I'd take MON and his 6th place finishes, cup runs, and wins over United at Old Trafford, Chelsea, Liverpool anyday over Premier relegation fodder.

[markavfc40]

I honestly believe that we would've been in serious financial trouble had his level of spending continued. Obviously Randy has to shoulder some of the blame for this as well.

His level of spending was only allowed because the owner sanctioned it. Unless O'Neill was forging Randy's signature which as far as I'm aware he hasn't been accused of. If the level of spending ever gets to a stage where it puts the club in financial difficulty then that is the owners fault as he is the one who knows what the club, and/or he, can and cannot afford.

[AVFC-Prideofbrum]

I can't believe you're glad MON's gone. He's as good manager as we will ever get.

Premier League is extremely competitive, the fact we competed top 6 regularly shows what a good job he did. 65 points, Wembley visits in his last season. Fantastic season.

Can't believe what I'm reading, thought was stupid at the time he was in charge, think it's even more evident now of what a good manager he was.

I'm glad he's gone because I honestly believe that we would've been in serious financial trouble had his level of spending continued. Obviously Randy has to shoulder some of the blame for this as well.

Nope, the two managers failing after him does not make him great. People are only looking on him fondly because of what's happened since he left.

can blame him for quality of signins but not for putting club in financial trouble had it been case as that is the owners job.

don't like him for quitting.

never said he was great, i said good.

i remember him fondly because of the job he did not what happened. look at o'neill polls around the time, the large majority supported him so the idea people ONLY look upon him fondly because what happened is very wrong. people then thought he was good, nothing has changed.

[villaajax]

Good luck to him, I wish he was still here.

[Ponky]

He was absolutely brilliant for us on the park. MON and Randy rode the wild ride together and unfortunately we fell just short of the promised land.

Plenty of reasons for that, mainly at MON’s feet – lack of squad rotation=tired squad=poor finish to consecutive seasons and just missing out, along with failure to strengthen the squad in the January of that last season when Arsenal were on their knees.

But the absolute shambles that Villa have become since MON’s departure well, yes he bears some fault for that re the timing and the ridiculous wages of players like Beye and Heskey, but everything since then - ultimately all of that lies at the feet of Randy Lerner.

[NowDoINotLikeThat]

Thing is Ponky when you refer to THAT January window.

Arsenal spend £15 million on Arsahavin

We spend £3 million on Heskey

Big difference.

Did MON have funds then to spend more at that moment in that Jan window?

I don't think he did .

Obviously heskey didnt work out - and was a mistake. But Carew was injured at the time and think the thinking was that maybe Heskey could be target man for Gabby to feed off . It didn't work out but i think the notion he did have funds to spend a fair bit in that window at that time are probably wrong imo which is why went Heskey route.

Agree MON had his faults but also agree he was very good for us which shouldnt be erased with revisionism by some (not yourself obviously)

[DiegoD]

I look forward to seeing what he does with Sunderland. He has his methods which work for him, obviously he has issues with squad rotation and does get useless players on big contracts making them hard to move but he does also do some great business.

After he left I was very angry at him but after seeing what Randy has done I don't blame him.

[CBGB]

Best manager for us since Little, and actually more consistent than Little. Certainly frustrating in several respects and left in a shoddy way. He signed enough good players to offset the crap ones. We'll be lucky to get a manager remotely as good for quite a while.

[Pelle]

Had he bought Bent instead of Heskey at that time I'm quite sure that we'd been playing in the CL for at least one season and we'd be far better now. I'm quite aware that Randy maybe wouldn't have sanctioned that transfer, but it's not impossible. He was up for sale and far cheaper than what we paid for him in the end. And had we done that and reached the CL I'm quite sure that Milner, Young and Downing would still be here. A little bit like when we bought Cascarino instead of Lineker 1990. :cry:

[CI]

He tried to get Defoe but we were turned down

Defoe would have fired us into CL

[Pelle]

He tried to get Defoe but we were turned down

Defoe would have fired us into CL

Damn those hotels who won't let you check out. Not as good as Bent, though.

[Demitri_C]

i dont think he did try go for defoe personally. pompey were in freefall we could have signed him if mon wanted him but he went for that oaf heskey and scarewood

sums up mons transfer dealings to a large extent

[PauloBarnesi]

i dont think he did try go for defoe personally. pompey were in freefall we could have signed him if mon wanted him but he went for that oaf heskey and scarewood

sums up mons transfer dealings to a large extent

Heskey & Harewood are still better than N’Zgobia and Hutton mind...

[kurtsimonw]

Still first season though. Milner was absoloute shit in his first season. Same with Downing. And Petrov.

Seems some fans still refuse to give players time though, maybe they'll learn one day.

[choffer]

Felt gutted to see him all over the tv this weekend. Really took me by surprise as I'd spent the last 18 months spitting vitriol in his direction. Felt like when you bump into your first love, years later and realise you're still not quite over them. Not that I think his reign was perfect but it just reminded me of how much excitement and positivity there was around the club back then. Oh for those days.

[andym]

Thing is Ponky when you refer to THAT January window.

Arsenal spend £15 million on Arsahavin

We spend £3 million on Heskey

Big difference.

Did MON have funds then to spend more at that moment in that Jan window?

I don't think he did .

Obviously heskey didnt work out - and was a mistake. But Carew was injured at the time and think the thinking was that maybe Heskey could be target man for Gabby to feed off . It didn't work out but i think the notion he did have funds to spend a fair bit in that window at that time are probably wrong imo which is why went Heskey route.

Agree MON had his faults but also agree he was very good for us which shouldnt be erased with revisionism by some (not yourself obviously)

i think randy would have stumped up the cash to buy someone like bent if MON had asked at that point. only a few months later in the summer he gave MON another load of money when he asked for it. and that was after the moscow surrender and a terrible end to the season. MON bought heskey because for some reason he thought he was a good striker. he also fitted MONs hoofball like (though nowhere near as bad as mcleish's), direct style.

the one thing i never understood about MON was that he was prepared to pay 10-12 mil for young unproven players, he would spend 6 mil on an average fullback no problem. yet when it came to getting the final piece, the top striker, he went for the cheap option every time. his two striker signings were heskey and harewood! he should have bought bent for 10 mil in summer 09 instead of wasting money on shit like beye and collins. we got downing that summer as well which would have given us bent, gabby, young, milner and downing as our attacking threat!