Martin O'Neill

[Beefymcfc]

Martin O'Neill is a quality Manager...Martin O'Neill with decent backing would be a phenomenal Manager

How much do you reckon he's been backed with already?

[Im_Spartacus]

Builds basically the same team wherever he goes; hard working, unspectacular, often long ball football, relying heavily on big men, & set pieces. Won't succeed at the highest level until he starts building a better one, which may well be beyond him.

Is immune to the same criticism City's managers get & no matter how much he fucks up, it gets papered over & somehow he gets credit for it from the same kind of people who slaughter our managers for a fraction of the same faults & style of football.

Villa since start of 2010 - W4, D6, L1 = Pts 18
City since start of 2010 - W5, D3, L3 = Pts 18

O'neil is under a lot of pressure from Villa fans, you only have to listen to some of the phone ins. The difference is that the pundits usually automatically dismiss the callers as loonies as O'neil does seem beyond criticism in the establishment. The reality is, Villa have had some poor results just the same as we have, however during their 6 draws since the turn of the year, they have played U***d, Arsenal, Spuds and Chelsea and only lost 1, whilst getting to the Carling Cup final.
Their failure to beat the smaller teams, particularly at home is similar to our run of draws under Hughes, but the key difference will be whether we can beat the bigger sides which they have failed to do. I think Villa fans are concerned that like us, they had the opportunities to put some good points on the board in recent months against pretty poor opposition and failed to do so, which was compounded by not sneaking a win against any of the bigger clubs when they also had the opportunity.

Give him a good centre forward who can score regularly in the summer and Villa will be fighting it out at the top IMO.

And they are on FA Cup Semis. So they have done well on league AND in BOTH Cups. He is not immune for critism but he does less mistakes (with a team that has been built with considerably less money than ours) than our managers have done.

Yeah forgot that. Maybe it was the distraction that has caused the league form to be a bit shaky. I think you can write the chelsea game off to a freak result, it happens to every team at some point, jees who'd have thought we would have scored 4 there, that is an equally big shock result.

Yes the home draws with Wolves and Sunderland werent great, but by the same token it was their first defeat in 3 months aside from the Carling cup final, if you add in their cup games, they have lost 2 in 19, to United and Chelsea - W9, D8, L2 hardly a shabby record, and I think if you had offered them potentially 2 cup finals and 6th at the start of the year, they would have been delirious with that, as would we.

[Beeks]

Martin O'Neill is a quality Manager...Martin O'Neill with decent backing would be a phenomenal Manager

How much do you reckon he's been backed with already?

Nothing like what we've been backed with...suppose what i'm saying is I wouldn't be disappointed should he land on our doorstep in the future...he probably won't...but I rate him

[Wooders]

I did and still do rate Hughes over him as a Prem manager

That's a bold statement considering Hughes has won nothing on his management career.

I really rate O'Neill. Yes, his sides play relatively booring football but he gets results and always the best out of players he has got.

I *knew* you were gonna say that, not saying you're predictable or anything

Nor has O'Neill in terms of the prem FYI

[btajim]

I did and still do rate Hughes over him as a Prem manager

Hughes has got an excellent eye in the transfer market - but O'Neill is a better Man Manager. The Guy patiently worked his way up the ladder in Football, too. i.e. Wycombe, Leicester.

[Big Buddha Cheese]

O'Neill has a history of success. I tend to rate managers who can boast that.

[Wooders]

I did and still do rate Hughes over him as a Prem manager

Hughes has got an excellent eye in the transfer market - but O'Neill is a better Man Manager. The Guy patiently worked his way up the ladder in Football, too. i.e. Wycombe, Leicester.

Reo Coker
Carew
Guzan
L.Young
Delph
Downing

Have all had public spats with O'Neill, and thats just at Villa, personally I don't go for this wonderful man manager legend that surrounds him

[HeyMark]

I like Martin O'Neill but his only success of any real note is getting Celtic to the Uefa Cup final, Gordon Strachan won the scottish league 3 times in a row and got them to the last 16 of the champions league, something O'Neill couldnt manage yet to their fans strachan is the anti-christ while O'Neill is a god!

It would be interesting to see how he'd cope in a top 4 job

[Dameerto]

Just out of interest, how do people rate him? He is often considered one of teh most promising British managers yet if you look just a little deeper he becomes a bit more of a nearly man. He has been a Villa a while now, they have been comfortable top 6 for a while and yet even after being one of the highest spending managers in the league over the last couple of years he cannot take them further. The year we were taken over he was the third highest spending manager in Europe but we did him a favour by overshadowing him.

Part of the reason he is high spending is because he tries to buy English where possible. I see him as someone who commands respect from his players and I usually found myself agreeing with him while he was a TV pundit.

[btajim]

Reo Coker
Carew
Guzan
L.Young
Delph
Downing

Have all had public spats with O'Neill, and thats just at Villa, personally I don't go for this wonderful man manager legend that surrounds him

More like Nobhead Footballers who've tried to cross him. Reo-Coker is a Melon by all accounts (i.e. all the West Ham I know) and the likes of Carew are in the Team and scoring.

I finished Stan Collymore's Autobiography recently and he rates O'Neill above everyone he's played for.

[Wooders]

I think most footballers who fall out with their managers are pretty much nob-heads of the highest order
but guzan etc were dropped without explanation (in the carling cup final in guzans case) by o'neill hence the fallout, as I say, I think this man o' the people style manager legend is all smoke and mirrors

[eastlands-lostboy]

Certainly a capable manager, who has bags of ability. He could be classed as a nearly man however he is a fantastic motivator of players. He would IMO become a great manager with the resource we have at his disposal. All speculative and we do not need more change......so fuck him Hughes is/was as good