O'Neill has

[King Kev]

Looking forward to reading and hearing all the media hacks being in uproar about the treatment of the good young British manager.

[Beefymcfc]

Not spent all that big have they since Learner took over? just enough to tread water really.

Looks on their forums its more Young related.

I think he knew months ago he was losing Milner.

They dont seem to be blaming us. Goods news but sad, i kinda liked MoN being there, they should be a top half club and have been.

Might spark the transfer market into life?

Probably right about treading water but Lerner has put his money where his mouth is. I looked at it a while ago and although he had around 20 mil in his 1st 2 seasons, he then had around 45 mil and another 40 mil last season. I know our recent spending pales it into comparison but around 125 mil in 4 years is very good going for many clubs.

The truth is, O'Neill is looking after himself because if he knows that the likes of Milner and Young are going then he's no chance of progressing, especially at this stage with less than a week to the start of the season. I reckon we've told them they've got until Thursday to push the deal through or we're off, leaving Lerner no option to force O'Neill into an uncompromising position.

[Ted Hughes]

Typical MON - it's all about ME ME ME and if I don't get my own way I throw my toys out of the pram.

These ex Forest blokes all try to be controversial & enigmatic like Clough was but they're fucking crap at it & none of them are fit to clean dog shit off his shoes.

[craigmcfc]

Martin O'Neill at City by Crimbo.

Talk to me.

Oi, Terry Tibbs, Hop it !

[DoomMerchant]

Not spent all that big have they since Learner took over? just enough to tread water really.

Looks on their forums its more Young related.

I think he knew months ago he was losing Milner.

They dont seem to be blaming us. Goods news but sad, i kinda liked MoN being there, they should be a top half club and have been.

Might spark the transfer market into life?

i think Lerner actually has spent a fair amount. i dont have the figures handy, but i wouldnt be surprised if he spent 25-30M a season. They are a far cry from where we were scraping to get by a few seasons ago. If Lerner has spent upwards of 100M in transfers i'd like to think at some point it's not unreasonable for him to ask what the next steps of the plan are...to get on solid financial footing.

Ok...just looked it up he's spent about 125M on players and recouped about 40M in transfer fees from the end of last season according to some fuclin site i looked at. Ultimately, it looks like Villa are in the financial shit, and need to sell to try and manage their losses if i read the financials right. Their wage bill is about 83% of their turnover, which is almost double what someone would recommend (i'm sure ours is fucked, but...you get the point. Lerner is no crown prince) and 10-15% higher than the upper limit from UEFA.

this was all in an article from Bleacher Report i think...Has MON done a twitchy? just sayin.

cheers

[brite blu sky]

feel a bit sorry for Villa if Spurs taking Young has caused this.

City should do them a favour while they have no manager. loan them Platt

[The Man In Blue]

if what you say is correct mr merchant, the usual bollocks we will hear from the hacks over the next few days will stink to high heaven. "O'Neill has principles", "A man of his word" etc. when in reality he's left them in a deep, deep pile of shit.

but hey ho it will all be blamed on us anyways.

[CityGer]

I'm hearing that McGeady signing for Spartak Moscow today and not for Villa also something to do with this.

[walmai]

hahahah just texted a villa supporting mate. told him milner to us, young to chelsea and ian dowie for the next villa manager.

not fucking happy at all.

I did much the same thing, but snuck in Phil Brown instead of Ian Dowie.

We have the perfect chance to now feck up:

Villa have no manager and its likely that Dunne, Cuellar and Collins are injured for Saturday.

Precisely the kind of game in which you can guarantee we will take a beating.

[Chopper]

Oh I love this quote;

Cale Cunningham (Aston Villa fan) says...

Gutted. I have been a Villa fan since 1983 and am used to yo-yo ing up and down the table, with 2 league runners-up spots and a season in division 2 to boot I thought those days had gone with a new board in place. I can clearly see that this is about MON being FORCED to sell Milner and other players against his will. Clearly there is a mass exodus planned to smaller clubs such a s Spurs and City. The simple way to have kept them would be to keep strengthening. As a lifelong Villa fan, if I were the manager I would quit too if being made to destroy the club''s ambitions in such a way. 10th spot will be a bonus this season.

[The Man In Blue]

Precisely the kind of game in which you can guarantee we will take a beating.

are you sure you don't support city mate?

[Whassat]

Thats one contender less to worry about then.

What a surprise move, and what a character!

[walmai]

Precisely the kind of game in which you can guarantee we will take a beating.

are you sure you don't support city mate?

I fear our teams share(d) similar traits.

[Invisible Man Fan]

Oh I love this quote;

Cale Cunningham (Aston Villa fan) says...

Gutted. I have been a Villa fan since 1983 and am used to yo-yo ing up and down the table, with 2 league runners-up spots and a season in division 2 to boot I thought those days had gone with a new board in place. I can clearly see that this is about MON being FORCED to sell Milner and other players against his will. Clearly there is a mass exodus planned to smaller clubs such a s Spurs and City. The simple way to have kept them would be to keep strengthening. As a lifelong Villa fan, if I were the manager I would quit too if being made to destroy the club''s ambitions in such a way. 10th spot will be a bonus this season.

How can a Villa fan call City and Spurs small....we're not massive, but we're bigger than Villa

[gillie]

Just been on a Villa forum and they are convinced Milner is our player by Thursday.They are also not too bothered about MON going just the timing of it.

[ross.mcfc]

O’Neil is a smart cookie. He’s gone now knowing they were going to struggle this year and will leave with his reputation in tact. He can also play the martyr card very well when he has to.

Liverpool will be taken over soon, Ferguson might go at the end of the year, and now the English media have a genuine contender for the next England manager (a job he’s already applied for)

I’ve told this story before but my mate one of the top journalists in Scotland when MON went to Celtic. My mate who is a massive city fan spent a day shadowing MON and they just talked football and City in particular. My mate claimed that MON told him he only came to Scotland to prove he could manage a big team and play in the CL to get the united job. My mate then put 500 GBP on MON to be the next United manager which was all going fine and dandy until Ferguson didn’t retire like he had indicated. My mate still has that slip in his safe and is still convinced he will see his winning.

[Curlie]

Any bookmakers offering odds on where his next managerial job will be?

[Niall Quinns Discopants]

O’Neil is a smart cookie. He’s gone now knowing they were going to struggle this year and will leave with his reputation in tact. He can also play the martyr card very well when he has to.

That's exactly what I was thinking. O'Neil is probably the smartest football manager out there. And I don't mean football wise. He saw the storm clouds gathering and KNEW he wouldn't be able to improve their position. Now he gets to leave Villa job with halo glowing above his head. As we know, in football you are as good as your last result and next may he might've been "damaged goods". Especially for tabloids. And Villa fans can be extremely ruthless when things aren't going as expected.

Clever clever move, I'd say.

[avoidconfusion]

In all honesty I respect O'Neil for that. He didn't want Milner to leave and he certainly didn't want Young to leave (who allegedly is now off to Spurs or Liverpool?) but they apparently planned to sell them anyway and did not want to give him the money earned by the sale to spend on other players.

Villa are in the shit now, I feel for their fans but for us it is a good thing because there will be one less contender for 4th this season imho.

[Dunnylad]

The rumour I heard was that MON wanted all the cash from Milner deal, but the board said would be getting Ireland, MON then f-----d off as he wasn't fussed about Ireland and saw it as inferring in his selection of players

MON has obviously decided to take KK's old mantle on of throwing his toys out of the pram when he stops being the most important person at the club - I agree with an earlier poster, it'll be MoTD followed by a return to Celtic when Lennon is sacked.