Rumour has it........

[kop]

It's managers like him I fear we will be hiring when Rafa goes.

[Code]

Its possible to be a success at a lower level and then become a bottler at a higher level when the going gets tough.

 

O`Neill is a bottler and I would never want him at Liverpool.

[Anubis]

Google Imaging. Sometimes you've just got to fucking love it!

 

 

[Monster Masch]

No, he generally plays shit football, generally buys shit footballers and hasn't won anything despite a hefty budget. Kind of like Rafa I guess.

 

I don't think he'd do a better job than Rafa to be honest.

 

I have to disagree with that. Heskey fair enough was a poor buy but Milner, Young, Dunne, Warnock, Cuellar, Petrov, Carew, Downing are all good buys IMO. I think he has an eye for a player.

 

I don't know if I'd want him at Liverpool. I don't particularly like him but I think he is a good manager and will eventually end up at a top job. We could do a lot worse to be honest. But that's just my opinion.

[Guest PurpleNose]

I have to disagree with that. Heskey fair enough was a poor buy but Milner, Young, Dunne, Warnock, Cuellar, Petrov, Carew, Downing are all good buys IMO. I think he has an eye for a player.

 

I don't know if I'd want him at Liverpool. I don't particularly like him but I think he is a good manager and will eventually end up at a top job. We could do a lot worse to be honest. But that's just my opinion.

 

Thats £60m + Baros for that lot. To finish 7th. I disagree he has an eye for a player. Not one of them was a Wenger like find either.

[Chinandeler Bong]

Id have Rafa hands down over O'Neil

 

Dirty bastard!

[Captain]

It's managers like him I fear we will be hiring when Rafa goes.

 

Same here. And I cannot for the fucking life of me get why some of our fans would want O'Neill here.

[WaltonRed]

Why do people see him as a crap bag?

[Carradona]

I don't want O'Neill here, but he's definitely not a bottler. Look at his record as a player and his record as manager for every club he has been at (except for Villa, he probably did bottle that League Cup Final last month) and tell me again that he is a bottler.

 

Wise up.

[WaltonRed]

I'm with Cain.

[rebel23]

O'Neill's team is just a team of Kuyt's, they work themselves into the ground and there's little else there

[drewy]

He hasn't resigned anyway so it's moot.

[navbasi]

He hasn't resigned anyway so it's moot.

 

No smoke without fire... This one has come out of the blue> He'll defo be gone I reckon.

[Code]

I did discuss O`Neill`s achievements or rather lack of at length on another forum the summer he was appointed at Villa.

 

Is Martin O' Neill that great a manager?

 

The point still stands, he`s shite.

[barosrocks]

is lint attacking or defensive?

 

Static

[Code]

From Brian reade last May.

 

 

How does Martin O'Neill always slip under the radar when Phil Brown gets the stick

By Brian Reade 16/05/2009

I had an Ashley Cole moment the other day - almost turning my car into a tree after hearing words that made my eyes pop.

 

It wasn't my boss insulting me with a £55,000-a-week wage offer (I've already chinned him for that) but something even more incredible. A debate on national radio about whether Hull City should sack manager Phil Brown.

 

Now let me say that Phil (Brown by name, Brown by permatan) endears himself to me about as much as Government Minister Hazel Blears.

 

He looks as though he spends most match-day mornings working out if that hi-tech microphone round his gob clashes with his latest River Island shirt-tie-and-suit combo.

 

And I was chuffed that his laughable PR stunt, when he gave his team an on-pitch halftime rollicking at Manchester City because they were having a nightmare, backfired horrendously (he's taken only seven points since that Boxing Day defeat).

 

But how can someone who took Hull City, that's Hull City, into the Premier League, and kept them out of the relegation places until May, be considered a failure? Is it because he over-shot expectations early in the season and has done nothing to halt an embarrassing freefall since? If so, why is nobody savaging Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill. Come to think of it, why does O'Neill always escape criticism? How come at 57, he's won no more in English football than a League Cup, yet is universally hailed as a deepthinking genius, one of the greatest managers of his generation, and the natural successor to Alex Ferguson? In January when Villa were clear of Chelsea in third place, O'Neill was talking about the possibility of being title contenders, drawing parallels with his Nottingham Forest side of 1978. They were then seven points ahead of Arsenal. Now despite Arsenal's implosion, they are 10 points behind them.

 

Arsene Wenger, Rafa Benitez, Phil Scolari, Harry Redknapp, Joe Kinnear, Mark Hughes, Gareth Southgate, Gary Megson - even Alan Shearer - have all taken kickings this season for bad spells.

 

But O'Neill, who has won only one Premier League game since February 2 (a nervous 1-0 home win against Hull) has once again slipped under the radar.

 

It's not as though he's just taken over the reins like Shearer, and been saddled with a shower of donkeys.

 

This is his third full season at Villa Park. Last summer he spent £35million on seven players and in January bought England striker Emile Heskey.

 

There's been criticism from Villa fans who say he's unimaginative in the transfer market, picks key players out of position, and plays a long-ball counter-attacking game with no Plan B, which has worked well at away grounds but been tediously predictable at home.

 

The same fans who weren't happy at O'Neill throwing in the towel in Europe, and who must have been dismayed at his comments this week about playing in next year's Europa Cup.

 

"There are too many games," he whined, polishing the stick of his white flag six months in advance. Where does that attitude leave him, negotiation-wise, when Gareth Barry (and possibly Ashley Young) tell him in a few weeks that there's no substitute for playing in the Champions League? More to the point where does it leave his season's work in relation to Phil Brown's? Both over-achieved early on, then ended up more or less where they were expected to.

 

But surely O'Neill's failure to exploit Arsene Wenger's worst season as an Arsenal manager has been a bigger failure, considering the size of Villa.

 

Had they won a Champions League place Barry would have stayed and other topclass players may have joined.

 

Instead he will leave and Arsenal, Manchester City, Spurs and Everton will get stronger. Meaning O'Neill's failure to prevent a freefall could harm Villa's progress dramatically at a crucial point in history.

 

Still, Villa fans can rest assured of one thing. Their manager will escape serious criticism. Well, he looks and sounds the part on the telly doesn't he? If only he had that tragic Phil Brown microphone and permatan, things might be different.

 

 

How does Martin O'Neill always slip under the radar when Phil Brown gets the stick - MirrorFootball.co.uk

[WaltonRed]

Have you seen Villa this season?

 

Clueless fuckers.

 

We've hardly set the world alight have we.

 

Funny how some people use a stick to beat O'Neill with that they use to defend Rafa.

[Code]

If you aim that at me Walton Red I have to say its been a while since I praised Rafa.

[WaltonRed]

Not aimed at you Code aimed at the people who just come on and go 'goblin', 'shithouse lad' and all that.

 

He's done boss at Leicester, boss at Celtic and he's doing as well as he can do with Villa if you ask me.

 

I dont want him as Liverpool manager for the record, i've dabbled with the idea but I dont.

 

BUT, i dont see how people can call him what they have and rip him like they have when he's clearly a good manager.

[coachpotato]

Probably at the top of his managerial level now at Villa.

I think he's done well overall and deserves some praise for his achievements, but I don't think he's the type of manager we need, if you think Benitez isn't the man for our Club.

My own pick, should Benitez go and we could have the choice, would be Capello.

Not likely to happen though.

[JohnnyH]

Not aimed at you Code aimed at the people who just come on and go 'goblin', 'shithouse lad' and all that.

 

He's done boss at Leicester, boss at Celtic and he's doing as well as he can do with Villa if you ask me.

 

I dont want him as Liverpool manager for the record, i've dabbled with the idea but I dont.

 

BUT, i dont see how people can call him what they have and rip him like they have when he's clearly a good manager.

 

He pissed me off when before he joined Villa he went on about how you play your strongest team at all times no matter what and he couldn't understand what Rafa was doing. He was having a right pop at Rafa, and since then he has continued to play his strongest team, and since then his teams have continued to collapse towards the end of every season.

[Wingman]

Old school. Might as well get "big" Ron Atkinson.

[Guest davelfc]

Old school. Might as well get "big" Ron Atkinson.

 

The first time he shouted NGog, he'd be sacked.

[TheHowieLama]

is lint attacking or defensive?

 

and sometimes offensive.

[Anubis]

Not aimed at you Code aimed at the people who just come on and go 'goblin', 'shithouse lad' and all that.

 

He's done boss at Leicester, boss at Celtic and he's doing as well as he can do with Villa if you ask me.

 

I dont want him as Liverpool manager for the record, i've dabbled with the idea but I dont.

 

BUT, i dont see how people can call him what they have and rip him like they have when he's clearly a good manager.

 

So if the Snidey Fucking Goblin (I've been using that for a while now and it has nothing to do with his ability/inability as a football manager so you can shut the fuck up about it) is so good, how is a manager who's record in teh Premiership pisses all over SFG's so bad?

 

Oh, because YOU don't like that manger. Take a look at your avatar and posts about Rafa, and shut up about what others post about SFG.