brummie

No he won't. Not in a meaningful way, and if you wonder what Bruce was trying to do with their squad, take a look at the pig's ear he made of our squad - 35 year olds on 40k a week, buying two entire defences in consecutive seasons, buying players he then never uses, thinking wage bills are something that don't matter. He's a better manager than Bruce, but he's in no way some kind of planning genius, far from it.

I can't believe anyone chooses to watch Stoke City play on telly unless they're playing their own team.

Just to make this clear. If he gets that job, you as Newcastle fans, can prepare for a few years of deeply, deeply irritating press coverage. You've lost the media battle right now.

I'd like to know what he's basing this on. Same here. I guess he's basing it entirely on Martin O'Neill being the mackems' manager. I like Stan, but he's a fully paid up member of the MON arse licking club. The president of which is Henry Winter. Vice President, Patrick Barclay. Oh. I just thought of something that affects you lot. MON is the most bewilderingly popular manager going amongst the non-tabloid press. Unfortunately for you, that means you can expect an awful lot of the above (although usually not quite so in yer face). For Sunderland fans, they can expect years of the press implying they're extremely lucky to have him as their manager, and for said press to belittle the club.

On the bright side, I wouldnt be at all surprised - not for a second - if he tries to sign Emile Heskey in January. I also suspect he might try for Petrov, who I'd like to keep as a back up but can barely manage 60 minutes these days. His signings are unbelievably predictable. In fact, right now, I'll tell you that he will sign at least two of these players within one year at Sunderland. Emile Heskey Aiden McGeady Kevin Doyle Stiliyan Petrov

I don't think he's even a coach so there is no argument there, Pardew is a better coach, but overall, O'Neill is a better manager you have to say based on his CV if anything. Pardew has the potential to go onto better things mind. I get the impression O'Niell needs the right set up and right people around him to succeed whereas Pardew could probably succeed or rather do a decent enough job off his own steam based on his hard work, willingness to learn and of course his tactical ability which has probably impressed me most since he become our manager. I also get the impression with Pardew that he is willing to throw whatever he knows or has learned out of the window for something else if it made him a better manager or brought him better results, the likes of O'Niell are too stubborn, too set in their ways. Pardew is a new breed of manager or coach, O'Neill is old school if you like. Personally I'm no fan of stubborn, old school managers and prefer the European style set-up where the staff and infrastructure stays the same and the coach is just that - a coach. I think there is a stigma around that kind of set-up in this country but I honestly think for mid-range clubs (ourselves, Everton, Villa, mackems etc) it is the best way forward. As much as I can highlight O'Neill's faults it's true that you really can't argue with his record on paper, I just don't think he's the right option for a club trying to close the gap with the top 6. You can't argue with it on paper, that's true, but if you look at his managerial record, it in no way tallies with his reputation. All he's won in England are two league cups 15 years ago. He did well in Scotland, but McLeish did as well, in a two horse race. Three sixth place finishes for a club which has for a long while been more or less a 6th-8th place club, after spending a fortune, is good, but not amazing. Like I say, he's a good manager in many ways, but football is changing, and the main reason Villa never pushed on from sixth is because the areas where you really need nous to make up the gap - tactics and transfers - are his two gigantic weak points. For me one of the most disappointing things when we appointed McLeish (and there were a few, in fairness) was that he's a real old school British manager. That's not forward thinking whatsoever, and I don't really see how appointing MON, who is the very same, is going to help Sunderland to any massive degree. He'll get them top half, but no further.

O'Neill's input at training was next to zero. He'd turn up on Tuesday and occasionally Thursday and leave training to Walford and Robertson, or "Bibs and Cones" as the players nicknamed them.

He did. Lerner took over the club, found MON the manager in waiting, and appointed him, leaving him in total control - and Lerner's biggest failing so far was to trust MON so utterly and totally. As soon as that stopped - the minute he was asked to work on the wage bill - he was out of here like a rat up a drainpipe. He'll do better at Sunderland than Bruce did, but if there's not big - really big - money available, it will end in tears. Incidentally, this isn't just a Villa thing, he left Celtic with an English Premier League wage bill in the SPL. Even the most pro MON Celtic fans would raise an eyebrow at paying Bobo Balde 40k a week. There are lots of good things about O'Neill, too, to be entirely honest, but his legacy for us has been walking out on us five days before the start of the season, and leaving us with a crippling wage bill.

You've got to remember we are talking about Sunderland here. Sunderland who a 16th in the table, who've rarely been in the top since their return to the top flight. All the points that Brummie has made and all the other Villa fans are valid and if he was managing a club that is looking to push on, should draw warning flags. But he's not it's Sunderland, success to them should be mid table. Even if he's not given a penny to spend he'll improve that crock of crap, he's done that on small budgets at places other than Villa. Villa do and should have way bigger expectations to Sunderland, despite what some of their retarded fans think really repeating the 10th place finish they had last year should be regarded as a success. O'neill will deliver that, I can't see them heading for the championship under him which was the direction they were travelling. That's a good point. He won't get them relegated, not a prayer (although it'd be delicious if he did).

Hardly gonna finish 6th with current top 6 clubs though are they? It would takefairly sizeable investment for them to get to 7th or 8th. You wouldn't take it if it left the club financially crippled and having to appoint the likes of Alex McLeish to trim the wage bill, though. Also, getting into the top six now is entirely different to doing so in 2007. It takes a shit load more money, for starters, as in that time Man City have bought themselves a guaranteed berth in there. Tottenham seem to have made on of them theirs, too. Basically, you're now looking at Man U, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs, Man City in six places at the top, and breaking that cartel is going to take an awful lot more money than MON spent with us. He's not going to get that much at Sunderland, not a prayer. Aye, that's basically what I'm saying. The fact we've managed to break it for even a few months in a season is remarkable in itself. True, you've done very well, but being in the top six now is one thing, being there at the end of the season when tired players at better equipped clubs are easily replaced is a different thing, though. He'll do a better job than Bruce at Sunderland, but it's not a very forward thinking appointment, to be honest.

Hardly gonna finish 6th with current top 6 clubs though are they? It would takefairly sizeable investment for them to get to 7th or 8th. You wouldn't take it if it left the club financially crippled and having to appoint the likes of Alex McLeish to trim the wage bill, though. Also, getting into the top six now is entirely different to doing so in 2007. It takes a shit load more money, for starters, as in that time Man City have bought themselves a guaranteed berth in there. Tottenham seem to have made on of them theirs, too. Basically, you're now looking at Man U, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs, Man City in six places at the top, and breaking that cartel is going to take an awful lot more money than MON spent with us. He's not going to get that much at Sunderland, not a prayer.

It's exactly what brummie is saying on here. In fact, wouldn't be surprised if it was brummie. It wasn't me You'd be surprised, though, at how much agreement there is amongst Villa fans on O'Neill.

Incidentally, the Guardian said this Unfortunately, MON is the worst of the lot for not paying attention to modern coaching methods, and tactically he is utterly hopeless.

He definitely is a chequebook manager. NB that that is not necessarily a bad thing, but the fact is, his transfer policy is unbelievably UK focused - we had NO scouting network under him, zero - and UK based players cost money. Take the money away and he struggles. I am pretty convinced that when he left us, he really thought he was protecting his reputation - his first concern was Brand O'Neill, and having agreed on work to sort the wage bill with Lerner, he randomly changed his mind five days before the start of the season and decided he didn't want to. That was entirely about protecting his own brand. He didn't want a season of transition on his CV, and I reckon when he walked out, he thought he'd be in line for a bigger job next - England (gone, thanks to Redknapp), Man United (not a fucking prayer, Martin) etc. The problem is that a year and a bit on, he looks a less impressive manager than he did back then. I also really think that a lot of people have looked at the cause of his strop and flouncing off and the way he dropped us in the shit and realised it doesn't paint him in a good light.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE http://www.thefootballsocial.co.uk/images/players/aston%20villa/Emile%20Heskey.jpg

To be honest, it has probably taken our scouts months to get over the shock of leaving the UK

Yannick Djalo is apparently on his way (ie now) to us. He's not played for either the club he was leaving (Nice, I thnk) or Sporting as there was some fuck up involving registering the deal. I don't know anything aobut him, but he has a fancy foreign name, so he must be ACE

I despised Hutton when he was with us and stated it numerous times on here (even when he had his apparent good games). His positional sense is utterly disgusting, he ball watches ALL the time, he loses his man every time, he's just a piece of crap really. I fully agree. Especially the ball watching shit. Plus, he's a brainless thug.

Not only that, but we had Bardsley on loan under MON, and he sent him back

He's also clinically incapable of signing a good striker. Harewood FFS. Carew was decent for a while, but he only came because Houllier (at Lyon) offered him as bait for Baros. Oh, that's another thing. With us, signed about 40 players. How many were playing outside the UK? Two. A rookie keeper and Carew Doesn't do scouting, only shops in the most expensive market of all.

Two years ago, our wage bill was considerably higher than Tottenham's. We were paying Steve Sidwell 50k a week. They were paying Modric half that at the same time. Too many of our players sat around picking up 40k a week and offering nothing. Which manager, for example, would sanction giving a nearly-32 year old Emile Heskey 65k a week for three years? Or Beye, at 32, a three year 40k a week deal? That's what we are cutting back on now, not so much transfer spend, but wage bill, because it got so massively out of reality.

I've expounded a few post above. I don't really care if he goes there or not, but what I am not looking forward to is the return of the press fawning.

MON will need lots of money to take that job, otherwise how would he do his "buy entire defence, buy new entire defence the next season" routine. 2008-9: Friedel (2.5m), Luke Young (5m), Curtis Davies (9.5m), Carlos Cuellar (7m), Nicky Shorey (4m) then the very next season: 2009-10: Stephen Warnock (7m), James Collins (5m), Richard Dunne (5m), Habib Beye (2.5m) Or, looked at another way, 25m on centre halves in two years (to which you could add Zat Knight the year previous if you wanted to make it almost 30m) Curtis Davies (9.5m) last seen playing for Birmingham City after he went there for 3.5m. I'm not saying all was bad with MON, far from it, sixth three years in a row was decent if not stellar for the money he spent, but he's the definition of a short term manager - spends shit loads of money without looking at the broader management of the club, without "managing" in the real sense. Some of those players, like Shorey, for example, he bought then decided he didn't fancy, so dumped them in the reserves. He gets results by motivating the players (but only the ones he likes, the others might as well be dead). The problem is he spends massively in a scattergun approach (enough will turn out ok if you buy that many) without thinking about things like wage bills. And that is why we're fucked wage bill-wise right now. He also has almost zero involvement in training (with us, he'd turn up on Tuesday and Thursday), and leaves his two assistants in charge - Robertson, who apparently just stood at the touchline smoking and shouting at people, and Steve Walford, who used to put the cones out. In fact, the players were so disparaging of his training methods that they referred to Robertson and Walford as "Bibs and Cones". He also doesn't do tactics. There's one way of playing. That's fine, if it works, but when it doesn't work ..... he just carries on doing it. So with us it was counter attacking with pace. That's fine away from home where teams have a go at you, but at home where teams are more reticent, it doesn't fucking work. That's why our away record under him was frequently stellar, but our home record - points taken and goals scored - was dreadful. One more gripe - he never changes things with substitutions prior to 75 mins. It doesn't matter what is happening in the game, he won't change things unless he has to. It became a running joke with us to see Steve Sidwell come on with fifteen minutes left. Like I said, he's effective in many ways, but determinedly old school. The main reason we never moved on from sixth is because to do that, we'd have needed to be more tactically astute and use the transfer market better, which is what the very highest level managers tend to do. He never managed it, and i doubt he's going to change any time soon.

I doubt O'Neill will go there. Firstly, he won't go anywhere he isn't guaranteed a large sum of money to spend. They've just spent a wad on a load of shit players in the summer. He won't have that. Secondly, MON has an extraordinarily high opinion of himself. I reckon he's waiting to see when Fergie retires, or if Redknapp gets sent to the big house on the hill so he can get the England job. Thirdly, Randy Lerner is said to be on quite friendly terms with Ellis Short. I imagine he might even give him a call to see what he's like to work with. It won't be the glowingest of references.

I wasn't at the match yesterday, but have just spoken to a chap at work who was. I wasn't too sure about the applause thing myself, but he said it was absolutely spine tingling and all four sides of the ground were joining in with the "one Gary Speed" chant. Said it was the strangest atmosphere he's ever experienced at a football match.