It wasn’t long ago that Martin O’Neill was regularly touted for the eventual vacancy at Manchester United. Every time the scenario was mentioned he was almost always in the top three candidates. But since spells with Aston Villa and Sunderland, his is a case that does not get much airplay, if any at all when the subject crops up.
The Northern Irishman did well at Villa and I have no doubt that he would have bettered Sunderland’s current position had he not been sacked on Easter Saturday. But during these two periods, there has been a rise in young managers at the top clubs in Europe who have succeeded where future United bosses will be expected to including the likes of Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp and Jose Mourinho, the man who masterminded a Uefa Cup win over O’Neill’s Celtic side in 2003 as boss of Porto. Reaching the final of a major European competition was a remarkable achievement with a Scottish side as it would be now.
Once upon a time, it was O’Neill who was the ‘bright, young thing’ – his lively antics along the touchline contrasting starkly with his calmly composed interviews – but at the age of 61, having just been given the boot from the club he wanted to manage the most, will he get a chance to manage at the very top?
There’ll be no shortage of takers for him, and with clubs dismissing managers left, right and centre, he won’t be without choice in the summer. Mind you, chairmen seem to do most of their sackings during the season, so he may have to wait a little longer.
It is probably unfair to say that O’Neill is on a downfall. It’s a blotch on the CV certainly, but every manager, particularly nowadays, has them because they are not given enough time in their roles to stamp their mark on the team or the club as a whole. Maybe we should not base his reputation within the game on whether he is in line for the United job or the England job – which he has been on occasions – but it does say something.
Many feel that his style of management on and off the pitch has not moved on in the last 10 years, although it could be argued that they were working out fine at Aston Villa where he spent three seasons from the start of the 2007-2008 campaign, leading them to sixth-place in each of them. That’s pretty good-going when you consider where the club have been since he left.
During his time at Villa Park his side were talked of as the club who could potentially break up the regular top-four – the Champions League monopoly of Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United – clubs who, from 2004 to 2009, made up those positions in varying orders on five occasions. Only Everton disturbed this in 2005 by finishing fourth.
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Tottenham Hotspur reached the same heights in O’Neill’s final season with the Villains, but it was they, the club from the Midlands, who put up a more consistent fight for one of the top-four spots during his time there. Their fans would kill for those days again (some kill for seemingly no reason at all, but there’s murderous supporters of every club no doubt). In the two seasons since his departure they have been fighting relegation. Coincidence? I doubt it.
Will O’Neill be touted for the so-called ‘big’ jobs in the coming months? There’ll be a vacancy at Chelsea, but will Roman Abramovich take notice or even be aware of the former’s success with Wycombe Wanderers, Leicester City, Celtic and Aston Villa? It’ll probably not make a difference anyway.
As stated before it is probably because there are younger managers who have been more successful than him in terms of major trophies won, so naturally they are the ones that the owners look to because they are proven at the very top. These are people who are and have been working with huge financial backing at the top clubs in Europe, so who’s to say O’Neill cannot do the same if given the chance?
He did great things with Wycombe (two successive promotions and only narrowly missing out on a third); Leicester (guiding them to the Premiership where they finished in the top ten three years running plus two League Cups); Celtic (where he won three league championships, three Scottish Cups, one League Cup plus leading them to that aforementioned European final); and Villa (who he led to a first major final in 10 years). But none are considered to be in the calibre of the Champions League or Europe’s major league championships in England, Spain, Germany and Italy.
With speculation surrounding David Moyes’ future at Everton he could well be the favourite for that job should the opportunity arise this summer. It is all about the here and now, but in terms of history, they are arguably a bigger club than Chelsea – although that will probably change in around 20 years.
Years ago, when debates of who was going to eventually take over Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford were raging, O’Neill was a popular choice, one who could be there in the long-term, what with him being a young manager an’ all. But with even more youthful coaches achieving success at the levels that are required at a club like United, where does this now leave this bouncing bee of a man?
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Try telling Villa fans he did a good job. You’ll see a 50/50 split. He wasted 200m on players that gained little value and ended up costing us tons in wages and lost transfer fees. Of the much lauded ‘successes’ Young was bought for 10m sold for 17m, Downing was bought for 12m sold for 20m and Milner was bought for 12m and sold for 24m. NRC Bought for 10m sold for free, Curtis Davies bought for 10m sold for 1.5m, Sidwell, Harewood, Shorey, Cuellar (8m sold free). He was a useless manager who rode a wave of money. Had we signed young talented players that 200m would have made us 300m or at least would have been recycled. As it is it was wasted on NO TROPHIES and 6th place finishes. And don’t you dare tell Villa fans to be happy with 6th he got there within a year then stagnated. This doesn’t even get round to his lack of rotation, constant March burn out, weird centre mids at right back, ancient tactics, no plan b etc etc etc etc. Classic attitude of someone who only knows MON’s reputation and not the actuality of his management.
Spot on DV.
But don’t expect any journalist to actually do an actual proper article on the mess he has actually made at Villa, that 3 subsequent managers have been trying to correct.
MON the great fake.
He left Celtic in a financial mess, Villa in a financial mess and well Sunderland in just a mess.
I was hoping he would still be in charge when Sunderland came to Villa park so that we could put the final nail in his coffin as manager there, but it wasnt to be.
Fair enough. They’re very good points, but reputation counts for a lot HOWEVER someone approaches the game. It’s his achievements and records that count and Villa’s sixth place finishes are better than where they have languished for the past two seasons AND the three before that (10th, 16th and 11th), although I suppose you could argue that he got them into a financial mess, but unless I’m mistaken, they won’t do a ‘Leeds’ any time soon. In terms of Villa’s league record he did a lot better than many other people that have managed them, and apart from the league championship win in 1981 and a few other good seasons in the top two, 6th, 7th, 8th is around the area where Villa have finished the most since then. According to statto.com Villa’s average league position over the years is 8th. Not saying you should be happy with that – and not to sound like Rafa Benitez – but that’s a fact.
I wouldn’t kill for those days back. Home games were mostly boring and flat, only the away games gave a bit of excitement with the counter attacking style we played. He spent big on average players in general and put them on high wages year after year without thought of the clubs finances, when Paul Failkner was brought in to get the house in order, asked him to start dropping some deadwood and use a little more shrewdness in transfer dealings what did he do ? he left … a few days before the season started and put Aston Villa FC in a mess. He did this on purpose and in spite. It shows what he’s made of. We have a £18m training facility that rivals anything in England and Europe, and academy set up that is graded AAA by UEFA and he never realized it’s potential. He will never manage at the top again, I think Aston Villa was too big for him in reality and he squandered huge amounts of money and faith given to him by Randy Lerner, so he has no chance at the Elite clubs such as Manchester UTD etc …. We are back on course under a better manager now and his policies will reap rewards in years to come. UTV
“academy set up that is graded AAA by UEFA and he never realized it’s potential.”
Sells Gary Cahill then goes out and pays £3.5mil for Kat Knight. Need anymore be said?
Without being too harsh, i think MON should really retire from the ever managing again…at least at top level. he is completely backwards as manager. he has no clue how to build a team from the ground up in modern football. I mean, dont get me wrong i do like him, he has brought in some good players and some not so good but as manager he is very flawed and old school in terms of style of play. He doesn’t have the complete package, knowing how to find good young potentially great players for a good bargain….or how to manage the financial aspects i.e. wages and fees to balance the books. its just completely ridiculous how much he has spent on below average players in the past at villa. See, teams these days are Learning the hard way, just like villa, who are more or less picking up the pieces that he’s left them in. He has a good record of improving teams and getting the best but what good is that if your doing that to the detriment of a clubs finance and future? i hope he takes a break to analyse his career, i just hope he can improve his overall managerial duties because its not fair on the clubs or supporters when making a huge mess of club then either doing a runner or being sacked. i respect Lambert hugely regardless of the results because he is doing it the right way and doing all the wrongs doings left by mon….people don’t realise at times how much work he has to do so ppl should behind him he will bring villa back to a great side within the next few years
I agree with the majority he made a financial mess of aston villa his wage bill in the end was 97percent of what we took on the turnstiles each week, we have now finally got it down to the 40percent mark and recovering financially so should see some good investment in the summer, my point is so many players for high fees and huge wages sat on the bench for a manager that refuses to rotate, in my opinion he only has a plan a if that doesn’t work he hasn’t got a clue and after years of the same he has been found out and his expensive side at Sunderland was predictable and easily beaten, not a great manager, plus he totally shit on the villa as randy wouldn’t plow him with yet more millions from the sale of Milner, say what you like about Lerner but he is steadying the club financially and has appointed a very good manager in Paul lambert, when we do finally recover fully and lambert gets some proper invested and invests it wisely we will be a force again I truly believe, ever the optimist interesting post a good read UTV
By the way Like your comments Astonmilan think lambert is twice the manager oneill is, people calling for his head all season would like to see where we would be under oneill with that budget, bottom that where