So, we've sacked the manager who was employed to initially stop us getting relegated (which he did), and then to get us promoted (which he did). What in your wildest dreams makes you think that Martin O'Neill would then take on that job, where clearly your reward for achieving your target is to be sacked?
Because if he got sacked then hes make a whole load of money for little work. Just like the successions of manager we had under Flav. Its also quite common for a new owner to want his own man in charge too. Did getting rid of mainstay players like Gorkss stop new players from joining us?
I don't think that money is O'Neill driving force. He would have had many job offers while he was out of work, but was waiting for the right one. I can't say the same for many of the players we signed. They clearly came for the money.
Well Hughes is highly overpaid so he may have taken the job if offered the same money and Sunderland isnt exactly a glamour job either. Id agree if he took on a club like Spurs or Liverpool.
So let’s travel back in time to last summer when you think that O’Neill would have taken the job and let’s assume that he regarded the club sacking the manager that got them promoted as a sign of ambition... For most of the summer the Goons were in charge and openly looking to sell the club. Would he have taken the job then with all that uncertainty regarding the immediate future? No. So after Fernandes took over, would he take the job working for a completely unknown quantity as an owner with a newly promoted team that had not made any significant improvement to its playing staff? No. Had we sacked Warnock before O’Neill took the Sunderland job maybe he would have considered the job then, it would have depended on the potential he thought the club had and whether it was a good stepping stone to one of the big jobs. Based on our recent history he still would have turned us down as he wouldn’t want to hurt his chances of being the next Manchester United manager.
I seem to remember O'Neill being a shoe-in for the West Ham job just before last Christmas, reports that Avram Grant would be sacked imminently were in all the papers for some time and then it never happened because O'Neill realised what a pack of tossers the West Ham board were, proven by the fact they kept Grant on and then sacked him at Wigan before he'd left the ground. West Ham are a 'bigger' club than us and were in a similar position so that answers that question...
Sorry mate. No way would O'Neil - or any manager worth his salt - have come to us in the summer. The boardroom was in chaos. We couldn't even persuade Danny Graham. As stated in numerous other threads by many others, the only players we ended up with were "damaged goods" in one way or another. It would have been no different with managers. Edit to add, what Roller said above.
Roller and Telford, can't believe you've made such a schoolboy error in your debate with Flyer. You have employed knowledge, intelligence and an understanding of history to present your case. Flyer has stuck to his age old approach of repeating the same thing over and over again til the rest of us wander away, wearily shaking our heads. He wins every time.
My only defence to the charges is that it was a slow afternoon. I must admit that I was wondering what you or Col was going to say when I was writing that stuff.
"The Boss"?? I can't think of anything worse than listening to Springsteen wailing on the same note throughout each number!! (Can't agree on everything Roller!!)
You need to listen to some early Springsteen, not that "Born in the USA" crap. Fantastic energy and just good fun. I'm sure the fact that it takes me back to my youth has some bearing too!
Taiwo definitely at fault, but our defense as a whole just does not play as a unit, which isn't surprising as we never play the same players from one game to the next. I like both Taiwo and Traore, but would not describe either of them as 'solid'. Having seen him a few times it staggers me that Taiwo was at AC Milan, even briefly, playing in the position recently occupied by Paolo Maldini, the best defender I have ever seen.
