I'd love to know who the ones calling for MoN's head think is waiting to walk through the SOL doors to replace him? When Bruce ****ed up there was a credible alternative and he was available. If O'Neill walked tomorrow, there is Alan Curbishley or Mark Hughes available, as no club is going to let a good manager go mid season. By May we could just as easily be top 10 comfortably. No team has EVER been relegated in December and its not like we are a million miles from top 10. Yes we are struggling at the moment and yes I want it to get much better but there simply isnt anyone who could take over if MoN wasnt there right now. If you want to gamble on an unproven lower league manager then fine but personally, I think we already have the right man for the job. He just needs patience and support not criticisms after 12 months. Give him until the end of next season before you judge the man and if its still no better then fair enough.
In an ideal world we would stop giving a **** about being in the premier league or not. Always play attractive style of football so come relegation or promotion it's all good to watch. Shame football is such a business that this won't happen.
I couldn't disagree more if I tried. Having watched enough lower league football in my time, there is only one place to play football and that the First Division, Premiership or whatever the top flight of English football gets called. Playing Man Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea or any of the other 'lesser' teams in the top flight is the absolute minimum I want to see. Second class football, albeit winning 5-0 or 6-0 is completely irrelevant IMO.
Do you mean slow learners of slow paced? MON needs to start earning his money because I haven't seen him change many things and it's the same old stale rubbish we have to watch every week. The transfer window will help but he really needs a modern coach with some tactical understanding because in the time he's been manager, he hasn't done anything in a game to change things that clearly stood out. Bringing on a like-for-like sub with 5 minutes to go isn't changing things. The managers ideas are stale and out dated. The team don't even look like they know what they are doing. He has till the end of the month for me then I'm on the O'neill out wagon. Answer me this gents - have any of you got an idea of the style of football be should be playing (that has come from the club)? The answer to this is 'no' and the reason for this is, we don't actually know what style of football we want to be playing and that is why we have no football identy. That my friend is Sunderland under O'neill. And that is why we are struggling. Last season we had the ooooo'neill factor for 3 months. What is he doing now to earn his money because he's not changing things and we will go down.
Indeed it should be all about entertainment. I'd rather watch lower league football rather than be subjected to the likes of Fat Sam or Pulis percentage football ****e.
Martin O’Neill’s reputation has always seemed peculiarly bulletproof. Just the other week, in an appearance on the Football Focus sofa, John Hartson was still tipping him to succeed Alex Ferguson as Manchester United manager. It was like being transported back to the early 2000s, a time when pre-Roman Abramovich Chelsea were considered largely inoffensive underachievers, Michael Ricketts was in proud possession of an England cap and O’Neill was widely regarded as one of the most promising managers of the new millennium. However, a decade on and after a disastrous run of two wins from his last league 22 games as Sunderland manager, some uncomfortable questions are finally being asked about the Northern Irishman’s ability. Hartson’s suggestion that he should be in the running at Old Trafford is plainly absurd but hardly surprising given the level of devotion he has long inspired in players and supporters alike. Hartson, a staunch O’Neill acolyte and favourite from his Celtic days, where they won numerous titles and reached the final of the UEFA Cup together, understandably continues to champion O'Neill's cause. Yet the popularity he enjoys amongst the public at large, disproportionate to his actual achievements, is rather more mystifying. Leicester was undoubtedly a prolonged success story. O’Neill turned driven yet limited sorts like Robbie Savage, Matt Elliott and Neil Lennon into a competitive Premiership outfit that steered well clear of the relegation scrap and even lifted the League Cup in 1997 and 2000. Working on a budget brought the best out of O’Neill, forcing him to scour the lower leagues for unpolished talent rather than simply parachuting in the finished product. By contrast, the free reign over finances he was given at Aston Villa and Celtic proved a costly experience for all concerned. Both clubs have had to scale back their ambitions and expenditures dramatically since O’Neill left. Celtic are still struggling with an inflated wage bill attributable to his period in charge. Upon arrival in Scotland, he brought Rangers’ extended spell of dominance to an immediate end, delivering a domestic treble in his debut season. Yet the resources committed to coming out on top in this two-horse race are rarely discussed. Courtesy of an unprecedented spending spree, Celtic were able to lure Chris Sutton, John Hartson and Alan Thompson, amongst others, north of the border on huge deals. Overpaying for such players, who, in their prime, serve an immediate purpose before becoming an unwieldy and impossible-to-shift burden, is something of an O’Neill specialty. He left a similarly expensive legacy at Aston Villa, where Stephen Warnock and Richard Dunne—bought for big fees and of limited resale value—remain in situ. Some, including Emile Heskey, Carlos Cuellar and Habib Beye, finally left over the summer. Beye, like Bobo Balde before him, stubbornly saw out an overly generous long-term contract without troubling the first team. The expected call from one of England’s elite clubs, or the national team, failed to materialise after O’Neill’s trophy-laden tenure at Celtic. So he pitched up at Villa Park instead, where—flush with investment from Randy Lerner—he was expected to propel them towards the Top Four. A net spend of £84 million during his time in the Midlands brought successive sixth-place finishes, but the Champions League remained elusive. Significantly, O’Neill left when he found the American owner unwilling to throw good money after bad by continuing to back him in the transfer market. How would you feel about having Martin O'Neill at your club? Pleased Indifferent Disappointed Submit Vote vote to see results Although many managers have narrow horizons when it comes to scouting, O’Neill is one of the worst culprits. His tendency to pay a premium for unexceptional British players rather than risk looking further afield for bargains, in evidence at both Villa and Celtic, can be seen in his Sunderland dealings as well. Indeed, he dedicated the entire summer and £12 million to chasing Steven Fletcher when Swansea acquired the infinitely more talented and versatile Miguel Pérez Cuesta for a sixth of that fee. Aside from a love of the chequebook, his methods remain distinctly old-school. He is a motivator more than an innovator. The virtues of this approach (loyalty to a preferred starting XI, an anachronistic fondness for wingers—Steve Guppy, Stewart Downing, Ashley Young and Adam Johnson—and emphasis on an up-tempo playing style) may have outweighed the drawbacks for a time, but not now. Football has evolved, O’Neill has not; he continues to get by on residual goodwill as it stands.
Well that one sided very myopic view clearly wasn't written by your good self. Even if it does back up your usual way of thinking. Want to link us to the biased author?
