After a thread posted by cestria with some stats and his opinion I feel the need to offer a different take on this and I might well be on my own and take some heat for this but it is a forum and we all have an opinion so here it goes. We all mostly agree we like oneil as a manager and a man no doubt he has earnt respect and the time to make things work at our great club but.....has he really taken us forward I'm not so sure he has been at the club 14 odd months and 3 transfer windows and in that time I have not really seen anything that says to me were moving forward ,league form indifferent ,signings fletch ,aj ,rose,ndiaye all good players that improve our squad but Bruce brought in bent , gyan ,wellbeck ,sess. at home we seen to have got worse very negative , people are saying that oneil should be giving 5 odd years for me thou he gets the same time Bruce did we are still in a relegation fight make no mistake about it to think we're not is foolish. I hope cestria is right and I'm wrong and I do want oneil to do well but I just think his stubbornness is going to cost him or even the club, and as much as I like oneil I love the club more and want safc in its rightful place in the prem the top 8 which with the money gone into the club is we're it should be. Soz about the grammar like I said guys just my opinion
Everyone is entitled to their opinion on here mate I share your concerns about MON and his style of football has actually taking me by surprise. I didn't think his teams played this poorly but apparently they do everywhere he's been! I also agree that we haven't progressed from where Bruce had us (you missed off Mignolet for his signings), I just hope MON hasn't been left behind as football is definitely changing now. Saying that though, them are my concerns but MON needs time to be able to remove these concerns that a lot of folk have. I pray we will start playing better football next season once he's had another transfer window or he wont last long, i'm already hearing other fans say we are as bad as Stoke now, if not worse!
No we haven't really progressed under Mon yet, but I won't be judging too much until after next summer. At the end of the day I don't think it matters what we think as I think Short has found his man and will happily stick with Mon for the next few years as long as there are signs of progress. Whether the fans will stick with him is enough matter as the way we play at the moment is frustrating. I'm pleased enough as I feel we are adding a bit more quality in ever window, Fletch, AJ (form is temporary, class permanent), I really like the look of N'Diaye even though he looks raw and I'm pretty sure we will get Rose in the summer too. We managed to get these players in whilst getting rid of average ones like Campbell, Meyler, Elmo etc. Also looking at the age of the squad and the age of some of the players Mon is bringing in Fletch and AJ 25, N'Diaye 22 it suggests he is planning long term. There is going to be a clear out of the academy in the summer with lots of players from our feeder clubs being invited over for trials so lots of reasons to be optimistic.
Like every safc fan when oneil joined I was buzzing he was the man to take us to the next level I just wonder if he has been left behind by te game tactic wise I should not really be questioning oneil it's not like I've ever managed a club lol,like I said I just hope I'm wrong and he does well and we have many good seasons with him in charge
Has Fergie been left behind? Has Wenger, Lippi, Heynkes, Terim, Lucescu (all quarter finalists in this years European Champions League) and all 1 up front men btw in Europe.? They are all older too. I just don't get the left behind bit? He was out of football a mere 16 months not a decade and will anyone say Pep Guardiola has been left behind after a similar time out? I despair sometimes at SAFC fans, bemoaning that after a 'massive 14 months' we are not a top club already under MoN, playing expansive, free flowing Barcelona style football, when Bruce had 2.5 years before the rot set in with fans. Also, he hasn't had 3 full transfer windows either. He joined us in December 2011, only 3 weeks before the first window and didn't even have time to know the first team squads names before some where expecting wholesale changes and recruits. I find that ridiculous. He had to look at the player he had for 4 or 5 months to see who was in and who was out and it didn't take him long to start sussing that out either. He has had 2 full windows and if anyone can honestly say that they were not happy Adam Johnson was signed I'll tell them he is a liar. Okay he hasn't set the world on fire yet for sure but the lad is a good footballer and certainly the right calibre to better us in the long term. Fletcher is better than Bendtner by a universe and Rose is a great pick. Cuellar is solid if not top drawer and Graham is a good solid buy as well. Hopefully his history will not effect his time here now. We have yet to see Mangane so cant comment cut Alfie N'Diaye is a promising young French player with huge potential and we have seen Simon Mignolet go from a boy to a man and one of the best 2 or 3 keepers in the EPL under O'Neill too. I sometimes wonder what or who the doubting Thomas supporters amongst us would rather have as manager? I see Martinez mentioned so many times I could piss myself laughing? He has been languishing about in the bottom more times than Jimmy Saville in the 3 years he has been at Wigan and Laudrup hasnt even had 12 months in the EPL so has achieved nowt yet. We have the calibre of manager we have so craved for 40 years and yet after only 14 months we should be looking to ditch him - after the Journals report today highlighted him as the BEST EVER FIRST 50 games at the club and he beats Reid who had his fist 50 at a lower level too. Some fans really deserve the Sunderland AFC we have and have had for 40 odd years - a miserable shambolic failure of a club. Martin O'Neill represents the best opportunity in my lifetime to turn that decade upon decade of abject failure into something far better and I for one desperately hope he is around for far longer than 5 years, as if he is we will be a completely different club from top to bottom.
He is building imho, if he is slightly out of touch then I would suggest he will be aware of this and will be working on his own education. We''ll be fine
In what way is he out of touch at all though? 90% of the league and Europe play 1 striker up front and we are only not performing due to the poor personnel he has to work with in that system. Something he is trying to rectify each transfer window but it wont happen in the blink of an eye? As with even the likes of Fergie, Moyes, Wenger etc, you need 2 or 3 years of struggle to build your team and squad. We are bang on track imo.
I imagined a SAFC managed by MON would entail swift footed wingers bombing down the flanks with a big/little double whammy strike force notching up goal after goal. As of today, I havn't seen anything that I imagined would occur although I'm certain that MON is one of the best managers we have ever had. 14 months is nothing in terms of rebuilding and improving the club and MON ought to and will be provided the time to implement whatever changes are required to place SAFC in the upper half of the premier league. I'm confident that in time, MON will achieve his along with our aspirations. One thing about today... I always felt that under Reidy, we could go to Man U, Chelsea, Arsenal and Newcastle without any fears whatsoever. We could enter those stadiums believing that we could win. At the moment, Newcastle aside, I don't have much belief that we could even pick up a point at home against any of those teams. I hope that from the perspective of a fan, MON can reinstall that belief within me and others that we can visit old trafford and give them one hell of a game. At the moment, it's more of a case of wondering how long we are able to keep it at 0-0 and I don't like that at all. In time, I hope and believe that MON can bring us back the belief that Peter Reid successfully brought into the club and I hope that the football is attractive over the next few years.
Dragging things back to Steve Bruce I feel we have definitely moved forward in terms of manager. You say he brought in Wellbeck, Bent and Gyan but you fail to mention Wellbeck was on loan and he sold bent and Gyan without bringing in any replacements. He was overly heavy on the loan system which only helped other teams players and never progressed our team. We had onuha, Wellbeck, muntari Bendtner, Mensa, I've probably forgot a few. A loan or two is fine but filling your side never works. He signed players he had no idea where he was going to sign them and just seemed to like the price. MON is targeting areas to sign players and is building a team in my opinion but it does take time. I've been underwhelmed with his January transfer budget but balancing the books seems more important these days and to be fair this started at the end of Bruce's reign.
No-one knows what his managerial remit is. Personally I think that ES was guided by NQ during the Keane and Bruce reigns and possibly saw that it was not a good way to managed club funds. We could go on paying big bucks in transfer fees and wages but still not have a good team system. So, find a man who has managerial capabilities across the board in all areas and steady the ship ready to steer a different course. MON is a thinking manager who builds teams and does not buy into star players. He has never failed yet. In safer circumstances, we could be blooding academy players hence some of the short term buys of older pros to see us through the current situation. I am looking beyond this season and can see a younger faster team built around a team ethic rather than buying in reputation players.
Cana, Bent, Muntari, Gyan and Mensah were top class signings but all wanted to leave after only 12 months under Bruce which shows a man with good taste but no class. We could all sit here and pick PC Manager type players to buy but managing those star names takes much more. I much prefer the O'Neill style of building teams of players that fit a system not buying players and then look for a system they might then fit into. Its a much slower process of course but one with far longer reaching benefits.
Also to add to the argument, we are mid table and safety tantalising close (but I count no chickens) so why Change? Also change to who? As much as I've found the lack of consistency frustrating and I the team sitting deep (I'm not convinced this is mons decision) and Wickham not getting a chance. MON is worth sticking with.
Turned down Falcao in favour of, wait for it.... Emile Heskey. Says it all for me. He is ****e in the transfer market and always has been.
Whilst I 'm not calling for his head I find his tactics, substitutions & team selection bizarre to say the least. It's so ****ing frustrating at times man. It surprises me that anyone is so astonished at the way he sets up. He played the same way with Villa & in a two horse race up in Glesga. Sending Wickham out on loan & going back for McFadden after releasing him tells you all you need to know.
I'm not suggesting every single player he has bought has been ****e . Generally though he's poor to be honest
I reluctantly agree! Didn't he pay daft money for Curtis Davies and Reo-Coker at Villa? He hasn't done much wrong in the way of signings at Sunderland though. Fletcher has been a cracking signing and everybody wanted AJ who looks half the player we all thought he was, so cant knock him for that. He's even been branching out abroad lately too!
Where would Peter Reid have got us if he had the support from his chairman that Keane, Bruce & O'Neil had from theirs?
