Martin O'Neill Certainly didn't see that coming! http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/a/aston_villa/8898993.stm
I think he's pissed because he was going to lose Milner & Young, but not quick enough to sign McGeady, who's off to CSKA.
Maybe his wife is I'll again. Either way I'm glad villa are now managerless, I fucking hate the little cretins.
If it's for reasons which the rag's are reporting - Not having the funds raised from Milner to spend, then I think it's an absolutely terrible show on O'Neill's part.
From O'Neil's point of view if Villa are going to be a selling club to the top 4 then what's the point? he's taken them as far as he can, lost Barry last season, Milner this season and probably Young. The club may not have the same ambition as O'Neil and that could be the reason he's walked out, if he has to put up with losing his best players every season and having no cash to bring in bigger players to match his and current players ambitions he may feel that its a lost cause.
I can see your point, I just hate the whole 'mutiny' attitude Premiership managers have adopted since it's now seemingly normal practice to give up or walk away from a club if they don't get the mega bucks to throw at star players every season.
I don't even think it's that in this case. O'Neill had been told by Randy Lerner that he would have to sell before he could buy (in order to raise funds for new players). Both Barry and Milner have gone to City for extravagant amounts of money and it's starting to look like he's not been given the funds (or even part of them) from these sales in order to bring in new players.
Not according to the Villa director... Aston Villa chairman Randy Lerner's right-hand man has said Martin O'Neill did a great job but left because he thought he was bigger than the club.General Charles C Krulak believes O'Neill quit as manager because he was unwilling to accept the financial limits he was expected to work under. "No one person is bigger than our club. Not me, not Randy, not chief executive Paul Faulkner, not Martin," he added. "What's interesting is that apparently only three of those understand that." Krulak said there was "no question" O'Neill had done a good job for Villa in his four years at the club but he felt coverage of the Northern Irishman's exit had been one-sided. "There is no question he did a good deal for Villa and I've said over and over that he did a fine job," he commented. "At the same time, I can promise everyone that he knew and understood the long-range plans for the club and bought into them. "Martin was absolutely supported by the owner. All one needs to do is look at the money spent. "The reality is the wage-to-revenue issue was not addressed and apparently he was unwilling to help address it. "He knew full well about the need to bring wages in line with revenue - the same as every Premiership club." O'Neill has yet to reveal his reasons for resigning on Monday - only five days before the start of the new Premier League campaign. Meanwhile, Krulak thinks there could be tough times ahead for Villa but is confident they can still make a realistic challenge for the Champions League after three successive top-six finishes. "Do I think we have some rough times ahead? Probably but nothing that we can't handle," added the non-executive Villa director. "I have been in some tough scrapes before and I never got out of them by wishing it away. I just put my head down and continued to grind it out. "At the end of the day, is the aim to get into the Champions League? Absolutely. Is this realistic? Absolutely. Do we still have a way to go? Absolutely. "We will continue to try to do what is right by the Villa with the very best of intentions. Will we always get it right? Probably not but we will work damn hard to do the right things." Source: BBC Sport
Ferguson lost (arguably) 2 of his most creative players last season, 1 of which went for £80m and with it he also lost over 30 goals collectively. He was also denied the capital raised to bring in replacements and you could even go as far to say thats one of the main reason's they never won the league last season. I ask anyone who thinks walking out of a Premiership club on O'Neill's terms to put the both in perspective.
a fair point MON has spend £120m on players since he signed on as manager, even in today's climate thats a massive amount. I can understand the board wanting to break even - in my eyes the amount of money that players are sucking up right now is ridiculous. Some frugality would make a change; clubs that can reinvest money into their academies and infrastructure would make a welcome change from clubs that just stuff the money into players pockets. Whilst I think Ashley is a muppet at NUFC, I do agree with his aim of making the club financially viable. You only need to look at Leeds and recently Portsmouth to see what overspending can do to a club...
