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Tired Of It All?

Article submission by avfc48

Tired of it all

Awful performance, yada yada no clue, no tactics, yes and yes and yes.

What really matters though is like it or not our erstwhile owner is not giving any impression of an immediate change so O'Neill is here to stay.

That's a big worry. Not for the usual well used excuses either, no point in going over old ground just because I've been proved right again, none at all.

What has worried me since the Moscow mess and the subsequent fallout, is that O'Neill doesn't look to me to be on his game. Towards the end of last season his lack of enthusiasm was evident for all to see, his excuses became more repetitive than ever, and he did nothing on the pitch to change an awful run.

In the closed season he went to ground for a long time and when he surfaced it was only to reiterate old excuses, old lines of rhetoric, so poor it began to look like direct quotes from the Ellis book of 'its not my fault excuses'

Still I lived in hope that after the summer rest he'd be back full of his bubbly optimism, full of new hope for the future, new promises, new ideas, a reinvigorated little jumping bean on the touchline. Instead he gives us a pronouncement on how Man City had ruined what chances we had of achieving anything. He rather pathetically came out with the we will improve the squad if we are able in these hard times. He didn't look happy, he didn't look or sound confident for the upcoming season he was just, well, nothing really.

Then came the first match, yes I've deliberately ignored the pathetic transfer stuff, for good reason, he chose an awful side, so weak even the most ardent O'Neill fan was seen scratching his head trying to find optimistic justification.

What really worried me was the view of him on the touchline all through the second half. He looked depressed, disinterested a man with other things on his mind. He looked to be going through the motions. His after match walk off the pitch was slow and miserable and his subsequent excuses have been even by his awful standards abysmal.

Add in the rumours of player unrest, few signings yet, even General K has retracted or nearly completed superb you turns on recent answers to some questions I wonder how bad the behind the scenes are.

O'Neill is performing like a manager who knows his club are being relegated and there are 3 ie not enough matches left. Thing is there are plenty left, so why does he look, act and sound tired of it all after 1
defeat, humiliating though it was.

I like the bloke, I don't rate him as good as many, but I like the bloke, but I'm genuinely worried he's not now, enjoying his job.

Its my club in the end that will suffer most.

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Writer: avfc48

Date:Tuesday August 18 2009

Time: 6:41PM

Your Comments

ashley if u have any sense get out this mediocre club and join a team with ambition no offense villa fans but u know its the truth

Hackspur

ashley if u have any sense get out this mediocre club and join a team with ambition no offense villa fans but u know its the truth

Hackspur

Remember at the fag end of last season, around the abysmal run of Stoke, Man Citeh, Spurs? MON was saying stuff like "a win is just around the corner", repeat, "a win is just around the corner". Its a bit like that once great defender Tony Adams relying on a lucky tie when Portsmouth were struggling. Can anyone imagine Fergie, Wenger, Benitez, Moyes or even Martinez, keeping everything crossed and begging the tooth fairy for a victory, or relying on magic neckpieces? Great managers drop under performing players, replace non-scoring strikers and try new tactics, formations and techniques. Does MON do any of those things? Doesn't seem like it. Winning sides don't believe in "hoodoo's" or "the rub of the green". Unless, the current Villa set-up approach the game using the old grey matter, they'll vanish into the nowhereland of mid-table from, whose murky depths few teams re-emerge.

VillaWillRiseAgain

You as a club remind me of us 3 years ago in every sense. A big club under achieving for years - suddenly you last year found your selves rejuvinated and had a great season and narrowly missed out on CL footy with a young, talented team. The following season you lost some key core players (Barry Laursen/ Carrick - King injured - but the pressure remained higher than ever. Then you choked and calls for MONs head were made (Just like what happened to Jol) The board and many fans panicked and Ramos was brought in to save our season but what id actually achieved was setting us back 2 seasons. Only now in the last few months do we look a very good team again. Believe me the very last thing you want to do is get rid of MON - hes a top manager and hes made you into a good side again. Keep the faith

HuddersfieldYiddo

Good point VillaWillRiseAgain. No plan B and he seems to have been found out. I agree with most of AVFC48's points too. Interviews leave him stumbling and with Gareth leaving, maybe others have lost the faith too. Maybe Randy's skint or losing patience (along with the fans) as to our appalling form since Laursen last played. SURELY it can't all be down to ONE F'ing player????

Villan444

I agree AVFC48 with what you are saying. The passion and excitement that he once had isn't there at present. I recall he resigned from the Hoops to spend more time with his sick wife, maybe this is another case of family related things effecting his work. So much in fact he's in a bit of disbelief himself. Maybe he felt his vision of great things at villa park should've been enough for Barry to stay but it just wasnt and when a bigger clubs who are offering a bigger vision with the compensation that if they fail, they'll still pick up a fortune. MON is from the day in age where winning things took place over money. and these days money talks sadly. I like MON and i hope he comes good in the end.

VillaSlice

There is something more going on, this is not about MON this is about the club and its owner. I suspect that Randy, like so many others has been badly hit in this recession and now we do not have the funds available to fit out the team. My guess is that MON is too loyal and has too much integrity to speak out, but he has been told to put a stop on his ambitions. In those circumstances I cannot blame him losing heart. We are going to have to cope with what we have, so let's make the best of it.

Obediah

I think some people see what they want to see in order to push their own agenda...

johnnyuk

I think some people see what they want to see in order to push their own agenda...

johnnyuk

Erstwhile owner? What's Doug got to do with this?

andy5759

Erstwhile owner? What's Doug got to do with this?

andy5759

HuddersfieldYiddo i agree with some points and disagree with others but the one line i hear over and over again is that "he's a top manager" what is this based on? Leicester over a decade ago - times have changed or celtic - he did well in a league which is far inferior to the english prem. Now don't get me wrong i am not a MON hater, far from it but he is not the goddamb messiah as the media portrays him. He is just like any football manager and should be judged as one, and simply at the moment you can't not question the man. He has spent well over 100million since arriving - fact yet he still makes excuses about small squads etc etc etc, all points have been covered on this board and the bottom line is the form since feb is relegation at best. If he turns it around great but at the moment i feel every fan at this club is entitled to judge the man in charge of our beloved football club.

goodb_2

Huddersfield yiddo, thanks for the encouragement. Coming from a spurs fan, that means a lot.... I'm sorry but this whole doom and gloom attitude is utter bull****. People seriously have got such a negative attitude at villa and makes me honestly feel sorry for DOL for putting up with us. No wonder he walked, and I absolutely hated the guy from day one... Mon has taken this club forward in huge strides. We're an attacking side that goes out to score goals and I don't share the opinion that we're boring, look disinterested and that MON has "other things on his mind". How do you know AVFC48? Are you a close friend of his? Do you know how to read him? I tell you what, I can't even read my wife's mind that well, let alone a bloke I don't know in person... I'd bet my money on his mind was more away with trying to figure out what HE could do to pull our game around. So we haven't got any huge signings in that we all crave. It sucks, but we HAVE brought in one of the country's brightest talents who in my opinion, I was far more excited at seeing play than I ever was GB. The transfer market is screwed right now. The disgraceful amounts of money being spent on footballers are what's making MON's job difficult at signing players, probably NOT Randy's lack of millions. I'd bet he's being careful, but I'd also bet on there being money there to spend on the right players. I'd also bet we'd have spent 20m on sneijder had he wanted to leave madrid and come to us. A manager can only do so much and a few weeks ago when we won the peace cup all that doom and gloom was gone. Have a bad game and it's all the doom merchants out like yourself pushing your agenda. I'm ashamed to be associated with others who call themselves villains and speak the way you do.

johnnyuk

Let's get something straight. We're not the perfect team. MON is not the perfect manager. Randy is not the perfect chairman. However, they are all far better than the majority of the so called Villa Fans who post negative crap on the 'net like this. We had a bad game, we'll get over it. We had a bad end to last season, and our squad was short, especially short of leadership at the back. This only goes to prove that you can't stand still, you need to keep moving otherwise you'll end up going backwards. The forward movement at times is slow, too slow for most of you lot it seems, but negative crap like this is what unstabilises a club, and instability only leads to one thing: Failure. MON will come good in the end, he's as good a manager as there is out there when you consider the whole package. Honestly, who in the last decade have we had a chance of getting in who's been as good a manager as MON? What's going on at the Villa is that something is being built that's bigger than a couple of runs of poor results, it's much bigger than a limp display to wigan, and it's certainly far bigger than a bunch of people on the internet who've got a bit too much time on their hands and fancy voicing opions on why the perfect Villa team hasn't been built up within 3 years, on what in comparison to many teams in the league is a pretty slim budget. Sometimes, when reading the absolute twaddle that people put up on here, I wonder if I even want call myself a Villa fan, as it means I'm roped in alongside the naysayers and doom-mongers. If we, or any other team, are to ever give a serious go at breaking the top 4 cartel then the fans will have to be alongside, and that applies equally after poor results as it does after the good ones too. Take a look at yourselves Villa Fans, you're as big a part of the problem as anybody.

lorenzo

If you were in the army would you follow a leader blindly off a cliff and not question it? bit melodramatic yes but my point is that its human nature to question. Many of the points made are valid, some are mindless negativity yes and i disagree with that, but if a point is well thought out with back-up why can't we question aspects of Lerner, MON and each and every player. Especially when many of us including myself spend thousands of our hard earned pounds to go and support them all over the country, and support them is exactly what we do.

goodb_2

Careful people - or we'll be in danger of being called 'Fickle' !!

bazzah

Careful people - or we'll be in danger of being called 'Fickle' !!

bazzah

goodb_2.... I don't think anyone is saying things aren't worrying at the moment but some take the situation way too far. I also think MON has flaws and made mistakes. I happen to hope that he gets his tactics sorted. I do however think the level of negativity, particularly from this site is depressing. I also don't think it reflects the level of opinion of the majority of villa fans who don't spend their lives on forums like a lot of us.

johnnyuk

football fans and football in total is fickle though bazzah, even the players are fickle, one minute they kiss the badge, the next they are off.... It isn't just this site johnnyuk, I've read the other message boards, not many are jumping up and down with glee about the last 3 years etc but there have been positive articles / posts put up here as well (only this morning the one article was from an opti) but do you want me to censor the site so only those with your opinion get published? Personally my heart sank with this article but should I just say no, it isn't what I think so I'll not publish it ? Would be a bit *****e if I did!

If you don't think it reflects the majority, were you not there on Saturday? (Not saying you had to be... or anything like that!!!!) The level of moaning was everywhere, + booing at half time and full time. PLEASE, feel free to have your opinions and express them but don't start slating this site as not being in tune, it can only reflect the opinions posted by the fans and as it is a site full of Villa fans (and one that has been going for many many years - even before we moved it to Vital) their views are just as in line with any other Villa fans.

The Fear

I think it's impossible to say whether Lerner is unable to give O'Neill the backing he would like because O'Neill is so parsimonious in the transfer market - or at least claims to be. What we can say is that, even when O'Neill does spend money, he invariably wastes it. A few new signings might well give us a shot in the arm, but the fundamental problem is that O'Neill is nowhere near good enough.

Albarnista

OPTI.... HURRAH!!!!! Click Here

The Fear

OPTI.... HURRAH!!!!! Click Here

The Fear

Albarnista

The spine of your team over the past couple of seasons is gone, one is now playing well at Man City, the other is enjoying retirement. These players need to be replaced not only in terms of squad numbers but with quality players who can fill or grow into their roles. If you dont do that you go backwards, fact and in this case it means 5-6th to 7-8-9-10th.

TeddyLyon

I'll keep it simple as its my first post. Can anyone explain to me WHY O'Neil didn't identify, persue, go out and capture like for like replacements for Barry and Laursen as his priority the second the transfer window opened? In my mind you should be doing the important business on the first day of the transfer window and not the last. Can anyone further explain why when Reo-Coker and Sidwell were major influences, solid if not spectacular, in the Peace cup and pre season games against useful european opposition he then decides to gamble on a yet unproven 19 year old. Can anyone explain why when Carew offers our only legitimate goal threat he continues to shoe horn Heskey into the starting lineup. Finally can anyone explain why when we switched from a successful winning formation to a losing 4-4-2 does he insist on sticking with this formula. I have my own ideas on why he would spend a significant portion of his transfer budget on a player with a broken foot when these funds could have been used to secure top quality replacements. Vermerlens performance reminded me of Laursen last night. Finally a request to Mr O'Neil please stop scavenging players from sides that have been relegated from the EPL and still paying top dollar. There is a single reason why a team is relegated. They were found wanting when the chips were down!

villa onion bag

Some very valid points made, but In respect of the last paragraph, maybe there are issues at home "again", that are detracting MON from doing his job, I sincerely hope not.

jj184

Some very valid points made, but In respect of the last paragraph, maybe there are issues at home "again", that are detracting MON from doing his job, I sincerely hope not.

jj184

Villa onion bag, all valid points, the 4-4-2 one is the most confusing, but don't worry MON will attend a conference soon that will show him the comparitive results in graph form and then he will announce to being suprised by this.......... and then continue to play 4-4-2

ant1ant1

welcome on board onion bag, great first post!

The Fear

welcome on board onion bag, great first post!

The Fear

onion bag, welcome on board mate. Sensible first post and I share your confusion over why when its obvious to all that 4-4-2 doesn't suit our players we don't switch back to 4-5-1. Carew withdrew from the squad during the warm up on saturday otherwise Heskey would have been on the bench but can't argue with your point about centre mid -we lack steel. As far as like for like replacements for ML and GB, tough one. Players like ML come along once in a while so difficult to replace, whilst in my unpopular opinion GB leaving gives us the option to try other things and I wouldn't want a like for like.

AVbornandbred

While I can see where '48 is coming from, I'm not about to jump onto the "MON out" bandwagon that seems to be out in force. I heard the boos on Saturday from here, the crowd didn't look happy and well, we weren't that good, so people have got a right to voice their discontent. I'm resigned to the fact that we're probably going to slip a couple of places this season; Man City and their squillionaire owners want to play Championship Manager for real, Spuds have looked a stronger side since 'Arry took over, Everton (despite their thrashing at the weekend) will be as good as us, maybe better, who knows. I'm convinced the real problem is not funds, or MON, or fickle players. It's just that we can't attract the players we want; Villa are just not seen as being as big or glamourous as the teams we are competing against, thanks to 4 billion years of Deadly at the helm. I hope I'm wrong and by the end of the week we've signed Wesley Snipes, van der Vaart, Hangelaaaaaand and maybe Steven Gerrard.

ExpatVillaShirt

Is there any reason why MON persists on buying expensive english players, when there is better foreign players at a cheaper price!!! Thomas Vremaelen who signed for Arse for 10mill and we spent 12mil on downing!!

Pablo1978

Well johnny uk seems you feel I have an agenda and that few back the idea all is not well. Firstly it has probably escaped your notice but, Villa have won 2 in 17 games, so the excuse its a knee jerk reaction following one defeat is laughable. Next I heard plenty of the 30+ crowd on Saturday booing, and looking at the answers above not many share your view, perhaps we are just this fictitious minority you hang on to. Lastly if you didn't see the disharmony from the players Saturday, or have not heard all the rumours of off the field aggravation, fine, I can understand that. But if you or anyone else that follows Villa have not seen the way O'Neill has gone from the vibrant man he started at Villa to the hunched shouldered depressed man who left the field after Wigan, you must be very insensitive. The blokes not the same one who took over when Randy came, far from it. That is partly why 17 games, have gone by, 17 games and only 2 wins. That's the huge strides he's made at Villa, strides that mean we now have 2 CB's 1 fit left back, 1 fit right back 4 seasons in and 120 mill spent. That's progress according to you, and he's yet to achieve higher than the 6th place O'Leary did after spending just a few millions. Superb progress Johnnyuk, superb.

avfc48

I think Fear from the reaction to this article your decision was justified Everyone can argue about the reasons for our poor form of late, 17 games now Johnnyuk, but none I have seen anywhere have asked about O'Neill's demeanour and they should, he's been known to go like this before............ Onionbag, nice reply for your first go, you make a very valid point, his transfers do always seem to lack more than a safe option usually of players that might need a second chance. Its true and worrying too that the more players you buy from relegated sides the more chance you have of becoming one. I guess its all part of this 'progress' some keep on about.

avfc48

it is all meant to be about opinions avfc, always has been, some loved JG, others despised him, GT split opinion, DOL reactions at times were amazingly strong and yet if anyone does an article re: MON you get castigated. I can't understand why as fans you can't disagree with another and still show respect. One of the other articles (been two positive ones but they are ignoring that fact) has said the site is rotten to the core because of another negative -ish opinion. Amazing really. Is everyone meant to just agree blindly or all sit there silently? When have FOOTBALL (not just Villa) fans ever done that? Funny old game.

The Fear

Anyone hear the O'Neill chat on WM? I'm told uk that the reporter suggested after it that Mart looked like he had the worries of the world on his shoulders and didn't look a happy man. Its about people seeing their illusions shattered Fear, some don't have the balls to face up to it so deny its existence in the hope it will be sorted I hope he does sort it, I have from day 1, I'm just more and more convinced he is losing what little chance he had is all and even more concerned that he's not coping with the pressure it brings as that was part of his reasons for taking a rest when his wife became ill at while he was at Celtic.

avfc48

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