Martin O’Neill – Hero and Villan!
I must admit, I’ve never really warmed to Martin O’Neill as a TV pundit, he’s far too “touchy feely”. I much prefer him as a manager, so it was something of a relief when he agreed to take the Villa job.
O’Dreary had, predictably, blamed everyone else for Villa’s poor performance; his players were not good enough, the fans were fickle, his chairman wouldn’t back him in the transfer market to buy better players (how can a cheque book manager be expected to manage without a cheque book!?).
But in truth we all knew that O’Leary just wasn’t up for the job. In slating his players week in and week out he was re-inforcing the concept that they just weren’t good enough, and like a vicious circle this was reflect in their play, and was again reflected in his post match blame culture. In reality Villa had some great players, he just didn’t know how to motivate them, or maybe he just didn’t care enough about Villa.
O’Neill has proved what we all suspected, that the squad of players O’Leary had was able to produce good results, and that other players were more than happy to join (and stay) at a club with a grand old history and tradition. Its true that O’Neill has added to the squad, most notably with Petrov, but what he’s added most is heart, a belief in the players and the club.
Of course he could just be a one season wonder, the archetypal “new” manager syndrome, but we all know that Villa’s fortunes have changed for the good with the arrival of that “touchy feely” pundit, with more than a hint of his mentor, Brian Clough, about him.
Now if he could just do something about Villa’s fickle fans…..
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