Following England’s catastrophic defeat in Moscow, some Villa fans are now pushing the panic button, writes Villa blogger Gregg Williams.
What if Martin O’Neill were to leave us for the England job?
Randy Lerner was asked about this yesterday, and said that if the FA made an approach, he wouldn’t stand in their way. I’m not worried yet, and feel that Randy’s comments are being taken in the wrong way.
He was asked whether he would stop the FA and he said no. This is because he has an open and trusting relationship with Martin and knows where he stands.
Some Villa fans would prefer him to say he won’t let Martin leave, but that would go against the spirit of their working relationship.
The question here is would Martin take the job?
I don’t want to second-guess the great man but in my opinion I don’t think he would take it, for a number of reasons.
Firstly I feel that he will want to ‘finish the job’ that he has started at Villa.
He has signed a number of players, some of them young lads, and I feel he will feel he owes them more time to develop with him as manager.
At the same time, he is a shrewd man, and may well view the England job as a poisoned chalice.
Look at Venables, Hoddle, Keegan, and Eriksson, none left the England job to manage a top club.
Sven was talked about as being a future Barcelona manager before he went to England, and no disrespect to Man City, they are not a club in the same league as Barca.
I’m not sure Martin wants to be the latest victim of the FA, the overpaid so-called England superstars and the unforgiving tabloid newspapers.
9 Comments
No way will Martin take the England job if it was offered. He’s too clever for that.
Sorry but MON has failed to catch the imagination of fans outside of Villa (has he caught villa fans imagination?) since joining them.
He did well in the two team SPL league but has not taken Villa forward in the way a man of his experience, quality and financial backing should have done.
This is not an anti-villa rant - just an England fan who would rather see Mouriniho, alledyce or Rednapp in charge.
So if the FA come knocking - PLEASE Mr Learner - just say NO !!
hands off Mon. The england job is a death warrant, give it to big RON lol
Completely disagree - O’Neil would pick the best team for Engalnd, he would not base his selection on what club people play for. Which has always been Englnad’s downfall. As Midland football fans we all to aware of this issue, that good Midland players were always overlooked.
Also, he learnt his trade under the Best manager ever ‘Brian Clough’. Cloughie would pick unfancied players who good do a job, I feel O’Neil would do the same.
I belive the three Managers mentioned earlier, would not bring anything new to the table. Apart from maybe Mouriniho, but I think he would walk when the Press lay into him.
Wallop - when Sven left i really wanted MON to take over, but I have been suprised by his teams performances and some of his signings.
They seem to be a team in limbo - not threatening and not in danger…. a bit boring really.
He may have a bit of Clough’s spirit but he aint a patch on the great man.
Jose can handle the media - they love and respect him, and he can motivate players - as can alledyce and rednapp.
Rednapp would pick only London based players or over rated West Ham old boys, he would also be stuck because he could’nt pick any African players.
Big Sam - Would not bring anything new, he hasn’t set Newcastle alight. He would pick the Big Names who constantly do not deliver.
And Jose well, I think Barca will be his next move. Fantastic manager but I don’t think we could get him.
Also, if you talk to any Villa fan, they are well happy with the way the Team are playing, a top six finish well within the grasp, again without going out and making Big Name signings.
Really like Martin O’Neill but don’t want him to take the England job, for me it’s a short list of two Jose Mouriniho or Big Phil Scholari, both big enough to do it there way and ignore the media, someone who’ll break the mould. High profile big pressure job needs an high profile big pressure manager. Martin has never been under that sort of pressure, and I’m not sure how he’ll respond.
I think the problem in the past four years has not been the management of England but the players available. MaClaren picked very closely to the starting eleven the majority of fans would have picked themselves. Some of the players just arent good enough for England, but you can only pick from whats available. Robinson in goal is the perfect example, not good enough, but then who comes next? Calamity James, do me a favour, Carson, no international experience, Green, simply not good enough.
Changing the Manager these days is just a PR exercise, i am not saying ONeil wouldnt do a good job, but i think the problem with the national team lies alot lot deeper.
Until we can start getting kids to play football again instead of playing playstation our national team will continue to falter, and so called lesser nations will continue to improve.
wbabomber - I agree with what you say. I think until we accept that the majority of our players are NOT world class we will continue to over-hype our game and suffer the heartbraek of failure for ever.
When you look at Brian Clough he managed to make pretty ordinary players into extrordinary players - and they won things both home and abroad.
No one can say they had loads of “world class players” but they had a world class TEAM and a world class MANAGER.
He went back to basics and got the best out of each individual - we need someone who can do that.
If we got the VERY best out of Rooney, Joe Cole, Owen, Gerrard etc then we would not be far away, but just thinking these players are good enough is wrong.
Whether these playes can do that is another question.