O’Neill’s big question is answered

Villa blogger Dave Bytheway believes manager Martin O’Neill was proved right for selling Gary Cahill by the defender’s performance against his former club.

The boys were back in town at Villa Park on Saturday, and it wasn’t the return they had planned!

There has been many an argument on forums and in pubs since a certain derby day goalscoring hero was allowed to leave, with the decision of manager Martin O’Neill questioned more than any other departure allowed.

At 4:45pm every debate, argument and questions about that brave decision were answered – Bolton defender Gary Cahill is not the player everyone thought he was.

OK, the lad scored an amazing goal for us against Birmingham when he was here. He always gave his all and never really moaned about being down in the pecking order at the time, but when he left for Bolton for a reported £5million, there was uproar amongst the fans.

This was our new prize asset, classed as a future captain and England regular. This was why O’Neill was slated and for what? I bet the manager had a little smile to himself after the game, knowing that the fans questions over the sale were answered in one 90 minute performance.

On a smaller scale the sale of Zat Knight to Bolton in the summer was also debated, but not due to his ability, moreso the lack of replacements. Now our new defence has paid dividends whilst, alongside Cahill, Knight looked a shambles in last Saturday’s 5-1 defeat.

John Carew had probably his best game of the season to, looking sharp and winning everything in the air. This then brought others into play, highlighted by Gabby Agbonlahor’s goal from his pull back.

Another plus point of the game was how comfortable Carlos Cuellar looked at centre-half again. It has been said in the past that it takes players coming down from Scotland a year to settle and, as with Stiliyan Petrov, this is starting to look the case with Cuellar.

In all my days watching Kevin Davies, I have never seen him pose so little a threat against a Villa defence, we beat him to everything!

Away from Villa Park, in my opinion some very lazy journalism was published this weekend, with Martin O’Neill apparently being lined up as the one to replace Rafa Benitez if the Liverpool boss is sacked.

Firstly, the Reds wont sack Rafa easlily, as it will cost them a reported £20million in pay offs to him and his staff. Secondly, O’Neill doesn’t give up on a job, and is only halfway through the challenge he set himself at Villa. We are starting to move forward again, so to give up now is just not his style.

Congratulations must go also to Stephen Warnock who has regained his place in the England squad. A dependable left-back for us since coming from Blackburn in August, he one of O’Neill’s best signings for me and fills a void we haven’t been able to since Freddie Bouma was injured.

Have a nice break this weekend, and lets hope on a personal note my friend Graham Durkin doesn’t let the bet down again!

Up the Villa!

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This article was posted on Thursday, November 12th, 2009 at 9:10 am.

1
Oldburyite

November 12, 2009 at 10:40 am

Cahill may not have had one of his better days against us, but his performances for Bolton since he went there, suggest he is a better player than the one we saw on Saturday, I still think MON could have moulded him into a very good player had he stayed.
Your veiws Zat Knight are echoed all round Villa Park, I had high hopes of him when he came, but I think he has to go down as one of MONs poorer buys, luckily we got a half decent return on him.
Regarding MON taking over from Rafa at Pool, well stranger things have happened, but I think your right on this one.
Yes well done Stephen Warnock, he has come on in leaps and bounds at Villa, a well deserved call up.

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