Time to map out a plan for Villa's future
- Says blogger Matthew Turvey
Martin O’Neill warned off Liverpool
Friday 4th June 2010, 10:44AM BST.
Ian Taylor has insisted it’s more important Villa keep manager Martin O’Neill than James Milner and warned the Liverpool job would be a “backwards step.”
O’Neill is second favourite behind Kenny Dalglish with the bookmakers for the Anfield hotseat, after Rafa Benitez left the Reds yesterday.
But any attempt to prise the manager away from Villa Park would be fought fiercely, with owner Randy Lerner having only recently warned the Reds off the Northern Irishman after confirming his stay as boss for another year.
Express & Star columnist Taylor believes it is imperative Villa retain the 58-year-old’s services and believes doing that even outweighs keeping £30million-rated Milner, who is a top target for Manchester City.
He said: “Why would Martin want to go to Liverpool right now? I really hope it doesn’t happen and, if it did, I wouldn’t understand it.
“It would be a backwards step. I think historically and in terms of heritage Liverpool is a great club, but at the moment you would definitely say Villa are ahead of them.
“It’s a far more stable club and they’ve just finished ahead of them in the league. If you were going to become manager there you’d want assurances over finances and keeping your best players, but I think they’ll struggle to keep Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard.
“For Villa, keeping Martin O’Neill is more important than keeping James Milner. Players come and go and for the money being talked about for Milner you could buy three really good players.
“But Villa would get very little compensation for Martin and yet replacing him would really take some doing.”
Taylor believes O’Neill still has a job to finish.
He added: “Hopefully Martin doesn’t think he has taken this Villa team as far as he can.
“There’s so much potential there.”
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Backward step!!!! Hahahaha!!! Martin O’Neil is at the right club……….a club without expectations. He is better of a Villa, a team that is happy with Europa league football.
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Get real will ya? If new owners come into Liverpool with lots of dosh, and they will, who would not want to be part of a new beginning with lots to spend on good players. This year was an aberration for Liverpool not the normal year!
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Is Ian Taylor in his right mind? Backward step? Even if Liverpool in current state is much better than Villa. Gosh~
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If I were Martin O’Neill, only the Man.U. job would get me away from Villa. That job could be on the horizon soon, Sir Alex will have to retire some time. Liverpool are in turmoil and even Man.U. owe a King’s ransom to the banks, but that will be put right in time. It will be a sad day for our rivals Villa if he does go. A Baggies fan.
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Not sure a ‘backward step’ is the right expression, but Villa are definitely a more healthy club than Liverpool at the moment. We have a great American owner. Liverpool certainly don’t! We are far more finacially stable and we also have a better team. Liverpool are at a crossroads. Just because they were great in the 60′s, 70′s and 80′s and have had all the benefit of ‘Champions League money’it doesn’t mean they have a divine right to be great again. Villa were great in Victorian times, the best around. Doesn’t give us a divine right now, and neither does Liverpool’s more recent history.
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MOM will still be at villa nxt season….HEY UP could be worse – at least we didnt pay 6.5mil for felcher LMAO LMAO OMG!!!!!!
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Tayl’s is right that leaving Villa for Liverpool would be a backward step for O’Neill.
Whoever is brave enough to take on the Liverpool job will face a massive rebuilding job which could take as long as 5 years to complete. They will have to reorganise the club from top to bottom as the club has been in decline for a number of years, even before Benitez arrived. They will have re-introduce the principles and methods which once made Liverpool great such as the boot room! The academy and reserve set-ups are a shambles with first team coaching not much better. The scouting set-up needs turning inside out. At the moment, it seems to consist of one man in Spain, whereas 30 years ago it was the best in the world! But above all, the new man must be able to command respect from players and supporters alike, something Benitez hasn’t been able to do for some time now.
Throwing ‘dosh’ at the club as someone put it, won’t work! You only have to look at Man City to see that. And as for statements like “Even if Liverpool in current state is much better than Villa” LMAO, I can only put that comment down to a jealous or even envious saddo whose own club has just wasted £7 million on a championship striker!
Far from being an aberration, I can see Liverpool staying in the brown sticky stuff for at least another season!
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I’m just glad Wolves never paid £10m for Heskey, cus thats just embarrassing.
Villa can not go any further.FACT!
Liverpool, yes they are in a mess but by a country mile a far better job than Villa.
Just get over it and move on. Mark Hughes wouldnt be a bad replacement
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I just hope and pray that O’Neill does’n't go to LFC,PLEASE keep him at ‘Villa Park’. He has never done anything of note! LFC need an ENGLISHMAN, ROY HODGSON will do !!!
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Dick Dave, Villa didn’t pay £10 million for Heskey, it was £3.5 million??????? And he has gone to the World Cup! How many Wolf’s players have gone to SA? An asylum seeker! A Yank who is behind Villa’s No 2 goalkeeper and an African whose name not even Wolf’s fans can remember!
You may well be right that Villa won’t go any higher than 6th, but we won’t be RELEGATED either!
I think it’s quite funny that Wolf’s fans are cra**ing themselves that the Dingles are going to finish above them next season. FACT!
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Lets get some facts correct here. LFC are far bigger in everything than AVFC. MO’N would make a good LFC manager. Move on Mart and prove it at a bigger club.
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Liverpool’s plight now mirrors Villa’s in the late sixties. Back then the Peerless AVFC were the most successful club in England by a county mile yet we nearly went bust and began the long slide down to mediocrity.
Our club more than any other knows what it is like to be in liverpool’s current precarious predicament. Thankfully we fought through. My advice to liverpool fans here is to swallow hard and realise that history counts for nothing. If you continue to slide you will soon be considered also-rans. If it happened to Villa forty years ago then it can happen to you guys too.
Remember: O’Neill is now at a very big city club with a European Cup and a heritage second to none. You underestimate Villa! As things stand today, on every level, they are a superior club to liverpool.
Just as forty years ago leaving Shanks’ Pool to go to a sliding (but more trophied) Villa would have be seen as a backwards step, today the opposite rings true. Villa are the stronger club with the superior prospects. “What if liverpool are taken over in the future, though?” you ask. Well, what if, in the future, Villa are taken over by someone even richer than Randy Lerner? That’s all ifs, buts and maybes. As things stand Villa are far and away the stronger club on every level.
In football the sands are always shifting. When you grasp this simple fact perhaps you will start following your local team?
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I have always been partial to Villa even though I’m a life long Wolves fan. Every year i think Villa will do something good,then they fizzle out. Year after year after year !!!!!.
Martin should stay at Villa and not be tempted away by LFC.
Talking about LFC it blows my mind that they would pay RB 6 mill to leave,wow, and he couldn’t pick his nose. All he did was moan and groan about other managers.
He lost his dressing room a long time ago,when you do that, it’s over.
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Wolves fan here observing from a distance. I actually agree with Taylor. Look where Villa were when he took over, and look where he has you now. I actually expect Milner’s head will be turned by the money and if he does go- it may be a blessing in disguise for Villa- let’s face it- there does not seem to be a great deal available to him otherwise. As for Liverpool, a club I have always truly admired, they are going in one direction end of story. I’ll be very surprised if Torres and Gerrard are there after the World Cup and no matter what fees they bring in, the club is in disarray from top to bottom.
# 10 PsychoVilla. In all sincerity, ask you Dad to check things before you post them, spelling and stuff. Also, Wolves are referred to as The Dingles so you’re arguing we are worried about finishing above ourselves. Gave me a chuckle.
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PsychoVilla
ok i got my facts wrong on how much Heskey cost, but are you telling me he is a good player?
every and i mean evry villa i know can’t stand him.
oh and by the way “dingles” are wolves fans. Albion are “steptoes”
i bet you don’t even go to the games with your local football brain. but i expect you to come back with “ive been a season ticket holder in the holt end for 30 years” blah blah balh.
Wolves wont be relegated, not even close, just wishful thinking.
Prat!
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