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The timing couldn’t have been worse. On Monday afternoon—just five days before the start of the Premier League season—Martin O’Neill stepped down as manager of Aston Villa. His decision took immediate effect, and the club posted a statement announcing his departure just after 4:00pm. It was an exit as hasty as it was unsurprising.
Let me take you back a few months. On March 30, Aston Villa had to scramble to quash rumours that O’Neill had quit the club. Reports of a rift between the manager and American owner Randy Lerner were never confirmed, but speculation that Lerner was about to significantly chop the summer transfer budget led many to believe that O’Neill would jump ship.
A devastating 7-1 loss to Chelsea on March 27 had set the rumour mill in motion. Supporters seemed increasingly disgruntled with O’Neill and the club’s progress, and the 58-year-old admitted he would take the fans’ displeasure into consideration when sitting down with Lerner at the end of the campaign.
O’Neill also suggested that Lerner had yet to inform him of the club’s summer transfer budget. “I will find out when I speak to him,” he said at the time. Another signal that relations were far from comfortable between manager and owner.
Nothing happened
Then nothing happened. Villa scrapped to another, respectable sixth-place finish and O’Neill looked destined to stick with the same squad of players for another season. No sales; no buys. Yes, Manchester City were keen to sign James Milner, but O’Neill had fended off Liverpool’s pursuit of Gareth Barry, and he seemed confident he could keep Milner at Villa Park for at least another year.
That scenario became less and less likely as the summer progressed. And when a big-money transfer—desired by Lerner to both raise funds and reduce the wage bill—became inevitable, O’Neill became more and more uncomfortable. He delayed the Milner transaction as long as he could before finally agreeing a deal that would have brought Stephen Ireland to Villa. If he couldn’t retain his star player, at least he could get a decent midfielder in return.
That deal is probably dead in the water. Lerner claims the club financially underperformed last term, and he wants cash to offset his losses. He’ll do his best to make a Milner-for-money agreement with City, and will be tempted to sell Ashley Young as well.
Timing
Back to the timing of the resignation. O’Neill is many things, but he is not the type of person to leave a club high and dry with less than a week before the start of the season. That’s not his style. And that tells me one thing: he didn’t want to go.
I think O’Neill really believed he could make something work at Villa going forward. Even with a small transfer budget at his disposal, he probably would have stayed at the club. He obviously wanted to sign Aiden McGeady, but Lerner simply closed his wallet. The owner wasn’t about to take on any more wages. Instead, he cut off the supply of funds and encouraged the sales of important assets such as Milner and Young.
O’Neill was never going to stand for that. Having tried everything—and having lasted at the club a lot longer than he probably believed he would—he walked. It was a choice made on principle.
For O’Neill, Aston Villa were a big club with rich traditions and an equally promising future. When the owner no longer shared that vision, he called it a day.
Twitter.com/peterssoccer
Comments
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Posted by Paul c on 08/09/2010
There is only one worthwhile replacement that could possibly move us forward and that is gus hiddink soon to take
over turkey I beleve get on the phone randy!!!!
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Posted by coeur_de_lion on 08/09/2010
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Posted by JOHN CARLTON on 08/09/2010
WHILE MARTIN O'NEIL DID A GOOD JOB FOR US HE MADE MISTAKES AS WELL CAHILL &RIDGEWELL WOULD GRACE ANY OF THE TOP 6 DEFENCES AND HE LET THEM GO FOR APITTANCE DUNNE AND COLLINS COST TWICE AS MUCH AND IN MY OPPINION ARE INFERIOR PLAYERS.. EVEN PLAYERS LIKE SIDWELL AND SHORY WOULD BE SOLD AT A LOSS.OUR CLUB IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN MARTIN O'NIEL TO LEAVE US 5 DAYS BEFORE THE START OF THE SEASON IS COWARDLY LETS NOT KID OURSELVES IT IS ALEC FERGUSONS LAST SEASON AND IF VILLA HAD FINISHED OUTSIDE THE TOP 6 IT WOULD BE SEEN AS A FAILURE AND MARTIN O'NEIL WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN CONSIDERED FOR THE UNITED JOB THIS WAY HE IS STILL REGARDED HIGHLY IN KEVIN MCDONALD WE HAVE SOMEONE WHO IS 100% VILLA AND VERY SUCSESSFUL AS WELL I JUST HOPE HE MAKES THE JOB HIS OWN THE KIDS ABSOLUTLY ADORE HIM AND THATS OUR FUTURE.
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Posted by Phil on 08/09/2010
Well, thats Martin's side of the story then. MON had spent large sums on players he himself decided wasn't good enough for the first team, but because of massive wages he couldn't sell then either. Seems like another John Gregory to me. If it was my money Randy, I would have closed the wallet as well.
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Posted by Paul on 08/09/2010
All I can say is that Villa have just lost one of best managers in the business. To call him cowardly is nonsense. Throughout his career he has always acted with dignity and integrity. Remember when he was at Leicester and Leeds offered him the job. At the time Leeds were doing well and spending big bucks but he refused to walk out on his contract. He has something that very few players have these days, loyalty. Best wishes Martin wherever you go. English football could do with more like you.
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Posted by Gary Standen on 08/09/2010
@ John Charlton
Whilst I agree with much of what you said, you can not seriously claim Ridgewell would grace any top 6 club. Selling him was good business. Cahill yes, Ridgewell most certainly not
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Posted by Wookie on 08/09/2010
....apart from when Cahill was made to look VERY ORDINARY by the Villa last season....even i changed my mind about him!
MON will be missed, i was hoping to see where the "5 year plan" was going to end up, but looks like Randy didnt wanna take on the last year. Who knows eh. Just a bit shellshocked tbh....
UTV
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Posted by bill on 08/09/2010
O.K....we suffer through years upon years of Ellis making Villa into a second class team after winning Europe. Now, we lose MON because the owner is having cash problems. Think that isn't so? look at the Cleveland Browns and see what a mess they have been for the last 6 or so years. Maybe we will get lucky and get a decent replacement. But don't blame MON for not buying players when an owner is as phony as a three dollar bill when it comes to committing Villa to be a CL club. MON did more with less and I will very much miss him despite his fallacies. But his timing was as bad as it gets. Lerner had to have lied to him during the end of the season meeting. Otherwise, he would have left then. He is honorable.Thanks, MON. You will be missed by most of te Villa faithful......Curbishly?
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Posted by BillO on 08/10/2010
Come to Australia Martin. We need a national Coach. Your just the ticket. Good luck. Your one of the best
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Posted by Chris on 08/10/2010
Really disappointed in MON. He has been given a tonne of money over the past 4 seasons, and now when the owner decides that he cannot afford to do so this summer he gets mad. There were quite a few excellent players who were on a Bosman - Ledley and De Guzman to name 2 - and no move was made for any. This is because MON is caught up with buying English players and buying with a week left in the transfer window. He did it every summer when he had tonnes of money to spend.
This article is one-sided. The owner is within his rights to ask his manager, who he pays quite a bit, to get the job done with what he has. For too many of you "ambition" means spending irrationally. Doug Ellis spend prudently, though overly so, and was able to keep the club out of debt while others are debt-ridden. Do you want Portsmouth glory and then fall or a steady club that will NEVER fall?
Without a single addition this is a top 8 squad. Get on with it MON, we deserved that much from you.
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Posted by Rainer on 08/10/2010
Lerner isn't having cash problems. His NFL team has stunk for several years now, but not for lack of spending money.
Just because an owner is open to the idea of selling a player who is currently grossly overvalued does not make him tightfisted. The author of the piece doesn't know what is going on behind closed doors, not that that has stopped him from writing as if he has all the facts.
A football club isn't a charity and I don't see anything wrong with an owner taking a stand and insisting that the club do things that actually make sense from a fiscal point of view. When someone is offering far more than an asset is really worth, you sell it to them! Furthermore, Lerner has every right to insist on reining in the wages when O'Neill has created a situation where the club has one of the highest wage bills as a percentage of real income.
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Posted by rahul khond on 08/10/2010
its very easy to blame the owners for the lack of funds and i have found this in only in the english football that managers resign for the loss of funds let me tell you those who do that dont understand the meaning of manager or a coach . i am sorry but as a neutral since i am from india and not anybody's fan i was not too much impressed with MON's work . it is mentioned earlier as to the mistakes he made in the transfer window but apart from that i would say that guys like aghbanlabor and even milner a little bit who have talent he hasnt helped them to take the extra step or given them the freedom in his style to express themselves on the pitch it was always that boring long ball game that villa played .even though he had a good squad he never went far in europe . and now the milner saga let the player go if he wants to go its his right to earn more money and the owner too has his right if he is getting good return on his investment .
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Posted by Anonymous on 08/10/2010
The team are in place now, all that's left is to just get the right manager. David Moyes perhaps ?
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Posted by RCL on 08/10/2010
It's not as if Lerner didn't give MON plenty of cash to spend every year since he's arrived. In fact, only 2 teams have higher net spending in the transfer market since MON took over- City and Spurs. I can completely understand why Lerner (who seems to be the ONLY competent American owner) is expecting better than 6th place finishes for Villa, given what he has invested over the past 4 years. Villa really ought to have pipped Spurs to 4th last season, as they had by far the easiest slate of fixtures in the last 2 months of the season. Villa really need Martin Jol, someone who will encourage more positive, attacking football and will get more out of the creativity on that squad than MON ever did.
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Posted by Shiv on 08/10/2010
Darth Lerner is conditioned to witnessing and fostering under-performance and characterless on-field performance (see Cleveland Browns). This is not a surprise. MON was the right man for this job and now we are out to sea without a compass. I'll quietly prepare for a 15th place finish. Goodbye milner and Ashley, in advance.
I know I am being a sour-puss. But I feel it's been long enough that the fans have paid good money and supported the franchise. The FANS deserve better from the board. Yes, better. Think about that before you sputter blind loyalty to the franchise's board.
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Posted by Eugene on 08/10/2010
Villa is deemed and will always be a club that is never capable of contending of a top 5 position in the premier league. We've to admit money runs football these days and the tight transfer policy has always been the issue with aston villa. Being a villa fan for 10 over years, it is disappointing to witness the tragedy villa faces with its unhealthy input of players, the past villa managers have all been made to live with purchasing players off bosman free transfers and older players off the cheap buck, and what you get with that? the weak never scoring Emile Heskey, the boring steve sidwell... when was the last time you heard of a big buy by aston villa? yes maybe we've invested a good few into younger talents like that of milner, young and downing...but dont you think that isn't quite the fight when you compare with what man city and spurs have to offer? It can't be said finished but it is definitely one wreck of a season that awaits villa in 4 days time.
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Posted by Trevor Morris on 08/10/2010
Very poor article and lazy journalism. Especially, the last bit "For O’Neill, Aston Villa were a big club with rich traditions and an equally promising future. When the owner no longer shared that vision, he called it a day." What utter rubbish. Randy Learner shares that vision as much as anyone but he's not prepared to bankrupt the club. Excellent businessman who realises that you can't just throw money at the club like a certain other EPL club. The country is still in recession and the lack of transfer monet has affected ALL clubs (with 1 exception). MON will reliase this when he has no pay cheques coming in. Welcome back to the real world Martin!
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Posted by Dnyte75 on 08/11/2010
BOB BRADLEY???? the only reason he gets a mention is because our owners are American. Now he has done a decent job as the US coach....but if he becomes the Villa boss we are going to end up in the bottom half of the league. Ashley Young and co are not going to play for a manager with no chance of bringing in bigger names and gaining CL competition. We'll end up with donkey Altidore up front who couldnt hit a barn door with a machine gun for Hull and we've already got Heskey for that!
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Posted by valentine on 08/11/2010
Martin O'neil was... no IS a great manager. I couldnt agree more that his timing is disastrous but i wish him the best.
My post is to all Villa fans- dont be sour losers. Everyone knows you guys have had a major blow but its pathetic to read sum of the insults you hurl at MON. have dignity in loss jus like he had
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Posted by John Gregory on 08/11/2010
Why would Moyes leave Everton to go to Villa? Very similar clubs in terms of stature and obvious lack of $ to spend
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Posted by Paul Howard on 08/11/2010
I agree with the article. MON had done everything he could to develop Villa into a true contender and, it seems, that Lerner cut him off. With no ability to get players of the calibre of McGeady and Ireland to replace Milner, failure was inevitable, with or without him. He had no option other than to quit.
That is not to say the MON made all the right moves but his ratio compares favorably with any PL manager (heck, he didn't buy Berbatov, did he?). Friedel, Cuellar, Ashley Young and Milner were great acquisitions.
As for Lerner, what a poor joke for an owner. He inherited everything from his father (at last count he was worth $1.5 billion, yes billion). What he spends at Villa is chump change. He seems determined to turn Villa into the embarassment that the Cleveland Browns are (failed to make the play-offs for the seventh straight season).
Aston Villa, the City of Birmingham and the UK are all worse off thanks to someone who has money but nothing else.
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Posted by Chris on 08/11/2010
According to Howard, Lerner's worth means he should treat Villa as a charity and not as a business. Whether he inherited the money or not is not the point.
I'll keep supporting this "joke of an owner" who had given out former manager over 100M pounds over the past 4 seasons while adding millions more to the wage bill. This is a well run club that has invested consistently large sums on the squad and not he is some sort of bum because he asked his manager to manage. Blind loyalty to MON is the real joke here.
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Posted by usfan on 08/11/2010
In fairness to Lerner, money has never been an issue with the Browns. He made a few bad hires to steer the ship but with a salary cap you can only spend what you can spend on players. He SIGNIFICANTLY upgraded their practice facilities and paid big money to bring in a top level president. Where money COULD be spent he spent it...
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Posted by ozeh on 08/11/2010
i think villa as a club should be in tears now not because of the timing,because they have lost one of the best coaches in the business.He is probably the most tactical coach in the league.
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Posted by Indy Panchi on 08/11/2010
I was a huge fan of MON, but his timing has left a bitter taste in my mouth. Why he couldnt swallow his pride I dont know. He has enough promising youngsters to take the team forward, but decided to quit at the worst possible time. As for the owner, show me one premiership club making money? He has no clue. Since MON's appointment, we have been making steady progress, his enthusiasm is going to be missed, but no one is bigger than the club. Its going to be hard to replace him, prefer Jol to take over but I will be incensed if he appoints Southgate, useless manager. MON, thank you for the great memories, you gave us a great time at the Villa, but your timing has made me very upset. All the best Villa
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Posted by OZIVILLAN on 08/12/2010
"probably the most tactical coach in the league?" he uses the same 11 players with the same tactics all season...
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Posted by rich on 08/12/2010
As much as I like MON - I couldn't help feel he had peaked at Villa the season before last... choosing to play a 2nd string team in the quarter finals of the UEFA Cup (or whatever name it goes by these days). I also believe that Villas failure to qualify for champions league with a terrible season run-in was down to MON not using the bench enough and players just running on empty. And in truth, I think its been down-hill from there. Although a a good motivator for players he likes he doesn't seem to be able to keep the bench happy (crucial these days surely). And most importanly he wasn't bringing through the youth that has been at villa such as curtis davis and delfonso choosing Hesky instead??? Randy Lerner seems to be a decent guy wanting to run a football club sensibly... and for that I say well done (If true...)
In some ways I think MON would be better served these days in International Football... Over to the FA perhaps??
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Posted by Dave King on 08/12/2010
Its not Learner to blame, its geady players and agents you should look at. Wages as high as £65000. per week jusr for one players wage at a club who's avridge gate is 37 thousend is rediculas. Mone we know is the key in football, but when wages keep on going up every year it is np wonder clubs suffer like Portsmouth and alike. Why two clubs can't talk to each other over players without these gready vultures called agents taking millions out of football i just don't know.Ther should be a cieling level of wages limit as to the clubs earnings overal. No player is worth more than £20.000 a week just for 18 hrs of work a week. Surgions Firemen and not forgeting our lads in a war we should not be in, would have work 2 yrs for that. Lets face it football has been ruined by gread of players and sky who run the prem, changing fixture dates and times for there shedules. Learner was right closing his wallet. If you pay daft amounts in wages then you hit a brick wall at some time
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Posted by joe on 08/12/2010
a great number of villa fans are happy to see MON go. I'm one of them.
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Posted by Andy on 08/12/2010
I think what MON did is great.To be a big team you have to spend.Tough luck to the team
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Posted by Vibs on 08/13/2010
Guys lets look at some facts:
1. Martin cribbed about the squad being too small for the last 3 yrs and yet have rarely used his squad at disposal.
2. He bought average players on high salaries and decent price(Reo coker, davies, sidwell and heskey and there are couple more less high profile). Never played any of them.
3. he has not sold them to reduce the wage bill(We have a bigger wage bill than Spurs).
4. I still think keeping Barry was a mistake
I know he is a fantastic manager but its a football club. Just because Randy is a yank and Martin is british, the whole press is on the back of Randy. Randy has spent money(more than aston villa ever spent), never took anything out of the club and never interfered on the football side.
He manages finance and the club lost 73 million(of his money) last yr and then Man City have come along. Its right of him to say that we will slow down and reassess our bid for Champions League and that the wage bill has to go down.
I think Martin was wrong
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Posted by Chris on 08/13/2010
I'm not going to go as far as to say I'm glad that MON is gone, but as one poster said he seems to have peaked at this club. He seemed to be more of a chequebook manager wanting more and more money, instead of using scouts to find cheaper talent - how does he not sign Joe Ledley from Cardiff when he had only a year left on his contract, for example. His signings were generally pricey, and their wages were high.
So here's hoping that we get the right replacement in - too bad Mark Hughes lost patience and signed for Fulham.
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Posted by won. on 08/14/2010
The replacement should be one of the bests.I can recommend Marcelo Lippi,Manuel Pellegrini,Eric Dominich,Sven goran Ericsson. Even those are not possible; Managers with good premier league experience like Sam Alardice,John Gregory or Alan Curbeshly. Don't forget Man. united finished second after they lost C. Ronaldo. I think the proper care should be taken on who is going to be villa's next manager.
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Posted by James on 08/14/2010
Since when has Lerner 'encouraged' the sale of Young? He's only letting Milner go because Milner wants to and there's no point in keeping a player who clearly wants to be elsewhere.
Lerner is being sensible and making sure Villa don't go the same way as Leeds or Portsmouth, which has been brought about because O'Neill brought in too many average players (Shorey, Sidwell, Heskey etc) and paid them huge wages for their ability.
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Posted by Bill on 08/15/2010
Here's a news flash....the NFL has a SALARY CAP! How can any of you defend Lerner's finances with the Browns, especially when they are the worst team in the AFC over the last 5 years? EPL is a different animal. If you start justifying sell-before-buy mentality, you will be a middle of the pack team that loses it's best players annually. If you want to blame MON for overspending ( a joke), you have to recall all the monster moves he made in January over the last 4 years. There aren't many. Heskey was the last real big one. And his phenomenal goal scoring record shows what a giant move that was..Look, MON made bad purchases with Shorey, Heskey , Sidwell etc., but he brung in a TON of talent that Villa did NOT have when DOL was destroying this franchise. Do any of you think the Big 4 make player mistakes? If you don't, you aren't watching. Thing is they have miilions more to work with. MON had a tighter budget and has made Villa a European team. Let's hope we get someone nearly as good.
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Posted by shiv on 08/17/2010
Lets hope Lerner holds himself to the same standard he held himself to MON. The fans should reassess his performance as chairman/owner after this year. My bet is still on RL being the reason for holding back Villa's progression. Good purchases or bad, we must admit it takes more money to compete in the top four. Yes Spurs budget is less, but you dont think thats due to a bit of luck at the business table with those players? one example isnt good enough mate - isolated incident. If MON did have more money, the team would have made bids for players well above the calibre of heskey and the ilk.
AND the long term high stakes investment coupled with good home grown talent could have had Villa in position for a great 5-10 years.
Praying and Hoping for the best.
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Posted by Chris on 08/18/2010
Spurs lower budget is because of a "bit of luck" at the business table? How about the fact that their buys have been infinitely better. Gareth Bale, Huddlestone, Lennon, Ekotto(sp?), Defoe, and I could go on. So don't tell me about luck. That's good policy and sound management.
AS FOR MILNER: Glad to see it's over. We got 18M and A seriously good attacking mid. Great deal. We just need a big, young striker who can actually score. Not easy of course.
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About
Kevin Hughes spent the best part of ten years working and writing for the football magazine Match; once (sort of) inspiring David Beckham to copy his shaved-hair look, getting lost in Paris after the 1998 France v Croatia World Cup semi-final and other such nonsense. As Deputy Editor, he launched and established Sport, the London-based free weekly magazine, before moving on to become a consumer magazine publisher, a position he holds today. Introduced to Villa by his father and grandfather, he attended his first ever match at Villa Park as a seven-year-old in 1982… and has suffered almost constant disappointment since. You can follow him on twitter @KevHughesie
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