MON

MON has always emend a very honourable man, doesn’t get over excited about many things, and had some fine times as a manager, he will certainly come out of this with more credit and respect than Forest and their petulant owners.He want my first choice, but I can’t see how this latest ‘sideshow’ appointment is any better. I will never say a bad word about MON, unfortunately he is ‘old school’ football, and that seldom gets a chance these days.
Btw good luck to the Villains this season, but for our lunatic instant gratification owners it could have been us, possibly.

Should say ‘been a very honourable man’.😁

Talking purely MONs sacking - I’m surprised he’s lasted this long. Would have expected the plaster to be pulled off near the end of last season to give the next in line greater time to build.

MON only needed to tweak a team that was just under the cut and was mainly lacking consistency. Instead, we saw wholesale changes, and the dropping of better players for those that fit the MOM mould. Bar the final run when the season was already over some football was downright depressing to watch. It didn’t work and it shouldnt effect his legacy as a player.

The new guy is pretty much a complete unknown. Only time will tell but he atleast worth the backing until the knives come out in January

MON had a successful career as a manager up to and including his stint with Villa. Most fans hailed his appointment as a great move of positive intent by the new owner, Randy Lerner. Me, I recognised his reputation but felt that O' Leary had had a very raw deal under Ellis and would have liked to have seen what he could do with better support; O' Leary's Leeds side had played some stellar stuff and in reaching the European Cup final had arguably achieved more than MON had ever done.

In practice, MON gave us some good times but questions began to be asked, particularly by his 4th year. Some of his signings were questionable, as were benching some of his existing players in favour of them. He began to be cautious in his approach to matches; the Europa cup opt-out was a case in point, and the subsequent drop in form was not good.

Think the fallout with Randy was coming. MON was given free rein over transfers, and at a time of restraint due to the global financial crash he was still paying top whack, moreover doing it on players who were hardly top tier. I believe at the start of his 4th year Randy told him to cut paying, and that if he was going to buy players he had to move on some of those not being picked. MON ignored it. Midway through the season rumours of a rift between them surfaced, and MON made a surprising comment about Randy having to show he was still ambitious. Come the end of the season I think Randy put his foot down and refused to sanction more buying until the wage bill was cut. MON carried on as if nothing had happened, until he realised the Randy wasn't going to budge, and then walked out.

My take. MON was given complete freedom to spend. He didn't do so wisely. When Randy attempted to restrain him he at first ignored it and then threw his toys out when it was for real. A different manager would have accepted the situation and worked within it.

Ultimately, MON's limitations as a manager were shown up. He's never really recovered.

He was successful at Villa in terms of league finishes but what you have to remember is that the top six was much easier to get into back then, particularly when he spent the amount he did. And the football from memory was very dimensional, it was playing on the counter predominantly using pace and power. Any time we had to open teams up we couldn't because we didn't really have a player capable of unlocking defences. That's why MON signed cloggers like Dunne, Heskey and Collins to fit his rigid style.

The guy also spent a shedload on very average footballers. We did sign a few decent players, sure, but not enough and that's why we never finished 4th. We also didn't sign a midfield playmaker while he was there - the closest we got was when we were looking at Sneijder, but MON wasn't a good enough manager to attract him. Meanwhile Spurs bought Van der Vaart and Modric, players that would have massively improved our ability to break teams down.

All in all, one of the most overrated managers of all time. The media loved the guy but never understood why. We'd all take 6th again but his methods were clearly unsustainable which is why we sank so low after he left when we lost the few decent players we had. And it is absolutely no surprise that the teams he has gone to since he left us have all ended in failure for him.