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Martin O'Neill

Father Jack Hackett said:
Players O’Neill wanted. He got the payers and dished-up some of the most turgid football I’ve ever seen.
He had frontlines of Larsson, Sessegnon, Fletcher/Bendtner and Johnson and served us that.
Short made a lot of bad decisions but backed O’Neill and his football was only topped by Parkinson for its negativity imo.
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It was under his watch that the years of rampant unprofessionalism in the dressing room got underway as well.
 

Still remember before the Swansea game in January 2013 wondering what the hell we were paying £5m for Graham for. Nobody wanted him and everyone knew he was doomed to fail seemingly except the bloke (O’Neill) whose job it was to recruit the right players.

Wasted a load of money on shite at Villa too.
Father Jack Hackett said:
Short gave O’Neil a good amount of money to spend for the time. £12m on Fletcher, £10m Johnson, £5m Graham, £3m N’Diaye
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Short was a clown though. The worst owner in the history of the club.
 
Inside Forward said:
Still remember before the Swansea game in January 2013 wondering what the hell we were paying £5m for Graham for. Nobody wanted him and everyone knew he was doomed to fail seemingly except the bloke (O’Neill) whose job it was to recruit the right players.

Wasted a load of money on shite at Villa too.

Short was a clown though. The worst owner in the history of the club.
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Cowie was far worse than short imo
 
Fresno Bob said:
He was well meaning but clueless, then lost heart. To me Donald and Methven were worse, pure snake oil salesmen, deliberately deceitful pair of chancers.
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Should have sold if he'd lost interest then. It didn't work for anyone.
 
The Great MES said:
His time here was bizarre. Absolutely flying up until the Everton cup replay. Then our form just fell off a cliff which he couldn't reverse.
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very true mate, I remember the atmosphere before hand, everoyne was up for it, you could smell the win, and we got destroyed, bolasie or someone ran riot and they were singing his song non stop. That was deffo the turning point
 
Definitely Maybe said:
There's the age old debate about Short and the amount of money spent but it's more complex than that imo.

We spent a shitload of money BUT there was a clear trend from 2012 onwards - the first summer without Quinn as chairman:

12/13 - Went into the summer needing a striker as Bendtner's loan ended. Sold Turner and started the season with only Saha and Cuellar on free transfers as our only signings then signed Fletcher and Johnson after the start of season. Both had been frozen out and arrived unfit without a pre-season - Fletcher hit the ground running but Johnson took until the second half of the season to start to deliver and said how it took him ages to adjust from being a perennial sub at City to playing 90 minutes without any pre-season

13/14 - The De Fanti Udinese model summer. Bit of an outlier as we did most of our business early but sold Mignolet and Sess for a combined £16m then signed 14 players for less than £20m combined

14/15 - Colback and Bardsley left on frees and Alonso, Ki and Borini returned to their clubs after their loans. Signed Jones, Pantilimon and Gomez on frees early on, started the season without a right back and Roberge starting in defence then spent big on Rodwell in August.

15/16 - Signed Lens and Kaboul early on for £9m and £3m but also bought Adam Matthews for £2m only to realise he was shite, sack him off and replace him (Yedlin) in the same window. Then got off to a bad start and bought Borini immediately after Short started to get stick in the ground vs Norwich, despite Advocaat asking for a targetman and being told by Congerton he could play there.

16/17 - Allardyce leaving undoubtedly disrupted things, but even at the point of the Iceland game we were one of only two clubs (Stoke the other) not to have made a signing and Allardyce has said he was still trying to agree transfer budgets with Short when he left in late July. We then spent £8m on Djilibodji in August on the eve of the season and £13.5m on Ndong on deadline day.

So imo there's a clear pattern where we ended each season scraping survival and relying on loan players who returned to their clubs, going into the summer needing significant investment just to catch up to the level we ended the season at but trying to get by with frees or cheap signings until we inevitably got off to a poor start then splurging on unfit players after the season started. The headline figures show we spent a lot but a lot of that was throwing good money after bad to correct our own mistakes after his hand was forced. Perhaps if we'd started the season with an actual fit players through the door early in the window we might have won a game before October at some point? We could have gotten away with doing that too if we weren't starting from such weak positions every year with key players from the previous seasons leaving.
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So in other words we weren't organised and then panic bought. Good summary
 
MON started amazingly wasn’t it about 22 points from 10 games. I was so lucky to come up and see the Blackburn game live with the 2 late goals, and them of course there was the patched up side playing the only PL game on NYD 2012 and Ji pops up.

It really felt good at the time. Such a shame.
 
Inside Forward said:
Still remember before the Swansea game in January 2013 wondering what the hell we were paying £5m for Graham for. Nobody wanted him and everyone knew he was doomed to fail seemingly except the bloke (O’Neill) whose job it was to recruit the right players.

Wasted a load of money on shite at Villa too.

Short was a clown though. The worst owner in the history of the club.
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We would have gone down the pan without Short
The Irish jolly boys went into debt to satisfy Keane such that when they did one Short inherited over 60m in debt and some awful long term liabilities, all due to RK incompetence
He wore that 60m and continued to underwrite players for ONeil, Advocaat and Moyes. Bruce was only one we made a profit with due in main to Bent
Short was covering wages for over a decade because sky money wouldnt cover it
Yet your sort would have us believe that the likes of Donald and Methven did more for us than short??
Murray fondly remembered now was robbed blind by the stupidity in the transfer market of Reid
Medina, Nunez, Flo .
Should be a statue for Short outside the ground
 
contrarian said:
We would have gone down the pan without Short
The Irish jolly boys went into debt to satisfy Keane such that when they did one Short inherited over 60m in debt and some awful long term liabilities, all due to RK incompetence
He wore that 60m and continued to underwrite players for ONeil, Advocaat and Moyes. Bruce was only one we made a profit with due in main to Bent
Short was covering wages for over a decade because sky money wouldnt cover it
Yet your sort would have us believe that the likes of Donald and Methven did more for us than short??
Murray fondly remembered now was robbed blind by the stupidity in the transfer market of Reid
Medina, Nunez, Flo .
Should be a statue for Short outside the ground
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Shurrup man ya clown.
 
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