Martin O'Neill

[Lord Nigle]

The club was an unprofessional disaster back then on and off the pitch. It was amateur hour with charlatans and chancers .
This club has been reborn since KLD and his team arrived.

 

[BlackHoleSun]

I know we were shite by the end of his tenure but it really is a shame it didn’t work out, he was a top level manager who loves the club.

Intruiged that everyone in the game seemingly dislikes Ellis. In his (very limited) media interviews he seemed a quiet and calm man. Obviously he was clueless about football and pissed away hundreds of millions leading to our demise, but to be so resoundingly disliked personally is interesting to hear.

Likely a ruthless megalomaniac given his life
Perhaps his problem. Ego meant he couldn't be anything but a success in his own head
Maybe a crazy experiment. Even if I appoint a load of hapless duffers to oversee my club, because I'm Ellis Short it will still be a success

 

[Sea to Shining Sea]

It never really worked out for him here but it didn’t for lots of managers. The usual good start faded away like we had seen time and time before.

We hadn’t seen what he provided for three and a bit month before very often at all.

O’Neill, if Im not mistaken, has a better points per game return than any of Advocaat, Bruce, Poyet, Moyes or Keane. It’s only fractionally worse than Allardyce’s.

I’m not sure why he isn’t slightly more respected on here, particularly given he’s never spoken about the club and its supporters with anything other than warmth. Yet people talk about the Norwich home fixture as if it was like any of Lee Johnson’s cataclysms and it probably gets mentioned more than the 5-1 at St James’s in terms of bad premier league performances and results.

 

[Houghtoner]

Started off great but over time we just became more and more low risk and the football was terrible. No sympathy when he got sacked, it was deserved.

 

[Keith S30S]

Who said anything about Di Canio performing a miracle?

Me for one. O'Neill was 100% taking us down. He'd completely lost the plot.

 

[Sea to Shining Sea]

Me for one. O'Neill was 100% taking us down. He'd completely lost the plot.

There was no miracle with Di Canio. He provided a two game shock to the system. After that, we were worse than we ever were under O’Neill and that’s an absolute fact. Our performance at Villa with the side and set up Di Canio put out was amongst the very worst I’ve seen at Sunderland. And we were an undisciplined mess against Stoke and Southampton in the games that followed that too.

I think we’d have stayed up under O’Neill in a different fashion. Not that we’ll ever know.

 

[Sgt Pepper]

I love Martin O’Neill.

And also despise Ellis Short.

I don’t despise him because his heart seemed generally in the right place. I do think he was a terrible owner though and who the buck primarily stops with for our plummet to League One. Having the awareness to know he was clueless at running a football club and bringing in a couple of proper football people to run the playing side of things rather than jump from one DOF to the next, and also put the wrong people in charge of the CEO position were his biggest downfalls.

 

[Keith S30S]

There was no miracle with Di Canio. He provided a two game shock to the system. After that, we were worse than we ever were under O’Neill and that’s an absolute fact. Our performance at Villa with the side and set up Di Canio put out was amongst the very worst I’ve seen at Sunderland. And we were an undisciplined mess against Stoke and Southampton in the games that followed that too.

I think we’d have stayed up under O’Neill in a different fashion. Not that we’ll ever know.

Completely disagree. Beating the mags at all wouldn't have happened under O'Neill. Hammering them 3-0 was a miracle. As were some of the other results that season under Di Canio.

Really not sure why people are trying to re-wrire history?

 

[Definitely Maybe]

We hadn’t seen what he provided for three and a bit month before very often at all.

O’Neill, if Im not mistaken, has a better points per game return than any of Advocaat, Bruce, Poyet, Moyes or Keane. It’s only fractionally worse than Allardyce’s.

I’m not sure why he isn’t slightly more respected on here, particularly given he’s never spoken about the club and its supporters with anything other than warmth. Yet people talk about the Norwich home fixture as if it was like any of Lee Johnson’s cataclysms and it probably gets mentioned more than the 5-1 at St James’s in terms of bad premier league performances and results.

The Norwich thing makes me laugh. It wasn't even our worst performance of that era against Norwich! We were shocking against them away under Poyet and at home under Advocaat.

 

[Tex]

How’s his wife these days?

MON seems to have the ability - either him or his fluffers - to adjust history to suit the narrative. His wife is sick. No she’s fine he’s able to commit to the job. No she’s sick which is why he’s absent so much. No she’s fine it’s a bloody miracle.

Same with his alleged allegiance to SAFC. Boyhood fan? No he just admired Hurley as a fellow ulster man. No he’s a MLF. Not really. Yes he has the badge tattooed on his arse.

It all gets so tedious especially when he’s proven to be a journeyman in management outside of a decent spell at Villa when he had money to blow. And on that subject? Seriously who gives AF what he has to say now! His time has long since passed.

Two words - Danny Fuckin’ Graham.

I also remember was it James McFadden he brought in and then barely gave him a game? Nee wonder Short went with a DoF.

I don’t GAF who he may or may not have supported as a lad he was shite for us and was clearly phoning it in so he can GTF. We’ve long since moved past the likes of him, hopefully permanently.

 

[Keith S30S]

How’s his wife these days?

MON seems to have the ability - either him or his fluffers - to adjust history to suit the narrative. His wife is sick. No she’s fine he’s able to commit to the job. No she’s sick which is why he’s absent so much. No she’s fine it’s a bloody miracle.

Same with his alleged allegiance to SAFC. Boyhood fan? No he just admired Hurley as a fellow ulster man. No he’s a MLF. Not really. Yes he has the badge tattooed on his arse.

It all gets so tedious especially when he’s proven to be a journeyman in management outside of a decent spell at Villa when he had money to blow. And on that subject? Seriously who gives AF what he has to say now! His time has long since passed.

Two words - Danny Fuckin’ Graham.

I also remember was it James McFadden he brought in and then barely gave him a game? Nee wonder Short went with a DoF.

I don’t GAF who he may or may not have supported as a lad he was shite for us and was clearly phoning it in so he can GTF. We’ve long since moved past the likes of him, hopefully permanently.

Hurley wasn't a fellow Ulster man. He was a fellow Irish Catholic.

That apart I largely agree.

 

[Tex]

Hurley wasn't a fellow Ulster man. He was a fellow Irish Catholic.

That apart I largely agree.

Dunno why I had that in my mind but you’re right.

 

[Jyoosi]

Keane Signed Steed, Bruce brought in Session and Zenden. Not sure why MoN deserves any plaudits
He spent a lot of money on Fletcher and Johnson..the latter was gifted but clearly a wrong un, who brought shame to the club.

Was on about Short not O'Neil

 

[Sea to Shining Sea]

Completely disagree. Beating the mags at all wouldn't have happened under O'Neill. Hammering them 3-0 was a miracle. As were some of the other results that season under Di Canio.

Really not sure why people are trying to re-wrire history?

We beat Newcastle and Everton 1-0 at home. That was it in terms of wins under Di Canio. That’s not a miracle.

Re-writing history is saying ‘as we’re some of the other results’ when discussing miracles.

 

[Keith S30S]

We beat Newcastle and Everton 1-0 at home. That was it in terms of wins under Di Canio. That’s not a miracle.

Re-writing history is saying ‘as we’re some of the other results’ when discussing miracles.

We beat the mags 3-0 away. We beat Everton who finished 6th that season 1-0 at home.

In the form we were in under O'Neill both of those games were nailed on defeats, draws at the very best which wouldn't have kept us up.

We'd only picked up 3 draws in our previous 8 games under O'Neill. Di Canio picked up 8 points from 7 games.

But carry on dreaming.

 

[Sea to Shining Sea]

We beat the mags 3-0 away. We beat Everton who finished 6th that season 1-0 at home.

In the form we were in under O'Neill both of those games were nailed on defeats, draws at the very best which wouldn't have kept us up.

We'd only picked up 3 draws in our previous 8 games under O'Neill. Di Canio picked up 8 points from 7 games.

But carry on dreaming.

So the other miraculous results under Di Canio were home draws to Stoke and Southampton?

 

[Keith S30S]

So the other miraculous results under Di Canio were home draws to Stoke and Southampton?

After we'd gained 2 unexpected wins we only needed draws. Why would you risk losing if you only required a draws to stay up?

 

[Sea to Shining Sea]

After we'd gained 2 unexpected wins we only needed draws. Why would you risk losing if you only required a draws to stop up?

So they weren’t miraculous after all?

We did risk losing them as well by the way. We were an undisciplined mess against Stoke. And we’d been absolutely mullered 6-1 at Villa when we were a total shambles.

With respect, you’re the one re-writing history here.

 

[Keith S30S]

So they weren’t miraculous after all?

We did risk losing them as well by the way. We were an undisciplined mess against Stoke. And we’d been absolutely mullered 6-1 at Villa when we were a total shambles.

With respect, you’re the one re-writing history here.

Aye beating the mags 3-0 away after not winning for about 10 games was run of the mill

 

[Sea to Shining Sea]

Aye beating the mags 3-0 away after not winning for about 10 games was run of the mill

You’re re-writing your own posts now. Absolutely all over the place.

You said ‘As were some of the other results that season under Di Canio.’ We won at Newcastle, yes - that was incredible and came as a result of the Di Canio shock factor. The other results were a 1-0 win, poor home draws and losses. Barring the Mags result, every other result was feasible under O’Neill. Except the 6-1 at Villa as that wouldn’t have happened.

Miraculous? Not a chance.