Martin O'neill


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He's got to be given the benefit of the doubt (imo) because he hasn't been here long enough yet - given his good, high profile in the game and his obvious love and affinity for the club I would honestly despair if he was added to the seeming never ending list of failed Sunderland manager.

I understand that, I think we all do but this is beginning to stink like the Big Mac job. At some point you have to remedy the situation, you can't just stand back, do nowt and hope something happens.
 
For a time. In his final season it was dreadful. Worse performances and worse results.

Performances much worse under O'Neill, results similar.

His last game in charge we had 17 shots, 11 on target. Can't remember us having that under O'Neill.

I couldn't stand Bruce and was delighted when he was booted out, but I'll never understand the fuss about O'Neill. His style of football is horiffic to watch, worst I've seen for many years.

Had suspicions he's out of date for a while now, and nothing has made me change my mind at present.

Taking a striker off today at 2-2 was very strange, Bruce would have had pelters for that

That Wigan defeat was worst game I've ever witnessed us play.

We had 17 shots and 11 on target.

You can't have watched Sunderland for long.
 
Performances much worse under O'Neill, results similar.

His last game in charge we had 17 shots, 11 on target. Can't remember us having that under O'Neill.

I couldn't stand Bruce and was delighted when he was booted out, but I'll never understand the fuss about O'Neill. His style of football is horiffic to watch, worst I've seen for many years.

Had suspicions he's out of date for a while now, and nothing has made me change my mind at present.

Taking a striker off today at 2-2 was very strange, Bruce would have had pelters for that



We had 17 shots and 11 on target.

You can't have watched Sunderland for long.
not quite horrific as i enjoy a good horror
 
Randle mate, we could easily go down here. Today's game was one of what, say three, maybe four home games that we have a real good chance of taking three points from. We fluffed it. I haven't looked but how many bites of the cherry do we have left? Lose to say Norwich and draw with Stoke, which in this form could easily happen and we'll be sweating.

Beat QPR, Norwich and Stoke and we'll be laughing. There is no chance we could 'easily' go down. It would take something absolutely catastrophic. The bookies have us at 10, 11 and 12/1 to go down if we're after a neutral view of things.
 
Beat QPR, Norwich and Stoke and we'll be laughing. There is no chance we could 'easily' go down. It would take something absolutely catastrophic. The bookies have us at 10, 11 and 12/1 to go down if we're after a neutral view of things.

yeh!
 
i hear what you are saying , however when you lose at west brom and draw at home to fulham the bottom 3 is closer than the top 10 however you dress it up for mon , its dross and i see no improvement short term , my excitement has risen today with liverpool stuffing wigan 4-0 and reading losing , now i wish for a man cityvictory v villa on monday to put a smile on my face , its god damn f***ing rotten under mon almost identical similarities than under bruce and i dont look forward to football

Sorry, but that is a massive heap of bullshit whichever way you look at it. We're 6 points and about 17 goal differences ahead of the relegation zone and 3 points and 2 goal differences behind 10th.


If someone is going to go and state the worst case simply to be a doom monger then I'll go the opposite end of the spectrum.
 
Bring back Lawrie Mackemenemy I say.

Some of you clowns have witnessed fuck all

Hopefully MON will improve our predicament next season, however Im not convinced, but stick with him I say

I would hate it if some foreign tampax was assigned as our manager
 
Sorry, but that is a massive heap of bullshit whichever way you look at it. We're 6 points and about 17 goal differences ahead of the relegation zone and 3 points and 2 goal differences behind 10th.



If someone is going to go and state the worst case simply to be a doom monger then I'll go the opposite end of the spectrum.

certainly looks that way , love your confidence mate , we are once again in a relegation battle
 
I understand that, I think we all do but this is beginning to stink like the Big Mac job. At some point you have to remedy the situation, you can't just stand back, do nowt and hope something happens.

Aye, but sometimes the thing to do is to back the manager to the hilt and face down the critics. We all laugh at other clubs which change their managers all the time - we can't start acting the same. This doesn't feel like Big Mac - surely not even close?

Turgid football, yes, but still a reasonable gap between us and the bottom 3. And we're above the Mags...!
 
certainly looks that way , love your confidence mate , we are once again in a relegation battle

I'm not confident. I think things will be somewhere in the middle and we'll win some, lose some and draw some. We'll limp over the line, say goodbye to some knackers in the summer and bring in some more quality and push on next season. If we're still like this in 12 months' times I will be asking questions but now is far too early.
 
Randle mate, we could easily go down here. Today's game was one of what, say three, maybe four home games that we have a real good chance of taking three points from. We fluffed it. I haven't looked but how many bites of the cherry do we have left? Lose to say Norwich and draw with Stoke, which in this form could easily happen and we'll be sweating.

In all honesty Nemo I reckon we could be turgid for every one of the remaining games this season and still accidentally pick up the points we need to stay up (7 by the way). As it happens I still expect another upturn in form at some point this season - as you'd expect from an average, inconsistent mid table team.

Nobody can deny that it has been a disappointment. However there is a significant scale of problem to deal with. Looking at things with hindsight (as I was one of the biggest moaners in the immediate aftermath of both windows) it seems clear to me that restrictions are being placed on him in terms of head count in certain key areas of the pitch. It will take time to shift some of the shit he inherited because very few clubs will want them. It's trite but patience is required (once again).

I'd expect that MON himself is disappointed at the limited impact of his big signings. However Johnson remains a very talented lad. It's not like when we spent so much on Anton. Plenty of talented players have had poor first years at clubs - far better ones than Johnson. He'll come good. I accept that I tend to be more optimistic with regards to SAFC than the majority. However, just using bare logic it is difficult to make a case for a managerial change here. We must have continuity and, short of relegation, it should be with MON in my opinion.
 
I'm not for one minute MON's greatest fan but in all honesty the difference between our current position and 10th is one win.

One win over 28 games, its nothing. Its one decent player. Seriously, just 1 better player either defender or striker, especially strikers, could have turned a narrow defeat into a narrow victory.

With funding MON could get us to that surely.

The problem I think he's got is getting from here to 5 or 6th. Because if Europe is the Holy Grail he's got no chance in short term. Would anyone?!

Swansea are a great team in my opinion - and are only 8th and I'd suggest 3 players ahead of us. Admittedly its not a great example as its a different style of football.

Everton are probably a better model as its similar type of football. They are in 6th and where we want to be. But in footballing terms they are years ahead of us.

Goalies - comparible
Rose similar type to baines (baines better and also a quality free kick taker which is fantastic for boosting results)
Everton central defenders miles ahead of ours

Midfield - I'm not even going to waste my time typing it its so obvious
Strikers / wingers - maybe not that far apart.

But overall it would take an influx of 6 or 7 quality players to reach them. Thats going to take 4/5/6 minimum transfer windows and a real commitment from the club.

Especially given that clubs have agreed to be in profit in 3 years and if thats the case how the hell do we attract them to the North East?

Again I'm not his greatest fan but I'd like to see who he brings in this summer, there has to be some pace for starters.
 
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In all honesty Nemo I reckon we could be turgid for every one of the remaining games this season and still accidentally pick up the points we need to stay up (7 by the way). As it happens I still expect another upturn in form at some point this season - as you'd expect from an average, inconsistent mid table team.

Nobody can deny that it has been a disappointment. However there is a significant scale of problem to deal with. Looking at things with hindsight (as I was one of the biggest moaners in the immediate aftermath of both windows) it seems clear to me that restrictions are being placed on him in terms of head count in certain key areas of the pitch. It will take time to shift some of the shit he inherited because very few clubs will want them. It's trite but patience is required (once again).

I'd expect that MON himself is disappointed at the limited impact of his big signings. However Johnson remains a very talented lad. It's not like when we spent so much on Anton. Plenty of talented players have had poor first years at clubs - far better ones than Johnson. He'll come good. I accept that I tend to be more optimistic with regards to SAFC than the majority. However, just using bare logic it is difficult to make a case for a managerial change here. We must have continuity and, short of relegation, it should be with MON in my opinion.


Very good...;)
 
I'm not confident. I think things will be somewhere in the middle and we'll win some, lose some and draw some. We'll limp over the line, say goodbye to some knackers in the summer and bring in some more quality and push on next season. If we're still like this in 12 months' times I will be asking questions but now is far too early.

fair comment and hopefully it comes off
 
We all like O'Neill (mostly) and he was the man we wanted for years and years but in my opinion, you have to ask is he really the right man for the job? Is he showing signs or demonstrating clearly how he's going to take us forward? If we accept the argument that the squad is seriously weak (which I don't), is/has he done enough to address it and would you trust him going forward to do it well? Sadly, for me the answer is no on both counts.

I was concerned about his record in the transfer market when he got the job and tbh I'm not impressed with his activity since, as much as I want to be. Fletch is decent but is overhyped, was massively overpriced and I'd argue not what we needed to play O'Neill's style of football. The less said about the rest the better but it says a lot when our two best players are both Bruce buys.

On the other hand, if you take the view that the squad is decent with some very good talent thrown in (which I do) the question is, is he getting the best out of what he's got? Given that he had the majority of this squad playing some good, attacking, positive football and getting some great results when he first came in, and the fact that he's subsequently added some of his own players to it, the bad results and atrocious football we have seen this season suggest that he is failing badly in doing so. Add in his handling of several players and his managing of squad, his negative tactics, formations that don't suit the players we have (and players he himself has bought) and his in game decisions and overall it's very disappointing afaic.
 
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