Martin O’Neill: mid-table manager? | Darragh Collins
Martin O’ Neill has a great reputation within the football world, he’s dynamic, bright and talks a great game; but is he the man for Sunderland?Many saw O’Neill’s move to Sunderland as a step back in his career. Surely a manager with his reputation, who has been speculated as being a possible candidate for the Manchester United job someday, would have greater aspirations than to join a side such as Sunderland. But is this perhaps the level he belongs?Since arriving at Sunderland, he’s stabilised them and has engineered results against big teams such as Man City last season, when we saw Sunderland secure a result with a late goal. However O’Neill has always carefully guarded his image. He’s gone to places where he knows there’s money and picks jobs at the right time, and Sunderland is certainly a clever choice for him as they have been willing to give him money. We have seen him bring in top players such as Adam Johnson and Steven Fletcher which has set the club back almost £25 million. One would think that after spending money such as this that he would be capable of securing a top 8 position and possibly Europa League football for next season; that would represent success.He seems to charm a lot of people with his fantastic media reputation, employing such tactics as calling journalists by their first names and adopting a jovial attitude.He spent an awful lot of money at Villa and brought in a lot of players that didn’t fit the mould and didn’t work out. This left Villa with a massive wage bill which has financially crippled the club; the issue now is that Lerner has lost a lot of the interest he had in Villa and O’Neill seems to be the man to blame for their current struggles.He is the type of manager that can get a team to a certain level however struggles to go beyond that point. He’s set himself again high targets and expectations with Johnson and Fletcher who are big money signings however one would be fearful for the quality of the rest of the squad especially now that Sunderland are left with quite a large squad. Obviously he may have the likes of Larsson and Sessègnon who are also fine players, but their weaknesses at the back are obvious and I believe Sunderland will finish up as a mid-table team and I’m not sure you can justify that after spending the money that he did.He doesn’t seem to be afraid of the English premium too. If you look at Johnson who probably needed more of a chance at Man City, he is back at a club he knows but is O’Neill’s style of football going to get the best out of him? Fletcher and Johnson may be top class players however there is a real lack of imagination from him in the transfer windows - O’Neill seems to go for the tried and tested by spending huge fees on possibly over rated British players, and he always seems to leave a car crash behind him at every club he has left. This method can be useful however a more economical policy is certainly by acquiring foreign talent at a cheap price or developing younger players which we have seen successful manager such as Ferguson and Wenger employ. O’Neill never manages to acquire bargains (credit to him he is fantastic at developing players) and a lot of problems at Villa are the ones that they have inherited from him that still needs to be sorted out from the squad he left them. I believe that he may be a mid-table manager.He is in the honeymoon period at the moment, the fans will be patient with him and to be fair to him he had three 6th place finishes at Villa which they would gladly take now. The problem for Martin at Villa, which Randy Lerner got tired of, was that Lerner didn’t feel the standards were professional enough as the Villa players were having too much time off. Their wages were far too high for example they would often have a game on a Sunday but wouldn’t train again until a Thursday and he wanted a more professional and more disciplined atmosphere, which is why in the end he brought in Gerard Houiller. Houllier knew European training methods and also the European market as well in an attempt to avoid the overpriced home-based player which O’Neill had been bringing in. All the same O’Neill has to be credited for is his fantastic ability to get the best out of ordinary rag bag reject players from elsewhere.One individual who is not a ‘rag bag’ however is Ireland’s James McClean. The Derry man has been outstanding for the club since given his chance by O’Neill last season and has certainly showed that he is a formidable competitor. One highlight in particular was his international debut when he received a rousing reception from the Irish fans upon coming on as a substitute which Trappatonni remarked, “I thought it was Messi coming on for us.”O Neill has promoted him and has made something on him which is something he can do with players. The big test for O’Neill will come in February and March as his sides do seem to run out of steam because he either hasn’t rotated or doesn’t have enough quality. He spent over £100m with Aston Villa and never rotated his squad. In all his time at Villa, he never won a game in March, because his players ran out of steam. He would never rotate Milner, Young, Barry, Dunne, etc. He over-saw rising standards at Villa with a League Cup Final and FA Cup Semi-Finals. But I remember watching an interview with Curtis Davies and said a few of the boys were "texting champagne bottles" because they may actually get a game.And with Newcastle setting standards down the road he’s going to have to keep up. But if you look at Newcastle and where they are at the moment they do seem like a much healthier club then what O’Neill has at Sunderland.Sunderland who now sit in 16th place having drawn 6 out of their first 9 games certainly need to make a statement after spending all the money that they have done, and soon.
