Gary O'Neil

SlowDownDerek said:
Spot on. He was good for us and did what he needed to do. Clearly had his faults but got the job done and has moved on to do well elsewhere. He got replaced, maybe harsh but clearly the right move so what's the issue?

People bang on about him like he's some ex girlfriend they never got over. All the best Gary, no hard feelings.
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I bang on about him not because he is like an ex girlfriend but peole keep posting ridiculous negative comments that deserve to be challenged
 
SlowDownDerek said:
Ok so he wasn't great. He still got the job done and now he's gone. Why bother constantly slagging the bloke off?
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Im not sure anyone does other than to draw reference to comparisons in styles of play like we do with Parker or Tindall etc.

The only slagging off I see, which is deserved, is for the shameless self promotion/revenge of his tactical breakdown of the undeserved win he got here vs ten men. Something shamelessly promoted by some fans on here. You’d be better off having a pop at them wouldn’t you?
 
SlowDownDerek said:
No I'm referring to the people who feel the need to slag the guy off after he's left us. What's the point? He was great for us under the circumstances.
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I'm not sure I'd agree he was great, but he definitely surpassed expectations. As with Parker, it just wasn't that enjoyable. Still, deserves all of the credit he was given, glad he's not managing us anymore but do feel sorry for him.
 
Neil Dawson said:
Im not sure anyone does other than to draw reference to comparisons in styles of play like we do with Parker or Tindall etc.

The only slagging off I see, which is deserved, is for the shameless self promotion/revenge of his tactical breakdown of the undeserved win he got here vs ten men. Something shamelessly promoted by some fans on here. You’d be better off having a pop at them wouldn’t you?
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Yeah I think that post sums it up perfectly, along with all the other posts where you slag him off to the point of obsession. The guy is doing great for Wolves, loads of their fans think he's improved lots of their players. He did well for us. Yet every time he gets a decent result you'll be on here finding some statistic that apparently shows how bad he is.
 
In 60 years of supporting this club ..THE most ridiculous bleddy nonsense i've come across is the slagging off of O'Neil..and there has been plenty of nonsense talked..probably more than at most clubs.
The guy kept us in the PL....in that sense, with the players in that state of languid incompetence when he took over....he is a legend...not quite on the Howe level...but deserving of more than the bleddy crap that's being spouted since his unfortunate dismissal.
I bleddy don't get it...the ullage on this Forum regarding this bloke....it beggars belief.....I'm really uncomfortable being on the same pages.

I obviously want the Cherries to finish above Wolves ..but I'd like it to be only by GD..to shut a few Forum posters up.
I spoke to a Wolves fan yesterday, our Asda delivery driver, and he says O'Neil is popular up there..and that the Man City win has shown what he is capable of....*( he got wins over Spurs and Liverpool with us for God's Sake ..repeat - for Gods Sake - and if that's not good management at Boscombe ..I mean Christ on a Cross or a Thames Barge ...wtf is ? )

I could add to this with heaps more proverbial adage on the subject...but you know I've been in enough bleddy sh*t this week...
 
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Neil Dawson said:
Im not sure anyone does other than to draw reference to comparisons in styles of play like we do with Parker or Tindall etc.

The only slagging off I see, which is deserved, is for the shameless self promotion/revenge of his tactical breakdown of the undeserved win he got here vs ten men. Something shamelessly promoted by some fans on here. You’d be better off having a pop at them wouldn’t you?
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It goes beyond that. Often by people who looked a bit silly with their comments during last season. Time to move on.

GON had every right to go on to MNF and explain his tactics vs Bournemouth. Media were very interested in the sub-plot.

The real criticism is less of GON and more the lack of a sky pundit to challenge him on why, with all this tactical knowledge, were wolves so crap against ten men and only nicked a win due to a keeper howler.
 
Got some thoughts on Gary, so here’s a rambling essay of stuff.

Cards on the table, I didn’t really want O’Neil to do well at all. Less to do with him, and moreso to do with the embarrassing, hyperbolic, and clueless slaughtering the club got for daring to try and build up and improve. I wanted him to prove that we made the right decision by being crap himself at his new gig. I know SDD was being playfully sarky about stats, but hell, let’s look at them all; they don’t exactly lie:

- Total Goals: 37 (17th)
- Total No. of Shots: 358 (20th)
- Total Passes: 13,931 (18th)
- Total Key Passes: 261 (19th)
- Total Losses: 21 (3rd)
- Goals Conceded: 71 (3rd)
- Clean Sheets: 8 (16th)
- Big Chances Created: 35 (18th)
- Penalties Conceded: 7 (3rd)
- Expected Goals: 40.08 (17th)
- Expected Goals Against: 67.60 (16th)
- Expected Points: 34.73 (20th)

We were pretty much in the bottom 3 for every notable stat, and the worst offenders are probably being bottom for expected points and number of shots. We were a team that, quite often, couldn’t shoot, pass, or defend, that lost as many games as the relegated sides, created nothing, and should’ve finished bottom apparently. This is perhaps indicative of a team that was kept up by individual quality winning the odd match, rather than any kind of tactical nous from the manager.

The sheeplike, hive mind mentality that we were stupid for sacking him is fucking insulting, to be quite honest. It’s a very murky and grey area. I’m very thankful for O’Neil and the job he did. I’m thankful for his modest, understated style of coaching, his lifting of the players, for the way he shook off Parker’s embarrassing behaviour and brought some pride back to the club. For bringing about some brilliant results (and performances). And obviously, for keeping us up. But honestly, the quality and consistency of performance wasn’t really there, other than when he was interim. We were bottom in March, and had a great April. If you’re a new owner looking to set a new standard, and you’re looking at the finer margins, the area that stands out is the manager. We (ultimately) look as though we have improved on the manager now, and by some distance too.

With all this in mind though, when all is said and done, the team and the club have to back up this decision. An exciting, forward-thinking change is only exciting when you actually make that step forwards. If we’re analysing why some of our fans have soured more completely on O’Neil, I think it’s a combination of the media vitriol, the desire, near desperation for the change to bear fruit on the pitch, and a more pragmatic analysis of what we were actually seeing, week too week, separated from the gratitude of a job well done at the end of the season.

When you’ve only got 3 points and no wins, it’s easy to slip from pragmatism and honesty to more open hostility, when your own club is performing like the drizzling shits. Especially when the better he does, the more snide and unbearable the football media becomes. I think for a few of us, it became very easy to fall into the trap of hating on O’Neil - lashing out almost in a bid to prove to the footballing world at large that we were right to sack him. When really, the negativity (if it’s felt) should be directed at one place and one place only…the smooth-brained, gurning, aggressively arrogant pundits who know the square root of **************** all about Bournemouth.

Fortunately, we’re doing very well now, so people like me don’t need to live vicariously through O’Neil failing to feel better about the state of our own performances. We can be a bit more magnanimous about it all now, because we’re objectively a fantastic team now. So everybody’s winning. For me, it really was always mostly motivated by annoyance at the media. I like Gary as a person, he seems like a solid guy, and it was never about personally begrudging him. For me at least, I can’t speak for anyone else. A lot of you will say “who cares what the media think? Grow up!” Well…I do, I suppose. I am admittedly incredibly easy to wind up when it comes to clueless, mediocre, media profiling of the Cherries. Call it a character flaw.

I still don’t want him to do well though. Firstly, I don’t and have never liked Wolves as a club. I’ve always found them to have an annoying and confrontational fanbase. Second, they’re short term rivals now. They’re often the ones giving it large to us about how stupid we are and how great he is, so naturally I’ll want to fire back with “our football is better than yours” or whatever. I never liked them before O’Neil, I don’t like them now that they’ve got him, and I won’t like them after he leaves. With peace and love, F*** Wolves!

The people saying it’s like having a tiff at an ex-girlfriend are right, though. I’ll tell you what it reminds me of; Charlton fans telling us how crap Francis was. It would be foolish to recognise what he’s doing at Wolves as anything other than a good job, because the results back it up. And they’re happy, and they watch it all every week. I don’t think they’re as happy as I am with Iraola, mind you, but they’re chuffed with him apparently. So they can crack on and enjoy it. I can point to the stats and my own experience to “prove” that O’Neil was ultimately poor for us on the whole, but they can do the opposite right now - and they’re right to do so. Who are we to tell them that they’re crap, when they’re comfortable, scoring good goals, and getting consistent results? It’s poor form. If he continues performing like this, it doesn’t disprove how any of us felt about his time here, it only proves that he’s a very capable manager with a bright future at Wolves.

I really hope he goes on to have a good career, because from where we were when he joined us, whatever the journey looked like to get to the end point, it’s night and day. And he’ll always deserve huge credit for that.
 
NWCherries98 said:
Got some thoughts on Gary, so here’s a rambling essay of stuff.

Cards on the table, I didn’t really want O’Neil to do well at all. Less to do with him, and moreso to do with the embarrassing, hyperbolic, and clueless slaughtering the club got for daring to try and build up and improve. I wanted him to prove that we made the right decision by being crap himself at his new gig. I know SDD was being playfully sarky about stats, but hell, let’s look at them all; they don’t exactly lie:

- Total Goals: 37 (17th)
- Total No. of Shots: 358 (20th)
- Total Passes: 13,931 (18th)
- Total Key Passes: 261 (19th)
- Total Losses: 21 (3rd)
- Goals Conceded: 71 (3rd)
- Clean Sheets: 8 (16th)
- Big Chances Created: 35 (18th)
- Penalties Conceded: 7 (3rd)
- Expected Goals: 40.08 (17th)
- Expected Goals Against: 67.60 (16th)
- Expected Points: 34.73 (20th)

We were pretty much in the bottom 3 for every notable stat, and the worst offenders are probably being bottom for expected points and number of shots. We were a team that, quite often, couldn’t shoot, pass, or defend, that lost as many games as the relegated sides, created nothing, and should’ve finished bottom apparently. This is perhaps indicative of a team that was kept up by individual quality winning the odd match, rather than any kind of tactical nous from the manager.

The sheeplike, hive mind mentality that we were stupid for sacking him is fucking insulting, to be quite honest. It’s a very murky and grey area. I’m very thankful for O’Neil and the job he did. I’m thankful for his modest, understated style of coaching, his lifting of the players, for the way he shook off Parker’s embarrassing behaviour and brought some pride back to the club. For bringing about some brilliant results (and performances). And obviously, for keeping us up. But honestly, the quality and consistency of performance wasn’t really there, other than when he was interim. We were bottom in March, and had a great April. If you’re a new owner looking to set a new standard, and you’re looking at the finer margins, the area that stands out is the manager. We (ultimately) look as though we have improved on the manager now, and by some distance too.

With all this in mind though, when all is said and done, the team and the club have to back up this decision. An exciting, forward-thinking change is only exciting when you actually make that step forwards. If we’re analysing why some of our fans have soured more completely on O’Neil, I think it’s a combination of the media vitriol, the desire, near desperation for the change to bear fruit on the pitch, and a more pragmatic analysis of what we were actually seeing, week too week, separated from the gratitude of a job well done at the end of the season.

When you’ve only got 3 points and no wins, it’s easy to slip from pragmatism and honesty to more open hostility, when your own club is performing like the drizzling shits. Especially when the better he does, the more snide and unbearable the football media becomes. I think for a few of us, it became very easy to fall into the trap of hating on O’Neil - lashing out almost in a bid to prove to the footballing world at large that we were right to sack him. When really, the negativity (if it’s felt) should be directed at one place and one place only…the smooth-brained, gurning, aggressively arrogant pundits who know the square root of **************** all about Bournemouth.

Fortunately, we’re doing very well now, so people like me don’t need to live vicariously through O’Neil failing to feel better about the state of our own performances. We can be a bit more magnanimous about it all now, because we’re objectively a fantastic team now. So everybody’s winning. For me, it really was always mostly motivated by annoyance at the media. I like Gary as a person, he seems like a solid guy, and it was never about personally begrudging him. For me at least, I can’t speak for anyone else. A lot of you will say “who cares what the media think? Grow up!” Well…I do, I suppose. I am admittedly incredibly easy to wind up when it comes to clueless, mediocre, media profiling of the Cherries. Call it a character flaw.

I still don’t want him to do well though. Firstly, I don’t and have never liked Wolves as a club. I’ve always found them to have an annoying and confrontational fanbase. Second, they’re short term rivals now. They’re often the ones giving it large to us about how stupid we are and how great he is, so naturally I’ll want to fire back with “our football is better than yours” or whatever. I never liked them before O’Neil, I don’t like them now that they’ve got him, and I won’t like them after he leaves. With peace and love, F*** Wolves!

The people saying it’s like having a tiff at an ex-girlfriend are right, though. I’ll tell you what it reminds me of; Charlton fans telling us how crap Francis was. It would be foolish to recognise what he’s doing at Wolves as anything other than a good job, because the results back it up. And they’re happy, and they watch it all every week. I don’t think they’re as happy as I am with Iraola, mind you, but they’re chuffed with him apparently. So they can crack on and enjoy it. I can point to the stats and my own experience to “prove” that O’Neil was ultimately poor for us on the whole, but they can do the opposite right now - and they’re right to do so. Who are we to tell them that they’re crap, when they’re comfortable, scoring good goals, and getting consistent results? It’s poor form. If he continues performing like this, it doesn’t disprove how any of us felt about his time here, it only proves that he’s a very capable manager with a bright future at Wolves.

I really hope he goes on to have a good career, because from where we were when he joined us, whatever the journey looked like to get to the end point, it’s night and day. And he’ll always deserve huge credit for that.
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My advice wouldn’t be for you to not watch the next clip…

https://twitter.com/x/status/1743734673354731834
 
Neil Dawson said:
Im not sure anyone does other than to draw reference to comparisons in styles of play like we do with Parker or Tindall etc.

The only slagging off I see, which is deserved, is for the shameless self promotion/revenge of his tactical breakdown of the undeserved win he got here vs ten men. Something shamelessly promoted by some fans on here. You’d be better off having a pop at them wouldn’t you?
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So, I've re-watched it, and in my opinion some of you are reading into the self-promotion/revenge part. I think you're taking it too personally. He talked tactics. He said they wanted to cause us some problems positionally by moving a player forward to outnumber us and cause our midfielder to have to mark two players therefore creating space. He mentions a mistske from us playing out from the back, but in my opinion, he doesn't say anything offensive. I think people are looking for malice where there is none. He also went on talking about how they beat Man City. Was that about revenge? Gary O'Neil seems to have a good relationship with pundits/the media in general. Is it possible that he goes on shows to help maintain these positive relationships? After all, if they are nice to him, that will take some of the media pressure off him that could affect how long he stays in his position? Just an idea but I'm not sure. I see nothing bad in what he's done/said.
 
Let's be honest he wasn't invited on for a tactical master class. He was invited on due to the story behind it, the fact the press thought it was hilarious we'd sacked him, he'd turned us over and we were sitting second from bottom with talk of sacking his replacement. That was the story and everyone was laughing at us.

I also thought he did an honest assessment, I didn't see any grudge or revenge, the guy seems really grounded. Sure he probably had a point to prove within but who wouldn't?

He's made it clear he's desperately trying to prove his worth in this league (actually said that over the VAR decisions).

I think some of the issues arising are that many never really warmed to him, for whatever reason - character, tactics but more importantly the fact that he we had a billionaire owner promising the earth yet GON was in the hot seat. For me the damage was done with those last four games, inexcusable but he would have learnt from that.
 
Cherriess said:
So, I've re-watched it, and in my opinion some of you are reading into the self-promotion/revenge part. I think you're taking it too personally. He talked tactics. He said they wanted to cause us some problems positionally by moving a player forward to outnumber us and cause our midfielder to have to mark two players therefore creating space. He mentions a mistske from us playing out from the back, but in my opinion, he doesn't say anything offensive. I think people are looking for malice where there is none. He also went on talking about how they beat Man City. Was that about revenge? Gary O'Neil seems to have a good relationship with pundits/the media in general. Is it possible that he goes on shows to help maintain these positive relationships? After all, if they are nice to him, that will take some of the media pressure off him that could affect how long he stays in his position? Just an idea but I'm not sure. I see nothing bad in what he's done/said.
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that would certainly be the common sense view of those of us not weirdly obsessed with former managers and their styles of play
 
red_house said:
Let's be honest he wasn't invited on for a tactical master class. He was invited on due to the story behind it, the fact the press thought it was hilarious we'd sacked him, he'd turned us over and we were sitting second from bottom with talk of sacking his replacement. That was the story and everyone was laughing at us.
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we were second bottom for a reason, now we're mid-table for a reason
of course it was a story at that time; sky are a media organisation, stories are what they do
not sure about the everyone was laughing at us bit, sounds a tad paranoid
 
Cherriess said:
So, I've re-watched it, and in my opinion some of you are reading into the self-promotion/revenge part. I think you're taking it too personally. He talked tactics. He said they wanted to cause us some problems positionally by moving a player forward to outnumber us and cause our midfielder to have to mark two players therefore creating space. He mentions a mistske from us playing out from the back, but in my opinion, he doesn't say anything offensive. I think people are looking for malice where there is none. He also went on talking about how they beat Man City. Was that about revenge? Gary O'Neil seems to have a good relationship with pundits/the media in general. Is it possible that he goes on shows to help maintain these positive relationships? After all, if they are nice to him, that will take some of the media pressure off him that could affect how long he stays in his position? Just an idea but I'm not sure. I see nothing bad in what he's done/said.
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You're right but I would say the same can be said for Bill Foley's comments on sacking O'Neil. Yes they've picked one part of it out to make the headline sound disrespectful but if you listen to his comments as a whole he says he really likes Gary but just wanted to go in a new direction. I'm sure Gary will have been pissed off but he will also appreciate where he is today is down to AFCB giving him a chance and so I wouldn't imagine there would be too many hard feelings.
 
S'gone quiet on here s'mornin innit ...maybe some have realised that we've got to play Wolves away and if we are not in a form run..then O'Neil could do the double over us...even if Wolves play sh*te and we have ten men....a defeat is what it is ...I don't ride with excuses in this game...the players have 95 minutes to get their sh*t in a sack and however much garbage is waffled on a 'Forum' ...or by managers to twerpish, weasal - faced reporters....the outcomes are what they are....you eat the crap sandwich and move on....that ...that is what a true Boscombe supporter does......a la 20th century dignity ..minus mobile phones....straight back ...fixed stare and march through the morons at Eastville and Ashton Gate.......proper job Batman.....way to go Popeye....
...WE don't know what is round any f√cking corner....Andoni doesn't know...Gary doesn't know...Pep and Jurgen don't know !

Chew that b@stard with yer Yorkshire puddings !
 
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