Gary O'Neil

Old Cherry said:
Gary O'Neil has saved what was/ is basically a Championship standard team from relegation.
You have to classify it as that because of the defensive fragility..
..I don't think we have any player that is above mid - table standard ... although maybe Tavernier and very possibly Ouattara, Rothwell and that Zabarnywhatsit bloke... eventually.
I think it's a bit daft calling Gary 'PE Teacher'....he was an accomplished PL player for several clubs plus England at Youth levels... and will have plenty of knowledge and experience to draw on.
I don't get the negativity....I for the f√cking life of me really f√cking don't !!!
Click to expand...
Fucking just type fucking Brian!
 
davidwhitehead said:
Come on Neil be a bit gracious !
O'Neil took on a very tough job in exceptionally difficult circumstances, and despite zero managerial experience managed to keep us up against all the odds.

Come on, just one pat on the back won't hurt, will it ?
Click to expand...
He did a good job and one that I’ve said on various threads I didn’t think he had the personal talent to do. I was wrong.

This critique was not about GON it was about the incorrect use of English. You wouldn’t say, man achieved the impossible task of going to the moon would you…
 
Achieving the impossible is a metaphor and a well-used phrase in the English language. It has been used for years, like when Churchill said...The positive thinker sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible.

It was used in a sporting context as the title of the Graham Taylor documentary.. Managing England: The Impossible Job.

Neil must have been fuming when that doc came out because managing England isn't impossible, loads of people have done it, it's just really difficult. The phrase has been used in football ever since to describe something that is difficult as everyone who saw the headline knows.
 
SlowDownDerek said:
Achieving the impossible is a metaphor and a well-used phrase in the English language. It has been used for years, like when Churchill said...The positive thinker sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible.

It was used in a sporting context as the title of the Graham Taylor documentary.. Managing England: The Impossible Job.

Neil must have been fuming when that doc came out because managing England isn't impossible, loads of people have done it, it's just really difficult. The phrase has been used in football ever since to describe something that is difficult as everyone who saw the headline knows.
Click to expand...
Hardly fuming Del! Don’t judge everyone by your own ‘offering people out’ anger management levels.;)

It doesn’t matter if it’s oft used in football. So is 110%.

Same as near miss. If you were in a plane and another one came too close would you want it to have a near miss or a near hit? I’d rather have the latter personally but it seems a lot of people want the further.

Also not incandescent with rage about that either before you ask.
 
Neil Dawson said:
Hardly fuming Del! Don’t judge everyone by your own ‘offering people out’ anger management levels.;)

It doesn’t matter if it’s oft used in football. So is 110%.

Same as near miss. If you were in a plane and another one came too close would you want it to have a near miss or a near hit? I’d rather have the latter personally but it seems a lot of people want the further.

Also not incandescent with rage about that either before you ask.
Click to expand...

Language, eh? Causes so many arguments.

However, it's not the words themselves, it's how people use them.
 
davidwhitehead said:
Your trademark symbols? Are you a Brand now ?

Brand Brian...yes, it has a certain ring about it. Better than Banned Brian, eh ?
Click to expand...

I'm just someone who doesn't like sheep- like thinking and the following and the ganging up on individuals that occurs on the Internet generally.
I'll endeavour to chuck spanners in the works...and I know more or less who i'm winding up daily.
I once disliked Cardiff City ..but no longer...that's an example of ' spanner.
You don't know, neither does anyone that my real -life opinions might differ entirely from what I put on the ' threads'.. I can tell you now that some do differ slightly....and much of my content is an 'act'...oh I've bored the Forum with that fact several times.
I've also said before that many on this Forum are ' up themselves' as is much of the 'afcb' support generally since we got into the PL and Championship..although not nearly as bad as Saints support ....yet.
An example of this is that several Forum bonedomes from middle - class Bournemouth have said that folk who voted or Brexit were ' ill- informed' - which is a bollux generalisation.
One even suggested that those who voted for Brexit are inclined to Not want Scotland to leave Britain...and conversely that Remainers might want them to ...subjective nonsense !
Not quite sure why Bournemouth is still of middle-class attitudes....the f√cking state of the place !
 
Last edited:
It wasn’t an impossible job. I thought we were deservedly favourites to be relegated at the start of the season but thought we could take the fight into May.

The key was (1) whether a number of attacking players would step up from champ to prem - christie, solanke and Moore and (2) adding a bit more quality in the transfer window.

Personally felt we didn’t recruit enough in the summer (due to ownership issues) so combined with Parker fallout and damage of that 9-0 mauling meant I felt we would definitely go down.

Appointment of GON was a good choice. I have consistently backed him but post World Cup it was a tough time due to the virus, injuries and exceptionally hard run of games up to the end of March. People felt it was impossible at that point but I felt we had a decent chance given (1) nearly 20% of the season was squeezed into April, (2) we bought well in January (3) injuries abated esp Neto and tav and (4) thought we were playing well without the results eg forest, Newcastle, Brighton, arsenal etc

Pundits wrote us off from the start but from afar at that 9-0 point and also during feb it would be understandable why pundits thought it impossible. I do think it shows more of them should do better preparation though.

Worth saying that 2 important differences between 19/20 relegation and this season are (1) team spirit so good this season and (2) we picked up points from bottom teams - under Eddie we failed to score against our relegation partners in 4 games picking up just 2 points from Watford and Norwich but against the current bottom 3 we have 12. Makes a big difference.
 
AFCBade said:
Personally felt we didn’t recruit enough in the summer (due to ownership issues) so combined with Parker fallout and damage of that 9-0 mauling meant I felt we would definitely go down.

Appointment of GON was a good choice. I have consistently backed him but post World Cup it was a tough time due to the virus, injuries and exceptionally hard run of games up to the end of March. People felt it was impossible at that point but I felt we had a decent chance given (1) nearly 20% of the season was squeezed into April, (2) we bought well in January (3) injuries abated esp Neto and tav and (4) thought we were playing well without the results eg forest, Newcastle, Brighton, arsenal etc
Click to expand...

This is how I felt at the time after the world cup, the team pretty much picked itself during a tough run of fixtures. Once injuries abated and January gave us some competition/depth we picked up again.

We were too low on quality depth in the first half of the season for me, you often see teams start well then fall away as the season goes on and their squad gets exposed.

Again I don't think GON is perfect, his substitutions can often baffle me including against United. But I think you've got to say he's done a very good job.
 
daveyboy19 said:
This is how I felt at the time after the world cup, the team pretty much picked itself during a tough run of fixtures. Once injuries abated and January gave us some competition/depth we picked up again.

We were too low on quality depth in the first half of the season for me, you often see teams start well then fall away as the season goes on and their squad gets exposed.

Again I don't think GON is perfect, his substitutions can often baffle me including against United. But I think you've got to say he's done a very good job.
Click to expand...

Agreed.

I backed GON in this relegation scrap and thought some of the criticism was embarrassing. However, now we have stayed up, we need to look at the strategy of the next 3-5 seasons in building up the team to push for top 10 and maybe Europe like Brighton/Burnley have done although I am sure that Europe is viable tbh. Not clear yet if GON is that person to achieve this but he has earned the right to try.
 
DJ said:
I didn’t really want to get dragged back into this discussion. But I feel this point should be clarified. Royal Cherry came on this forum to promote his YouTube channel. He posted nothing but links for over a year, despite T&C not allowing this and only started posting on the threads for discussion when I pointed this out to him. When he did start posting he made various accusations towards people who don’t post on the forum and have the right to reply. He created issues with other posters but would pretend nothing happened so he could continue to post links to his YouTube page. The only reason he appears to have left the forum is because we no longer allow self promotion of YouTube channels.
Click to expand...

I didn't leave the forum for that reason DJ. I actually sent a message which acknowledged that some time ago. I just posted stuff that was relevant.

Problem is the vocal minority who have an agenda against you will out shout the silent majority who appreciate what you do. Remember I am good friends with a number of people on here past and present. I hadn't just turned up to promote a YouTube channel that started some years after those friendships were formed.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

;