Gary O'Neil

kitso said:
There are so many ifs, buts and maybe to both sides of the argument. What if we had won a couple of those last 4 games and ended 13th and a few million pounds richer? What if they had stuck with GON and allowed him to refresh the squad over summer? Would he have attracted the players needed to stay up next season. Will the new manager provide a more attractive lure to players we are mooted to be chasing over GON? Did the owners always have him in mind, regardless of whether we stayed up, and were just waiting on his contract to expire? No one will really ever know the correct answers but what I do know is that GON is not the first and will definitely not be the last manager to be sacked when a lot of fans and pundits think it was harsh.
Regardless, I wish GON all the best and will look forward to the next few weeks with a mixture of excitement and sheer bloody trepidation.
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I think regards attracting players sacking GON and appointing Iariola is a statement of how ambitious the new owners are. Keeping GON would have said that it was business as usual and a fight to avoid relegation every season, which isn't going to attract players with ambition. Imo GON sent out a very negative message when he took his foot off the gas once we'd avoided relegation and it might well have been what sealed his fate.
 
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KingKieffer said:
This is great news as far as I’m concerned.

We were lucky to stay up last season, we picked up points in a lot of games which realistically we should have lost on the balance of play. That was never going to be sustainable. Fair play to him for galvanising the squad and keeping us up but I’m certain he would have taken us down next season, this at least gives us a chance.

He was clearly learning on the job and will hopefully now find a club in a lower league where he can develop some kind of identity to his play style.
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Lucky to stay up? 39 points, 5 clear of Leicester, safe with 4 games left, robbed of points with the most baffling VAR decisions (WHU, Fulham, Brentford etc).
If we were lucky what does that make Forest - very lucky, and Everton - very very lucky.
And I am glad he has gone, maybe we now have a very lucky manager in charge !
Personally I think those last 4 games did for GON, they would have put a lot of doubt in Foleys mind. He would have perhaps thought different if we had pushed on with another 6 or 7 points
 
redharry said:
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Lucky to stay up? 39 points, 5 clear of Leicester, safe with 4 games left, robbed of points with the most baffling VAR decisions (WHU, Fulham, Brentford etc).
If we were lucky what does that make Forest - very lucky, and Everton - very very lucky.
And I am glad he has gone, maybe we now have a very lucky manager in charge !
Personally I think those last 4 games did for GON, they would have put a lot of doubt in Foleys mind. He would have perhaps thought different if we had pushed on with another 6 or 7 points
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Luckier than the luckiest thing is Lucksville.
 
SteveJonesLegend said:
I read quite a lot on social media yesterday, from various so-called experts, all dipping their toe in with 'disgusting behaviour', outrageous scenes at DC', 'such awful treatment' blah blah blah... These were usually followed by hundreds of 'hope Bournemouth get relegated now' comments (no change there then)... I think the only one that dared to buck the trend was Jamie Carragher who seemed to understand the club's plight...

Is it really too much to ask for these 'big names' in football to actually do some research before reacting to something they know diddly squat about... and Richard Keys...!??!? Richard f*cking Keys wading in... FML... Go back to underneath your bridge FFS...

GON is a sensible bloke, and I whilst he is probably hurting a bit inside, he'll reason with this decision, pick himself up and go grab him a great Championship club... and I wish him all the best and hope we get to play against his side in a couple of years...
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I'm very comfortable being on the other side of a position being held by Keys.
 
Not sorry Oneill has been fired, to me he seemed clueless could not defend set pieces, playing players out of position, could not score goals, I hope the new manager soon sees we are desperate for a striker, Solanke is not premiership class by far, Keiffer moore is a far better striker but could not get in the team under O'neill, I could go on and on but will wait and see how our new Head Coach performs,well done Bill Foley.
 
Venomous_2 said:
Not sorry Oneill has been fired, to me he seemed clueless could not defend set pieces, playing players out of position, could not score goals, I hope the new manager soon sees we are desperate for a striker, Solanke is not premiership class by far, Keiffer moore is a far better striker but could not get in the team under O'neill, I could go on and on but will wait and see how our new Head Coach performs,well done Bill Foley.
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another 'shipper! joy of joys
 
SteveJonesLegend said:
I read quite a lot on social media yesterday, from various so-called experts, all dipping their toe in with 'disgusting behaviour', outrageous scenes at DC', 'such awful treatment' blah blah blah... These were usually followed by hundreds of 'hope Bournemouth get relegated now' comments (no change there then)... I think the only one that dared to buck the trend was Jamie Carragher who seemed to understand the club's plight...

Is it really too much to ask for these 'big names' in football to actually do some research before reacting to something they know diddly squat about... and Richard Keys...!??!? Richard f*cking Keys wading in... FML... Go back to underneath your bridge FFS...

GON is a sensible bloke, and I whilst he is probably hurting a bit inside, he'll reason with this decision, pick himself up and go grab him a great Championship club... and I wish him all the best and hope we get to play against his side in a couple of years...
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I can't believe that Gary didn't know the clubs position on this.
It would have been known around the club corridors that we'd offered the job to Iraola in the Autumn. If you look back at his interviews towards the end of the season Gary seemed almost non committal and his attitude to those last few performances seemed to be "my work here is done ". The contract extension was purely a keep us up bonus and as I say I think Gary always knew where we were heading .
 
Venomous_2 said:
Not sorry Oneill has been fired, to me he seemed clueless could not defend set pieces, playing players out of position, could not score goals, I hope the new manager soon sees we are desperate for a striker, Solanke is not premiership class by far, Keiffer moore is a far better striker but could not get in the team under O'neill, I could go on and on but will wait and see how our new Head Coach performs,well done Bill Foley.
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What happened to Venomous_1?
 
Bitzer said:
I can't believe that Gary didn't know the clubs position on this.
It would have been known around the club corridors that we'd offered the job to Iraola in the Autumn. If you look back at his interviews towards the end of the season Gary seemed almost non committal and his attitude to those last few performances seemed to be "my work here is done ". The contract extension was purely a keep us up bonus and as I say I think Gary always knew where we were heading .
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He may well have had an idea. I also thought at the time that his reaction to his permanent appointment was quite subdued, even though the interviewers at the presser at the time were desperately trying to get some more positive soundbites out of him. Maybe he expected "permanent" to not be "particularly permanent" all along.

We'll probably never know but GO did alright out of us and will now have a nice holiday before deciding what to do next.
 
thegazzyb said:
He may well have had an idea. I also thought at the time that his reaction to his permanent appointment was quite subdued, even though the interviewers at the presser at the time were desperately trying to get some more positive soundbites out of him. Maybe he expected "permanent" to not be "particularly permanent" all along.

We'll probably never know but GO did alright out of us and will now have a nice holiday before deciding what to do next.
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The reports suggest he was 'shocked' at the decision and the reactions of people who he knows in the game suggest that it wasn't particularly amicable but, as you say, we'll likely never know.

If he was unlucky to get sacked he was certainly lucky to get the job so you could say it balances out. He did admirable job of it despite the ludicrously ott criticism by some fans on here and elsewhere so he is in a much better position than most sacked managers.
 
Gary O'Neil definitely worked hard for the club while he was here. At his Q&A on the stadium tour I attended, he talked about his typical preparation for a weekend game. He'd watch eight games featuring the opposition and then work out the best way to approach the game. On the Thursday he would go through it all with the team and give each player instructions on what their role would be. I guess most PL managers do something similar, although I wonder if some of the big clubs who play twice a week have coaching staff doing this stuff for them?

One other thing he said that I found interesting was about duels. At the time of the Q&A he said the team's last 3 wins had come in games where the players won more than 50% of their duels. But all of the recent defeats had come in games where they won less than 50%. He said he was always reminding the players of the importance of winning their duels. Reading between the lines, I suppose he was making the age old point that it doesn't matter how good your preparation, tactics, substitutions are etc - if the players don't get stuck in, you're probably not going to win. Maybe the new manager's high intensity pressing style will lead to more duels won simply by design? Let's hope so.

Either way, like many others on here, I think GON did a great job, but I'm now fully behind Iraola, who should be able to attract some high quality players.
 
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From Saintsweb..

'Hope that their board is genuinely innovative and they look to appoint Nathan Jones, bloke deserves another chance in the Premier League, this time taking a proper ‘family club’ to the next level. Small time, deckchair vending, bucket rattling cnuts! '

Actually I think I prefer the hate to their usual patronisation ;)
 
beds cherry said:
From Saintsweb..

'Hope that their board is genuinely innovative and they look to appoint Nathan Jones, bloke deserves another chance in the Premier League, this time taking a proper ‘family club’ to the next level. Small time, deckchair vending, bucket rattling cnuts! '

Actually I think I prefer the hate to their usual patronisation ;)
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We he certainly took them to the next level.
 
beds cherry said:
From Saintsweb..

'Hope that their board is genuinely innovative and they look to appoint Nathan Jones, bloke deserves another chance in the Premier League, this time taking a proper ‘family club’ to the next level. Small time, deckchair vending, bucket rattling cnuts! '

Actually I think I prefer the hate to their usual patronisation ;)
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But they don’t care of course.
 
beds cherry said:
From Saintsweb..

'Hope that their board is genuinely innovative and they look to appoint Nathan Jones, bloke deserves another chance in the Premier League, this time taking a proper ‘family club’ to the next level. Small time, deckchair vending, bucket rattling cnuts! '

Actually I think I prefer the hate to their usual patronisation ;)
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Poor dear, must be frustrating having to wait for that South Coast derby against Plymouth.
 
Bitzer said:
I can't believe that Gary didn't know the clubs position on this.
It would have been known around the club corridors that we'd offered the job to Iraola in the Autumn. If you look back at his interviews towards the end of the season Gary seemed almost non committal and his attitude to those last few performances seemed to be "my work here is done ". The contract extension was purely a keep us up bonus and as I say I think Gary always knew where we were heading .
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I think you’re right. Cast your mind back to some of the things he has said in interviews when asked about his “position” and it’s always about thanking the club for how open they have been. Which sounded odd. But less so now.
 
When I think back to the last home game against United and the end of match presentations and celebrations. GON look a bit subdued and seemed like he wanted to leave the pitch as soon as possible. The main thing I noticed was he didn't give the usual managers speech thanking the fans for their support throughout that season.
 
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