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O’Neill, Milner and Lerner : Just what happened at Aston Villa?
Published by Ian John on August 18, 2010
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It was one of the strangest stories of the Premier League pre-season and it continues to rumble on into this week. Martin O’Neill’s shock resignation as Aston Villa manager, just five days before the start of the new campaign, shocked many football fans who felt that the Irishman was on target to turn Villa into potential Champions League contenders this season.
What brought about this sudden turn of events has been put down to O’Neill citing that; “there was no longer a shared common view and that the culture and philosophy of the manager and the board was changing.” In manager-speak, this effectively means that O’Neill grew frustrated with two things, first the fact that his chairman was, more often than not, based in the U.S and therefore unable to be as hands-on, or in close contact, with O’Neill on a regular basis. The second issue was that O’Neill asked the chairman a question regarding the clubs finances and level of investment and didn’t like the answer he received.
It seems O’Neill left Villa largely because his owner had told him, in no uncertain terms, that all future player purchases would need to be funded from player sales. This is similar to what happened last season when the sale of Gareth Barry to Manchester City provided O’Neill with funds, this year so too would James Milner’s switch to Eastlands boost the coffers at the club.
Only O’Neill, it seems, wasn’t too impressed at how much of the reported £24 million fee he would have to spend on new players.
It is difficult to speculate as to how much of the Milner fee O’Neill would have had to spend. However it is unlikely to be all of it. Given the perilous state of the world’s financial markets, it seems utterly feeble-minded to blithely assume that Football is somehow immune to these market forces. My guess is Lerner needed to reign in his spending at the club and instead use the clubs assets to realise future capital for transfers and perhaps general running costs and perhaps it is this which has caused the notoriously single-minded O’Neill to jump ship.
It is seldom I take the view of a chairman ahead of that of a manager. In most cases, my sympathies lie with the manager but in this instance I feel Lerner deserves the support shown unequivocally to him by the Aston Villa faithful during their fine 3-0 victory over West Ham at the weekend. In financial terms, and for the longer-term, Lerner’s decision to pare back his investment and force the club to live more within their means, makes sound financial sense. Most Villa fans, I think, realise this.
The counter-argument of course being that you have to speculate to accumulate greater wealth and that the decision will effectively see Villa take backward steps in the English game due to their level of investment falling. Especially with the likes of Tottenham, Manchester City, Everton and Liverpool all seemingly set to spend money in the next few weeks.
I’m not entirely sure that the Lerner and O’Neill didn’t share a common view for the club any longer, certainly in the long term. I think both wanted the club to be successful domestically and in Europe. The real difference of opinion was how O’Neill and Lerner felt the club could achieve that. O’Neill, like most football managers, wanted a large, substantial level of investment each year to enable him to build a squad he felt could achieve that goal. Lerner felt the club would be more prudent to spend smaller amounts and use the money generated from player sales to fund purchases.
Harsh as it may seem to some Villa fans, given the current financial climate, Lerner has got it right. The last thing Lerner needs to do is overspend now, in the hope of securing European football, only for Villa to then fail and end up like Portsmouth or Leeds United. It was a tough decision for Lerner to make but in the end, he made the right one.
Image Courtesy of ***Murphman 61*** on Flickr.com
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