Graham Taylor says Martin O'Neill walked out of the club because of the paucity of funds
The football season hasn’t even started and we already have the first managerial casualty of the season. But the surprising thing is that it’s not one of the favourites to go as Martin O’Neil was 9th on the bookies list to be the first manager to be out of his job.
It’s a sad day for the club as one of the best football managers of recent times has walked out on its team. Although it was announced earlier that the contract was ended by mutual consent but it is now speculated that Martin walked out because of the paucity of funds.
Former Villa boss Graham Taylor is of the opinion that Martin O'Neill left the club over a dispute because of the club’s transfer policy.
Yesterday Villa confirmed that O’Neill had resigned with immediate effect, and so far there has been no official explanation given by the club for his departure.
But football fans are speculating that O’Neill walked out because he was not given the assurances that the money gained from the transfer of James Milner to Manchester City will be made available to the Northern Irishman to reinvest in his squad.
Milner has blossomed into a world class player at Villa, and with him leaving the club and Ashley Young also being a target of Spurs; Villa will be seriously depleted if both the players leave. With no money to spend O’Neill almost had his hand tied behind his back with the aspirations of Landy Lerner of a Champions League spot.
Ex-England boss Graham Taylor, who also managed Villa for 3 years 1987- 1990, believes that the club’s transfer policy has proved the pivotal reason for Martins departure.
Graham said although it’s still a speculation but he thinks that O’Neill realised that he needed more money to make sure of club’s progress further and it was not forthcoming, there was clearly a difference in the way the club owner and manager thought and Martin decided not to put up with that and walked out.
Taylor see’s the Monday’s episode as another case of receding powers for the manager, with the club owners exerting full authority and ever greater influence over the transfer policies.
Taylor says that gone are the days when English clubs had managers, now the manager is nothing more than a head coach and the people who run the club are the owners.
Graham said these days more and more managers are responsible for first team but not the football matters, and English football is now following the continental trend in that aspect. But Martin was a manager who was responsible for everything related to football, and he was not willing to give that up. Instead he decided to walk out the moment his authority was threatened.
Taylor is also worried that the departure of Martin will have an adverse affect on Villa, who had improved steadily under him. They had finished 6th for three consecutive seasons and were expected to challenge for a Champions League spot this season.
Meanwhile another Villa sympathizer, Ex-striker Stan Collymore also feels that Martin was sold short by Randy Lerner during his tenure at the club.
Collymore feels that club was in tatters when O’Neill took charge and mentored them from near bottom to the brink of Champions League football.
Aston Villa is in a good position as a club and Martin deserved more backing but unfortunately he did not receive that he deserved from the club.
It is a sad situation for the club at such a time when Villa is in a desperate need of more investment and they have lost the man, who could have made all their dreams come true.
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