How does Martin O'Neill always slip under the radar when Phil Brown gets the stick?
By Brian Reade 16/05/2009
I had an Ashley Cole moment the other day - almost turning my car into a tree after hearing words that made my eyes pop.
It wasn't my boss insulting me with a £55,000-a-week wage offer (I've already chinned him for that) but something even more incredible. A debate on national radio about whether Hull City should sack manager Phil Brown.
Now let me say that Phil (Brown by name, Brown by permatan) endears himself to me about as much as Government Minister Hazel Blears.
He looks as though he spends most match-day mornings working out if that hi-tech microphone round his gob clashes with his latest River Island shirt-tie-and-suit combo.
And I was chuffed that his laughable PR stunt, when he gave his team an on-pitch halftime rollicking at Manchester City because they were having a nightmare, backfired horrendously (he's taken only seven points since that Boxing Day defeat).
But how can someone who took Hull City, that's Hull City, into the Premier League, and kept them out of the relegation places until May, be considered a failure? Is it because he over-shot expectations early in the season and has done nothing to halt an embarrassing freefall since? If so, why is nobody savaging Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill. Come to think of it, why does O'Neill always escape criticism? How come at 57, he's won no more in English football than a League Cup, yet is universally hailed as a deepthinking genius, one of the greatest managers of his generation, and the natural successor to Alex Ferguson? In January when Villa were clear of Chelsea in third place, O'Neill was talking about the possibility of being title contenders, drawing parallels with his Nottingham Forest side of 1978. They were then seven points ahead of Arsenal. Now despite Arsenal's implosion, they are 10 points behind them.
Arsene Wenger, Rafa Benitez, Phil Scolari, Harry Redknapp, Joe Kinnear, Mark Hughes, Gareth Southgate, Gary Megson - even Alan Shearer - have all taken kickings this season for bad spells.
But O'Neill, who has won only one Premier League game since February 2 (a nervous 1-0 home win against Hull) has once again slipped under the radar.
It's not as though he's just taken over the reins like Shearer, and been saddled with a shower of donkeys.
This is his third full season at Villa Park. Last summer he spent £35million on seven players and in January bought England striker Emile Heskey.
There's been criticism from Villa fans who say he's unimaginative in the transfer market, picks key players out of position, and plays a long-ball counter-attacking game with no Plan B, which has worked well at away grounds but been tediously predictable at home.
The same fans who weren't happy at O'Neill throwing in the towel in Europe, and who must have been dismayed at his comments this week about playing in next year's Europa Cup.
"There are too many games," he whined, polishing the stick of his white flag six months in advance. Where does that attitude leave him, negotiation-wise, when Gareth Barry (and possibly Ashley Young) tell him in a few weeks that there's no substitute for playing in the Champions League? More to the point where does it leave his season's work in relation to Phil Brown's? Both over-achieved early on, then ended up more or less where they were expected to.
But surely O'Neill's failure to exploit Arsene Wenger's worst season as an Arsenal manager has been a bigger failure, considering the size of Villa.
Had they won a Champions League place Barry would have stayed and other topclass players may have joined.
Instead he will leave and Arsenal, Manchester City, Spurs and Everton will get stronger. Meaning O'Neill's failure to prevent a freefall could harm Villa's progress dramatically at a crucial point in history.
Still, Villa fans can rest assured of one thing. Their manager will escape serious criticism. Well, he looks and sounds the part on the telly doesn't he? If only he had that tragic Phil Brown microphone and permatan, things might be different.
