SA Footy

Aston Villa director Charles Krulak has slammed manager Martin O'Neill's decision to quit the club just days before the start of the new English Premier League season.

O'Neill resigned on Monday, reportedly because of a breakdown in his relationship with Villa's American owner Randy Lerner brought about by having to sell his best players while not being given cash in return for new signings.

But Krulak, Lerner's right-hand man at Villa Park and a former United States Marine Corps Commandant, insisted O'Neill had received full financial backing during his four years in charge of the Midlands club, who finished sixth in the table last season.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/sport/ ... ms-oneill/

O'Neill had spent 100m quid on players in his time at Villa and Randy Lerner's insistence that he would have to sell players to buy is quite reasonable.

A more pragmatic approach is needed.

We had our big chance in 2008/09 but then disgracefully surrendered a commanding hold on 4th spot which would have secured Champions League football and big bikkies.

English player's are generally overpriced in the transfer market and it's good business to sell James Milner. We should also cash in on Ashley Young and Gabriel Agbonlahor. You could buy much better players from overseas for less than half of their 'market value'.

westozfalcon wrote:O'Neill had spent 100m quid on players in his time at Villa and Randy Lerner's insistence that he would have to sell players to buy is quite reasonable.

A more pragmatic approach is needed.

We had our big chance in 2008/09 but then disgracefully surrendered a commanding hold on 4th spot which would have secured Champions League football and big bikkies.

English player's are generally overpriced in the transfer market and it's good business to sell James Milner. We should also cash in on Ashley Young and Gabriel Agbonlahor. You could buy much better players from overseas for less than half of their 'market value'.

I don't really agree. Villa's problem is that it's not seen as a really big club by the top players (I'm not having a pop at Villa here, just stating a fact of life - Spurs are in the same boat IMO). It's midlands location is also not a plus point. So the club has to pay over the odds to attract real quality players.

On surrendering 4th, yeah, that would have been gutting, but O'Neill was working with a wafer thin squad and when injuries hit key players, the slide was inevitable.

Finally, while English players are relatively high-priced generally, English players are bred to play the English game. How many big name, big money international signings have we seen over the years come into the prem and be complete flops? I also think that a number of those that have done well took a while to establish themselves and break through. At least with James Milner, Agbonlahor and Young, you know they can dominate the prem when they're on. The likes of David Silva, Jerome Boateng, Kolorov, Djourou and Chamakh are all huge money internation signings who are completely untested in the EPL and I'll be willing to bet that at least 2 of them won't set the world on fire and be off within 2 years.

i think villa need a new team. Way off the mark that they were for the previous few seasons. In 15th or something like that and i dont see them winning a game for a while yet.

major changes required at villa