by bigmick » Thu Feb 12, 2009 9:08 am
Talking of man management, I watched an interview with O'Neill after their last match when they won at Blackburn. It was their seventh Away win on the bounce, which is an excellent achievement for anyone, never mind Aston Villa. It is a club record infact, throughout their history. This even includes periods when they played in the lower divisions. When it was put to O'Neill that he must be proud of that achievement, he instantly said how "fantastically well" the players had done.
He said how unbelieveably proud he was of the players. He said "they" are really playing well and starting to believe in "themselves". He was "immensly proud of them" a number of times. This was a man who IMHO was minimising any credit coming in his direction, and shining it through a magnifying glass onto his players. I've seen him in the past when his team has played badly claim the blame for himself, "it was my fault, I got the team and the set-up totally wrong".
In the same interview he was asked about Gareth Barry who is coming towards the final year of his contract. I'm paraphrasing what he said, but it was essentially this, "the club owes a debt of gratitude to Gareth. He gave us another year when he could have left, in order that we could try and take the club forward. He didn't try and get himself a move in the transfer window, he said he was going to give us a year and he has been true to his word. In the Summer, if Gareth wants to leave I don't think there is a single person at the club who should begrudge him that option".
It's been said before that players will run through brick walls for him. I don't wonder why.
Last edited by
bigmick on Thu Feb 12, 2009 9:11 am, edited 1 time in total.
"se e in una bottigla ed e bianco, e latte".