O’Neill – No Contract Worries

Martin O’Neill was asked last night at the forum presented by Capital Gold and hosted by Tom Ross, to be aired tonight on 1152 am at 7pm, about his contract.

Blimey that was a mouthful!

One of the fans wanted to know if he would accept a long term contract and although the Villa boss didn’t say no, he did say that he had always gone with rolling one year contracts and said that didn’t mean he wasn’t in it for the long haul. Even as a player, in his days at Celtic, his last three contracts were one year deals.

He also said that contracts these days aren’t worth the paper they are written on (which is a theory I aim to test when I get my next MBNA bill through, I’m going to say I don’t want to pay it!) and that he would hate to be doing badly and sitting there on a deal with four or more years to go, he said that would be ’embarrassing’.

So, maybe he will sign a long term deal, maybe he won’t but one thing he made totally clear is that he is at Villa for the long term and hopes to have the time to do the job. He knows that time isn’t something that managers have the luxury of but is hoping the new board and more importantly the fans realise he has a very big job to do and that at the moment we are a ‘million miles away from the team of 1982’ but that he aspires to emulate their achievements and hopes to be in the job long enough to bring that sort of success to us.

He also explained that his biggest critic and the one he has to impress the most is his wife! Apparently when the team perform badly, she is the first – following the usual post match small talk – who tells him it like it is. So although he wants to bring success to the board of the clubs he manages, and wants to entertain and please the fans, he also wants a quiet life, to do that he has to impress the missus!

This man will be a Villa legend. I knew before last night I liked him, but I don’t think there was a fan in the room that didn’t leave loving him. He is a class act, he has the utmost respect for Aston Villa and he loves the reception the fans have given him. At last we have someone to get behind.