(Too) Late Charm Offensive – O’Leary

Holte End hero Ian Taylor has been talking about Villa manager David O’Leary in The Guardian.

Taylor said: ‘The manager has been there three years and I think people’s patience is wearing a bit thin, we have not moved really in the three years that he has been there. The fans expect a lot more than what’s going on and I think as the games go by and the performances don’t improve then the more restless they’re getting.’

Adding:

‘I think the fans didn’t like some of the manager’s comments, if he’d worded things a bit differently then it would probably not have been so bad. When I was at the club we did have spells at the beginning and at the end when we weren’t doing so well but I can’t recall the banners. And I can’t recall it being as bad as it is at the moment, certainly not to this extent.’

And ‘The city of Birmingham and its football fans deserve a club challenging at the other end of the league and I want that club to be Aston Villa.

I added in the same article:
‘When he first came in we finished 16th under Graham Taylor and O’Leary was critical of that for a club this size. O’Leary has said this year that we are funded to be a top 10 club and yet we have not worried the top 10 once this season so he has set the standard himself and he’s not keeping to that standard. I find it very hard to believe that he would be able to hold on to his job if we lost the two derby games. I would be surprised if Ellis doesn’t wield the axe.’

David O’Leary has said – in what seems to be a late charge for a charm offensive (late or too late?)

‘I am not here to be managing the club where it currently is in the Premiership. I am ambitious and hungry and if we can get Villa right then the fan base is as big as virtually anyone else in the country. We have got to get a team to pull these fans in and I know what I need to take this club on and I hope I can get what is required in the summer. I have tried to be realistic by answering fans honestly and not give them hopes that are unrealistic but I have got immense passion and pride for this club. If I didn’t have that passion, then I wouldn’t be here. I don’t want to let the fans down. I want to be the manager that takes Villa back to where they want to be. Someone has to have a go at doing that and I want it to be me.’