Martin O'Neill...

Had a hard time fitting into the Balde/Varga/Mjallby thing we had going on. Have we ever had 4 centre backs at the club of that quality?

 

Aye, was a great era for centre backs. I think with Varga it came as an absolute surprise to everyone just how central he became to the team's success. Had a lot of time for big Stan, great guy.

I think he DID try to eradicate the problem of the left sided defenders position of the back three by actually signing a left footed central defender/left back, Ulrik Laursen.

Never rated him though, tbh.

 

Best left back we had under O'Neill was Jackie McNamara, who was a right back.

 

Tom Boyd as well.

 

I see the historical revisionism is well under way.

That MON never won an away game in the CL is down to bad luck, rather than bad performances.

In Turin (3-2), Munich (2-1) and Lyon (3-2) we played excellently against top quality sides only to be undone by ridiculous misfortune. Though he did manage to get a 1-1 at the Nou Camp in a 2004/2005 CL group game.

And in the Uefa Cup MON got a draw in the Nou Camp to take us to the QF in 2004, and won at Ewood Park, Anfield and Boavista en route to the 2003 final in Seville.

Of O'Neill, Strachan and Lennon; O’Neill's Celtic side - far from being abysmal - always performed best away from home in Europe. Under O'Neill we actually set out to win games, rather than merely turn up, park the bus and scrape a backs-to-the-wall draw.

 

I have mixed feelings about how MON did in Europe. Yes there was the run to Seville but that came on the back of being dumped out of the CL by Basle after being 3-1 up. Then there were those poor away performances against Villarreal, Porto, Anderlecht etc when we looked sluggish and lumbering.

Also, I am not convinced those CL away defeats were down to bad luck. Hedman * up royally in Munich, Balde gave away an incredibly stupid penalty in Lyon and big Joos an un-necessary penalty in Turin. Each of these players were flawed in my opinion, they were signed by MON and we should have got better quality for the money.

I have often wondered how MON would have fared without Henrik Larsson.

 

The penalty in Turin was one of the most ridiculous dives I've ever seen in my life.

 

Still makes me feel cheated to this day. At the very least we deserved a draw that night.

 

That dive was second only to Gilardino's. Robbed.

 

Now that was just down right hilarious :smiley-laughing002:

 

It is funny looking back but he should have got a 10 game ban for it.

 

I see people saying the fact MON didn't win away from home in the Champions League was down to bad luck. If it were 4 or 5 games, then perhaps, but I'm not buying that to be honest. We went over to Anderlecht, and they played for 80mins with 10 men, and we still lost. I simply don't think MON set his teams up correectly away from home. That team we had was certainly capable of winning more than it's fair share away, or at least picking up a point on the road, and that goes for against most teams we played against.

Yes, I agree there was some bad luck involved, but the majority of our defeats were down to poor management, and just woeful displays. That is the harsh reality. Even with the likes of Larsson and Sutton etc, defeat actually became inevitable when abroad in the Champions League.

 

People always get mixed up thinking O'Neill spent more or had a higher wage-bill than Strachan because O'Neill spent big money on a few players and had a team of quality players.

But O'Neill had a small squad and all his big signings were successful.

Strachan had a bigger squad and made many poor signings. Strachan was only here 4 years yet signed Brown, Keane, Jarosik, Donati, Sno, Robson, Hartley, Crosas, Flood, Mizuno, McCourt, Nakamura and Riordan. 13 Midfielders in 4 years - 14 if you include resiging Maloney. While also having McGeady, Maloney, Petrov, Lennon, Wallace, Pearson, Thompson at times and also playing other players like Virgo, Caldwell and Samaras occasionally in midfield.

If you think of O'Neills team say...

Douglas
Balde Mjallby Valgaeren
Agathe Petrov Lambert Lennon Thompson
Larsson Sutton

His squad players were
​

Hedman Broto Marshall
McNamara Boyd Henchoz Kennedy Varga Laursen McManus Gray Crainey
Sylla Pearson Miller Healy
Smith McGeady Maloney Moravcik Juninho Petta Wallace Fernandez Guppy
Hartson Beattie Johnson

But Strachan who's best was like

Boruc
Hinkel Caldwell McManus Wilson
Nakamura Petrov Lennon McGeady
Vennegoor McDonald
​

Had

Brown Marshall
Agathe Doumbe Telfer Pressley Virgo Loovens O'Dea Camara Naylor
Flood Donati Keane Sno Crosas
Pearson Hartley Brown Jarosik Gravesen Robson Thompson
Maloney Mizuno McCourt Riordan Wallace
Zurawski Hartson Sutton Miller Beattie Samaras Killen Dublin

I bolded the squad players from the youth team, as you see about 40% of O'Neills back-up players were from the youth team, compared to about 15% of Strachans and even then Strachan sold Beattie, Wallace and Marshall all within his first year. Yet with O'Neill it was really the older squad players who didnt last very long Henchoz, Juninho, Gray, Petta and Guppy etc
​

 

are people really questioning MON and the squad he had?

this place is beyond ridiculous sometimes

 

As much as I didn’t like the idea of Rangers winning the UEFA cup in 2008, it was exactly how I would like Celtic to play against technically superior opponents, especially away from home. Given our much lower wage bill we should be delighted with a backs-to-the-wall draw away in the CL. <?xml:namespace prefix = "o" ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>