Martin O'Neill Fallen Out of Love with NFFC

[Red Dawn]

Somewhat speculative title from TS, but anyone else a little disappointed with these comments?

He didn't get long enough, but he hardly was setting the league on fire during his tenure. His direct replacement also did a blinding job and almost lead us to the playoffs.

 

[GOBIAS]

I always love listening to Martin, I think he’s great value and is quite funny too. He’s also very honest and it is refreshing to hear rather than pointless plaudits.

So not disappointed at all, I kind of get it.

 

[Quntib Hollox]

Maybe he’ll love us again under a different regime

 

[Eddie Yates]

Dear Martin,

You'd have got longer than 19 games if you'd taken the job when offered it previously in 93 or 99 when you were still a good manager.

Show some dignity & don't spoil a great manager club & fan relationship.

All the best

Eddie

 

[MaxiRobriguez]

No one is bigger than the club. The football was shite under MoN and we were going nowhere fast. His replacement was better.

Them the breaks. Don't hold it against us Martin like we don't hold it against you for not being the manager that Leicester and Villa got.

 

[Quntib Hollox]

I’ve still got his autobiography gathering dust.

 

[sammy the snake]

I don’t mind that, he’s honest enough and so are we as supporters.. whatever plan he had at Forest didn’t work and the football was overall quite forgettable… that’s on him totally. He’s man enough to admit that surely?

 

[Rockabilly]

I’ve still got his autobiography gathering dust.

Gerrit read, yer might find @Bonfy177 in it,

 

[Otis Redding]

Dear Martin,

You'd have got longer than 19 games if you'd taken the job when offered it previously in 93 or 99 when you were still a good manager.

Show some dignity & don't spoil a great manager club & fan relationship.

All the best

Eddie

You make a good point Eddie. It was Fred Reacher's misplaced arrogance that persuaded Martin to reject the opportunity to replace Cloughie in 1993, but Martin undoubtedly used Nigel Doughty's job offer to get a new improved deal from Leicester on the second occasion.

 

[RedDogChris]

He always goes on about the 40% win record with us but it was skewed by winning 3 dead rubber games at the end of the season against poor opposition.

It was also not EM's fault he couldn't read between the lines and realise he was an interim appointment basically

 

[Quntib Hollox]

Gerrit read, yer might find Bonfy in it,

He’s in every book I’ve got

 

[Rockabilly]

He’s in every book I’ve got

If you come to the meet up at Xmas...

He'll sign 'em for yers.

 

[Robert Learnshaw]

Guys, I just watched it and can't help but think the headline is a bit misleading. Martin has always spoke about us in glowing terms, including last season and prior to that. He was on Talksport a lot last year and he always had our back and talked us up. He's one of our great players.

I think the headline, and some clever questioning by Jordan makes it a bit of clickbait headline and it would be disappointing if fans had a negative view of him after this. Seems like a very early morning throw-away conversation being made into something, or am I wrong?

 

[EmmersonForest4]

No one is bigger than the club. The football was shite under MoN and we were going nowhere fast. His replacement was better.

Them the breaks. Don't hold it against us Martin like we don't hold it against you for not being the manager that Leicester and Villa got.

In fairness lamouchis football was not as entertaining. Probably no worse but both were very turgid watch’s.

In do agree though with you it’s sad he holds it against everyone at the club. A lot of fans including myself love him. My mum worked with the person who took MON in when he first came to Nottingham and they loved him. MON is liked in our family. So it does hurt a bit he feels that way.

 

[EmmersonForest4]

He always goes on about the 40% win record with us but it was skewed by winning 3 dead rubber games at the end of the season against poor opposition.

It was also not EM's fault he couldn't read between the lines and realise he was an interim appointment basically

I don’t agree with that I did think the club royally screwed him over. However we are promoted now it’s not like any decision cost us.

 

[valspoodle]

When I read about the glory years, it always mentions Cloughie not getting MON and they always had a prickly relationship which eventually broke.

And MON has always seemed to take a contrary view when up against someone with srong views, much like himself. So it's to be expected that his words will need careful evaluation.

 

[Otis Redding]

When I read about the glory years, it always mentions Cloughie not getting MON and they always had a prickly relationship which eventually broke.

And MON has always seemed to take a contrary view when up against someone with srong views, much like himself. So it's to be expected that his words will need careful evaluation.

Martin has always spoken reverentially about Cloughie since he went into management Richard, which is probably partly because he's encountered players with confrontational, barrack-room-lawyer-type characters like his younger self.

 

[Quntib Hollox]

Guys, I just watched it and can't help but think the headline is a bit misleading. Martin has always spoke about us in glowing terms, including last season and prior to that. He was on Talksport a lot last year and he always had our back and talked us up. He's one of our great players.

I think the headline, and some clever questioning by Jordan makes it a bit of clickbait headline and it would be disappointing if fans had a negative view of him after this. Seems like a very early morning throw-away conversation being made into something, or am I wrong?

There’s no doubt the talksport team were goading him into a reaction. He wears his heart on his sleeve. Obviously it still hurts getting the sack which is understandable but he will always remain a club legend.

 

[Otis Redding]

There’s no doubt the talksport team were goading him into a reaction. He wears his heart on his sleeve. Obviously it still hurts getting the sack which is understandable but he will always remain a club legend.

Eddie rightly alluded to him being the right man at very much the wrong time, and Chris Hughton's later appointment only emphasised that football has swiftly moved on from the traditional methods that Martin represents, despite Warnock and Hodgson being seemingly rare exceptions of old school managers who have been able to buck the trend.

MON's long-time assistant, John Robertson, revealed that he respectfully declined the opportunity to continue in the role after the pair's stint at Aston Villa mainly because he was finding it increasingly more difficult to relate to the modern footballer on a daily basis in terms of communicating tactics, methods, instructions and advice, such was the growing amount of push-back from them.

 

[trentside69]

Dear Martin,

You'd have got longer than 19 games if you'd taken the job when offered it previously in 93 or 99 when you were still a good manager.

Show some dignity & don't spoil a great manager club & fan relationship.

All the best

Eddie

To be fair cloughie had O'Neill's number.
He's always had too much to say at the wrong time.
No need to spoil fantastic memories with bitterness.

 

[Fawazzock]

Not dissapointed at all.

Shows he cares

 

[trentside69]

Eddie rightly alluded to him being the right man at very much the wrong time, and Chris Hughton's later appointment only emphasised that football has swiftly moved on from the traditional methods that Martin represents, despite Warnock and Hodgson being seemingly rare exceptions of old school managers who have been able to buck the trend.

MON's long-time assistant, John Robertson, revealed that he respectfully declined the opportunity to continue in the role after the pair's stint at Aston Villa mainly because he was finding it increasingly more difficult to relate to the modern footballer on a daily basis in terms of communicating tactics, methods, instructions and advice, such was the growing amount of push-back from them.

I can't imagine Robbo without a fag in the corner of his mouth so probably not allowed anywhere near a stadium .
The most skilful footballer ever to play for forest in my opinion and cloughies favourite

 

[Cloughie1975]

Eddie rightly alluded to him being the right man at very much the wrong time, and Chris Hughton's later appointment only emphasised that football has swiftly moved on from the traditional methods that Martin represents, despite Warnock and Hodgson being seemingly rare exceptions of old school managers who have been able to buck the trend.

MON's long-time assistant, John Robertson, revealed that he respectfully declined the opportunity to continue in the role after the pair's stint at Aston Villa mainly because he was finding it increasingly more difficult to relate to the modern footballer on a daily basis in terms of communicating tactics, methods, instructions and advice, such was the growing amount of push-back from them.

Players have the power now,Otis-the game has changed beyond all recognition.
The head coach/manager now seems to have to be friends with the players to succeed-Arsene
Wenger was the first example of this style.
I seem to be in the minority on here who feel the Brian Clough style wouldn’t be as effective
in the modern game-that would probably also apply to the likes of Revie,Shankly,Busby
and even Ferguson (who were also primarily dictators).

 

[Haych]

His issues are with EM and not the club as such, I know a lot of people didn’t rate the job he did as manager but I felt like he was turning it around at the end of the season.

Ultimately it doesn’t matter as Sabri pushed us forward and IMO started the return to the good times and began our rise to the PL which Cooper came and finished the job a bit later.

MON wanted this job and fully expected to be given a full season with us to try and get us promoted, only two men know if that was ever realistic, perhaps EM told him this but always had plans to get Sabri in the summer, who knows.

He will always be a Forest Legend along with the rest of the European Cup winners.

 

[Project Zeus]

Players have the power now,Otis-the game has changed beyond all recognition.
The head coach/manager now seems to have to be friends with the players to succeed-Arsene
Wenger was the first example of this style.
I seem to be in the minority on here who feel the Brian Clough style wouldn’t be as effective
in the modern game-that would probably also apply to the likes of Revie,Shankly,Busby
and even Ferguson (who were also primarily dictators).

It's not so much that coaches and players have to be friends in today's game, more that players are respected as colleagues rather than as subordinates in an almost quasi-military setting of discipline above all else. Nothing demonstrated this change more than O'Neill's first day as Forest manager when he made the players do a boot camp drill around the park.

I don't think players necessarily have more power than coaches. The turnover of players as well as managers is huge these days. They aren't sacked in the same way for poor performances, but they are bombed out of squads and moved on to other clubs a lot more than they used to be.

Coaches do need to foster closer relationships with their players, but the ultimate goal is to increase collaboration and teamwork as opposed to it being a reflection of a player's increased status. It's interesting to see how many players put their ideas forward and how much open discussion there is during team talks in the various football documentaries of recent years. It was reported recently that Cooper takes the Forest players out to dinner on a one-to-one basis so he can get in their heads as well.

I quite like the change, personally, and feel it's a lot better today than it was twenty years ago. Player power was had increased a lot by then and in several cases was out of control - just look at the England squad of the 2000s - but the culture hadn't quite moved forward to the point where it could be channelled into positives for the team.

I actually think we'll see some fantastic managers emerging in the next decade or so as players who have spent their careers more actively involved in the dressing room retire and move into coaching.