How Long Before People Realize Aston Villa’s Manager Isn’t Very Good At All?

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The Times ‘Game’ Podcast, always a steaming bayou of footballing rumours, has come up trumps again. The podcasts controversial host, Italian pundit Gab Marcotti, highlighted the fact that Martin O’Neill has a better record than David O’Leary and Graham Taylor (during his second period in charge), but he has – according to Marcotti:

“a considerably worse record than Ron Atkinson, John Gregory, the much beloved Brian Little, and Graham Taylor’s first stint in charge.”

Added to this shocking statistic is the fact that if you take both O’Neill’s and O’Leary’s records after 56 games, O’Leary was doing better than the Ulsterman!

Marcotti then talked about the bizarre myth surrounding Martin O’Neill which seems to make him bulletproof to criticism. Marcotti said:

“Is there a little bit of a myth here because it seems to me that O’Neill, of the British managers not named Sir Alex, is the most popular and the one that can do no wrong.”

Is this simply to do with the nice bloke image that O’Neill has cultivated with the media. Whereas journos regard Allardyce as a flat cap long ball merchant they all seem to see O’Neill as a messiah – how long before O’Neill is exposed?