By Jim
February 9 2006

I’ve briefly written up a submission as to why I believe Martin O’Neill would be the man for the Newcastle Job. It’s certainly not ‘all that’ – but judging by the negative press surrounding the man from some people – it would be good to put across some views of others…

As always, we welcome the views and opinions of ALL our members.  While one fan has recently written an excellent article on why he does not wish Martin O'Neill to take over at Newcastle United, another writes why he WOULD welcome O'Neill to the helm.

 

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“I don’t have the wherewithal to sit and live comfortably for the rest of my time,”
“And I wouldn’t do that, for a start. I would like to get back in because there are things that I want to do”

 

-- Martin O’Neill (when leaving Celtic)

Martin O’Neill has achieved considerable success during his time in coaching, exceeding peoples expectations and refused to dance to the tune of others.

After leaving his inspirational playing days behind him Martin O’Neill, like many Managers, started at the bottom. In his case he took charge of Wycombe Wanderers.

After winning them their first FA trophy in 1991 he led them to the Football league, won the Conference League title and the FA trophy in1993. Wycombe then went on to gain promotion to the 2nd division on their first attempt.

In the Christmas of 1996, he took over at Leicester. He went on the next year to take the club to promotion to the Premiership, keeping them in the top half of the league for most of his time there. Whilst qualifying for Europe, he also took them to 3 league cup finals – winning 2 and exceeding all expectations.

The Leicester team he put together wasn’t with too much money and everyone watching football saw just how defensively strong and organized they could be. Most people could see that Martin O’Neill had done a fantastic job with what he’d had to work with and other aspiring teams like Leeds were beginning to take notice and offer him deals.

Being what he is – when Celtic came knocking, he was there – and within about 6 or 7 matches Celtic raped the previously dominating Rangers on the pitch. The man was being hailed by the Scottish Press.

Celtic finished on 97, 103, 97, 98 and 92 points in his five campaigns; setting the bar at an astonishingly new high level and thrashing the only other big SPL team many times over.

Success (relative to the size of the clubs) has followed Martin O’Neill and his backroom staff throughout their coaching. John Robertson and Steve Walford – Robertson having been his right hand man both at Wycombe and Leicester – are both known to having helped with the planning, coaching and the keeping of an inside knowledge of their players; all contributing to achieving Martin O’Neill’s goals.

The man now has had a few problems with his home life – and as much as we all know - life can be a sh ite sandwich without any bread. Hopefully his missus is feelin’ better - and noticing some of his comments about the England job - his hunger for more footballing success is coming back.

Passion, loyalty and commitment are all words commonly used to describe Martin O’Neill.
These are words that I would associate with Newcastle United and characteristics that many fans demand of the players and staff.

Martin O’Neill has intelligently and succesfully worked his way up the ladder of coaching credibility – and in perspective of the varying clubs limitations – he hasn’t yet slipped.

Martin O’Neill has said there are ‘things he wants to do' in Football

I would be honoured if Martin O’Neill ‘wanted to do’ them with Newcastle United.

 

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