Aston Villa boss slams quick fix culture in football

Jan 17 2010 by Mathew Kendrick, Sunday Mercury

Martin O'Neill

Aston Villa boss Martin O’Neill believes that a demand for short-term fixes has made it impossible for Premier League managers to plan for the future.

Today’s visitors to Villa Park, West Ham, are a club stuck in limbo due to an on-going takeover battle that lingers over the East London outfit.

Hammers boss Gianfranco Zola is struggling to get the green light to strengthen his struggling squad and the Italian is eager for a resolution to the unsettling Upton Park buyout.

O’Neill recently voiced his latest opinion on the sacking culture in football with the belief that all managers are just two defeats away from a crisis.

And now, as he prepares to welcome a club surrounded by uncertainty, O’Neill insists that the chance to make long-term plans is a thing of the past for football managers.

“There’s an irony about it all, in the sense that when managers step into football clubs and talk about long-term views, it doesn’t really mean anything,” he said.

“That’s because you are judged on your immediate results, even before you’ve had time to check on who your reserve players are at your football club. Alex Ferguson wouldn’t have been thinking about the long-term view in the early days of the football club. ‘He saw it through, he’s won the trophies, he’s proved himself year-in year-out and he’s earned the right to run the club how he sees fit.

‘‘Arsene Wenger is exactly the same. You have to try to buy that time.