| Patience Wearing Thin for O’Leary at
Villa
By Gareth Makim
It’s tough at the top. Ask Arsene Wenger, Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho.
Well, maybe not The Special One, but Wenger and Fergie will certainly tell
you it ain’t easy dealing with the pressure at the summit of the Premiership.
Of course, life is even tougher nearer the bottom. For proof of that you
only have to look at the trials and tribulations of Mick McCarthy and David
O’Leary.
Ireland’s Italia ’90 captain and penalty hero now find themselves managing
clubs in the wrong half of the Premiership, where the emphasis moves from
achieving success to avoiding failure and the pressure to do so is immense.
With Aston Villa currently 15th and Sunderland rooted to the bottom of
the league table questions have been asked regarding both men’s futures.
In reality, though, McCarthy is safe. Sunderland, who boast just a single
league victory, already seem doomed to relegation but the fact is there
is little the former Ireland boss can do to stop the rot. Few of the players
at his disposal are of genuine Premiership quality and in the eyes of many
McCarthy manufactured a minor miracle in getting the cash-strapped club
promoted in the first place. The club cannot afford to sack him and as long
as he has the support of his players there is unlikely to be anybody better
equipped to take them forward.
David O’Leary, though, will be anxiously looking over his shoulder. The
softly-spoken manager has been in charge at Villa Park for 21¼2 years, but
the club remains mired in the same swamp of mediocrity as they were when
he took over. Indeed the low point of O’Leary’s reign arguably came last
week with his side’s 3-0 Carling Cup humiliation by League One Doncaster,
a showing that produced the first rumblings of discontent from the Villa
chairman. Doug Ellis, who has always publicly supported O’Leary, said he
was “disgusted and embarrassed by the team’s performance”. Of more concern
is Villa’s lowly league position, which would be worse were it not for a
three-match unbeaten run that included the club’s first back-to-back victories
for more than a year.
Villa fans, many of whom have been blinded to O’Leary’s indifferent record
by their hatred for Ellis, appear to be tiring with a manager who seems
to have mastered the art of shifting responsibility for poor results. While
at Leeds he cited his players’ youth and inexperience, at Villa he has tended
to divide blame between unhelpful referees and a lack of transfer funds.
This must no doubt infuriate Ellis when he sees the relative success
of teams like Bolton and Wigan, neither of whom spent anything close to
the £12million pounds that the Villa boss was given during the summer. Half
of that was spent on ex-Liverpool frontman Milan Baros, who has contributed
just two of Villa’s 15 league goals.
‘Deadly’ Doug, though, is unlikely to live up to his sobriquet any time
soon unless results take another turn for the worse. The 81-year-old chairman
is seeking stability as he continues to search for a buyer for the club
and O’Leary, with 2 and a half years remaining on his contract, is probably
secure until it changes hands. After that, though, anything is possible.
What is certain is that O’Leary has a lot of work to do to prove his worth
to his future employers.
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