English Managers

It's strange how Aston Villa have slipped away from people's thoughts. Villa have now failed to win in eight Premiership matches. A shocking record that would have seen most managers sacked by now. Paul Ince was fired as Blackburn Rovers boss for only winning 3 games out of 17 Premiership matches. Tony Adams was sacked as Portsmouth boss for only winning 2 games in 16 matches - this was after he sold his two best players - Defoe and Diarra - in January.

If Villa fail to beat Bolton on Saturday, then the vultures should be circling over Martin O'Neill's head - but they won't. O'Neill has immunity from the sack. This season has been deemed a success for him:

Knocked out of the Carling 3rd round by QPR at home
Knocked out of the last 32 of the UEFA cup after squeezing through the group stages
Knocked out of the last 16 of the FA cup
Last won a match February 7, 2009

Compare O'Neill's record with Wenger's this season:

Carling Cup quarter-finals
FA cup semi-finals
Champions League semi-finals
Unbeaten in the last 18 Premiership matches

This season was Villa's only chance of making the top four. They blew it. Next season Arsenal, Manchester City, Everton and even Spurs will be stronger. Villa will be weaker. Gareth Barry will leave and so will Ashley Young if he has any sense. Their replacements will be players in the class of Stuart Downing or Tom Huddlestone. Pretenders to international football.

Ever wondered what happened to Barry's replacement this season - Steven Sidwell? The player who left Arsenal to enhance his career by being a sub at Aston Villa and an expensive reserve at Chelsea.

No neither have I.

The 29 year old Stiliyan Petrov is deemed a better player by O'Neill, so much so that Villa have offered him a new three year deal. Clowns!

Below is the current top 10 Premier League table:

Alex Ferguson
Rafa Benitez
Gus Hiddink
Arsene Wenger
Martin O'Neill
David Moyes
Gianfranco Zola
Roy Hodgson
Harry Redknapp
Mark Hughes

The rest of the Premiership is full English managers such as Gary Megson, Phil Brown, Sam Allardyce, and Paul Hart. It doesn't take a genius to see why the FA appointed Fabio Cappello.

And for any Gooners out there who still have hopes of Tony Adams managing Arsenal I leave you with a quote made by the ex-Arsenal captain back in November 2008:

"I don't actually like people. I'm a loner and if I had my way I would just walk my dogs everyday, never talk to anyone and then die."

Foreign coaches in my opinion are still the best. Apart from Roy Hodgson, name me one current English coach that has been a success abroad. Exactly!

Louis van Gaal yesterday won the Dutch title with AZ Alkmaar - it was the second title the Dutch club have won in their history. His budget was 25 million pounds and that includes transfers and players wages etc. This is much less than what most Premier league clubs receive from just their TV rights income.

Van Gaal has won 4 Dutch titles and 2 La Liga.

If I were the owner of Aston Villa, I would seriously consider hiring him for the start of next season. But then we're talking about Aston Villa and an owner called Randy.

What a joke.