Source: Telegraph
Martin O'Neill counts on respect to counter player power at Aston Villa
Yet the term began with the team being booed off and was briefly scarred by what the manager calls a "contretemps'' with his confident young midfielder Nigel Reo-Coker. For the modern manager, stress comes in many guises. [LNB]After some small talk about his love of the Beatles, including his desire to spend time with the new digitally enhanced Fab Four, and his enduring fascination with Chappaquiddick, O'Neill sat back on a sofa inside his Bodymoor Heath nerve centre and addressed the myriad pressures of his profession. [LNB] Related ArticlesBlackburn Rovers v Aston Villa: match previewNigel Reo-Coker recalled by Martin O'NeillAgbonlahor finding his formNigel Reo-Coker left out of Aston Villa squadReo-Coker back in trainingSport on television"The game has become very difficult for managers,'' he said. "In my time as a player, players had no power whatsoever. You played where you were told, the manager decided what you earned and you were lucky if you were involved with a top manager like Brian Clough as I was [at Nottingham Forest]. Now the players are in power. [LNB]"I will never begrudge the top-quality player being paid top dollar. These are the ones who bring people into the stadia. But when the money is handed down to very average players and they have that power, that becomes an irritant.'' [LNB]As O'Neill spoke, Reo-Coker was outside, climbing aboard the coach that would whisk the squad to Ewood Park for Saturday's match against Blackburn Rovers. Dropped for the past two games, Reo-Coker was back in from the cold, Villa's manager having made his point about who was in charge. [LNB]O'Neill does not seek the players' friendship, just their respect. "I don't think I would be remotely close to their list of invitees to any function they were going to. I wouldn't really want to go either. I would find them relatively boring! No, seriously, distance is important. I don't concern myself about not being fantastically popular.'' [LNB]The size of squads nowadays means that some rotation is inevitable, that some players will be aggrieved at being omitted. "Keeping everybody happy is really difficult. There will be three or four players [today] who desperately want to play but won't. You should have seen the long mug on me when I was left out. [LNB]"It's easier to keep a lid on things if you are winning games. Sir Alex Ferguson has done it brilliantly in bringing people in. I went to watch Manchester United play Wigan Athletic. Two rows down from me were players in their United ties, at least three of whom had European Cup medals, who had travelled but hadn't made the bench. They accepted that because United are highly successful.'' And they respect Ferguson. "Absolutely.'' [LNB]As Villa's squad has expanded, the likes of Reo-Coker will find themselves being stood down on occasion. "I do want to do a bit more rotating, possibly because of what we experienced last year.'' (Villa began strongly but faded). Resting players, though, can lead to unrest. [LNB]Just as players question managers' authority, so supporters criticise decisions. "People are absolutely convinced they know how to manage the team,'' O'Neill said. "Everyone has a view nowadays. When 60,000 went to Old Trafford in the Sixties to watch Denis Law, Bobby Charlton and George Best they still had an opinion and, obviously, they came along to watch George Best, not boo him, but there was no other place to air your grievance. Now you have phone-ins.'' And websites and fans' screaming abuse from the terraces, cranking up the pressure. [LNB]"The turnover of managers is unbelievable. Roy Keane has managed only a few games at Ipswich. People are talking about 'he had his honeymoon at the end of last year' and now that results are not going so cleverly, everything he is doing is being questioned. He's under microscopic scrutiny. People are making judgments on one result.'' [LNB]Inhabiting such an impatient world, managers must draw on their determination, even spikiness. "If you have had a lot of success, like Sir Alex, then you can dismiss the pressures. If people think you are abrasive, it doesn't matter. I have a spiky side. Absolutely. I am sure there was a spiky side to Sir Bobby Robson. He maybe didn't show it in latter years but he might not have survived his early days as a manager if he didn't have a spiky side. [LNB]"Bobby had to deal with a press at Italia '90 who absolutely slaughtered him, but he fought through that. Bobby was a couple of penalty kicks away from leading a team into a World Cup final that England most likely would have won. You would have fancied playing Argentina at that time. He was very close to being up alongside Sir Alf Ramsey.'' [LNB]So when Ferguson reminisced about Robson's remarkable enthusiasm at Monday's thanksgiving service in Durham Cathedral, O'Neill nodded vigorously. Top managers must have this "zest'', according to O'Neill. "When you strip away everything else from your make-up, enthusiasm is the one thing that keeps you going. Bobby was so effusive. He wanted to talk about football when really I might have wanted to talk about cricket. I couldn't help but be enthused by Bobby. [LNB]"Ferguson's motivation comes from his innate enthusiasm. It's great to be defending a title, and wanting a third European Cup, and that will keep him going, but really it is waking up every day and having that enthusiasm to drive on. I heard Arsène Wenger on the radio this morning say precisely that and I couldn't agree more. Once that enthusiasm wanes, that's it.'' [LNB]Having so many young players at Villa, O'Neill has needed to be a psychologist as well as full of zest, particularly when the swaggering likes of Gabriel Agbonlahor and Ashley Young return crestfallen from England duty at a time when James Milner quietly accelerates into Fabio Capello's World Cup plans. [LNB]"Gabby played last year [against Germany] and got discarded. It's difficult. You are lauded to the high heavens when not involved in the England squad and then get a half to justify all that praise. If it doesn't go well, you can get discarded. You have to have an inner self-confidence. [LNB]"You might have that arrogance here at Villa where you are big news, where the manager believes in you, but not with England, where the players are world class and might not approve of your cockiness. You have to prove yourself again to people going 'let's see what you can do' and that can be inhibiting. [LNB]"If Ashley is inhibited in training with England, it is because people don't know him. Milner has taken it in his stride and that's great but James and Ashley are totally different characters. James gets on with it. James does not possess that swagger, but he doesn't get overawed. So far it hasn't happened for Ashley with England but it will come. He has the talent.'' [LNB]If Young feels under pressure, he should look and learn from how O'Neill handles stress so adroitly. [LNB]
