Martin O'Neill makes Tottenham parallel after 'no lose' Aston Villa situation
All the Aston Villa news and views from BirminghamLive as Martin O'Neill gives his verdict on Ange Postecoglou's move from Celtic to Spurs
Martin O’Neill says incoming Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou will feel he is in a ‘no lose situation’ as he takes over at Spurs – just as he was when he left Celtic and took up a Premier League role.
Speaking on talkSPORT, one of Postecoglou’s Celtic Park predecessors has recalled the circumstances of how he returned to management with Villa, 13 months after leaving the Hoops.
That was in 2006 when when Doug Ellis brought him to B6, only to then move on and sell the club to Randy Lerner. Australian Postecoglou, meanwhile, is moving directly from having guided Celtic to the Scottish treble to troubled Tottenham.
O’Neill noted the parallel: “Ange has done really, really well at Celtic. He has got a team up and running against some odds I must admit….he is taking his self down there, his personality, his own self-belief and confidence,” he told the White and Jordan show.
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“If I can draw some sort of parallel with myself. When I left Celtic I had a year out of the game, I came to Aston Villa. Whether I had this inner confidence who knows but at least I exuded some form of confidence.
“I had taken Celtic to the UEFA Cup and Aston Villa had been struggling the last number of years to me I thought ‘This is almost like a no lose situation, I can go in here, I can resurrect this side, I can get them going and if the new owner – Randy Lerner – is going to give me a little bit of backing then I can have this team in the top six and hopefully try to get Champions League football at some stage’. That was the reason I went down to the football club.
“The gap in standard of football is bigger, my team I had at Celtic in 2003 could have easily taken their place in the Premier League, without question but now the difference between the standard is immense. He is going to find that out but he will be dealing with some quality players at the football club. He is going in with a decent quality of player.
“Tottenham have done so badly that you think to yourself ‘This is a no lose situation for me’.”