Pat Nevin: Wily O'Neill sheds brawn for a more sophisticated tilt at the top prizes

Published on Saturday 6 December 2008 18:49

IT MAY well be thought of as sacrilegious in certain quarters, but I have to admit that I didn't often enjoy watching the hugely successful Celtic team created by Martin O'Neill. Now don't get me wrong, I admired them as a unit and for the same cost I do not see how he could have assembled a more successful side.

I am sure it upset the Irishman that there were persistent murmurs that his side were far more about power than finesse. They may have been a great Celtic side, but there was always the question of whether or not they were a great side in the Celtic tradition of skill and entertainment.

I know from playing against them at the time that other managers felt the need to power up themselves, to acquire bigger and brawnier players to match them, often at the expense of the more skilful performers. The thinking was that the smaller guys could be as talented as you like but those corners and free kicks delivered high into the likes of Valgaeren, Balde, Sutton, Mjallby, Hartson and Larsson would decide the game whatever abilities the opponents had with a ball. This arguably might have had a negative effect on the development of the Scottish game for a while.

In hindsight what O'Neill did was to understand what was best for his club, know the limit of his resources and how to build a team to suit. This of course followed a similar storyline from his times at Wycombe Wanderers and Leicester City. Wherever he has gone his teams have been efficient and successful so it is no surprise that Aston Villa are currently performing at the upper limit of their expectations in the English Premiership.

This time however it is slightly different. Yes, he has the man mountain that is John Carew leading the line, so they are not averse to the odd long ball. They also have the impressive aerial prowess of Martin Laursen coming up for set pieces, but that would be to misrepresent what this team is all about. I believe that O'Neill knew he needed a more sophisticated outlook if he was to succeed in what is arguably the strongest league in the world just now. If he entertained any notion of splitting the top four, he was not going to do it with mere bully boy tactics.

Alongside Carew up front, Gabriel Agbonlahor is the most celebrated and talented of the young Englishmen that have prospered under the Irishman's regime. Whereas other managers, particularly those few above him in the league table, have acquired the vast majority of their players from abroad, O'Neill is intent on getting as many as possible from the domestic market, along with the club's youth academy. On Thursday against Zilina, 17-year-old Nathan Delfouneso was the latest to be granted a debut in the UEFA Cup and although they were beaten, Villa still advanced to the next stage and the youngster scored in a 2-1 defeat.

For Villa to win the last ever UEFA Cup he will need to keep his midfield inspiration at the club. Gareth Barry, the erstwhile captain, is still a favourite of the Holte End, which is astonishing considering his flirtation with Liverpool at the start of the season. For all intents and purposes it was a done deal with Rafa Benitez but for once player power didn't win the day, O'Neill did. So after lengthy negotiations, a forthright refusal to budge on the price, the player being stripped of the captaincy, fined and suspended from the club, the deal everyone had expected and the player clearly wanted, did not materialise.

This is unusual enough; what is almost unprecedented is that O'Neill stayed on the right side of the player, ensuring that he was still motivated to give his all for the side on his return. Most managers would have come close to spontaneously combusting had their star player behaved that way, and certainly the relationship would have been seriously damaged. It may yet be, but in the meantime he is getting the best out of Barry.

Only an experienced manager could have pulled off this coup and that is not the only area where his vast experience has come in useful. He has also managed once more to eke out the very best in some players that other managers felt had passed their sell-by, or more precisely, buy-by date. The most obvious example is goalkeeper Brad Freidel who was definitely one of the best stoppers in the world and is, at 37, now only slightly below that stratospheric level. Overlooked by others, O'Neill has given him a new lease of life.

The 2.5m fee has been the best bargain yet, but there could be better to come if the boss manages to coax a certain Henrik Larsson into another half season in the English top flight. Sir Alex Ferguson has tried and failed, Davie Moyes is currently on the case, but it wouldn't surprise me if the relationship with his old boss at Celtic and the Irishman's persuasive powers tempt the Swede back for a final, final hurrah after the January transfer window.

O'Neill is currently held in similar esteem by the Villa fans as he was with most Celtic fans, but just how far can he take the club and is there another, bigger job in England for him? Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea seem unwilling to look beyond foreign coaches, which only leaves Manchester United. That must be a possibility if he continues to impress but I suspect his next role could be that of England manager.

He would undoubtedly love the job and the respectful relationship he has with his current employer Randy Lerner would mean that he would be allowed to leave for that one. He has been successful enough to be a serious candidate but just as importantly it is back to his preference for, and determination to nurture, young English talent that stands out when they come to look at his CV for that job.

The UEFA Cup, along with a Champions League spot for next season, will be his short-term goals, but you can't help feeling that he has his sights on bigger prizes. He has certainly shown that he deserves a chance of leading one of the top teams and realistically that is the only way he is likely to have a chance of the top glories.

Then again maybe it is dangerous to underestimate his type; his old manager Brian Clough managed to take the European Cup to Nottingham. Aston Villa have also been champions of Europe but if they do it again under O'Neill, he will rightly be considered one of the greatest managers of the modern era. Maybe he already is.