Football Tip for O'Leary: Get a result against Spurs

The tip we want to give David O'Leary for tomorrow is 'Villa beat Spurs'.

It's quite a simple one and one we think he will understand. I wanted to start with 'possession' and explain to him the benefits of keeping the ball and not just whacking it up hoping that one of your strikers would get it but I think this one is more appropriate considering the amount of emails we've had in about O'Leary this week.

For a long time now, actually since May 2003 I've said David O'Leary was the wrong man for Aston Villa but I gave him a chance and after the first season, although I was still unsure the finish warranted another chance.

Last season confirmed what I had thought in the first season. He is bringing nothing to the football club in terms of football development. The team play no differently to the way they played under John Gregory.

Atleast under Gregory they played with more passion and determination. Even that seems to have vanished under David O'Leary.

Graham Taylor tried to change the way Villa played football and you could see what he was trying to do. It wasn't right and it didn't work but atleast as a manager he was doing something managerial.

Spurs is a big game. It's at home and I don't think it's going to be an easy one. I expect David O'Leary is going to tell his team to sit back and defend and he may even play 4-5-1 but even though I've predicted a draw, I still don't think that is going to be good enough for David O'Leary tomorrow.

Even if Villa won with a lucky 1-0 but the football was still poor, I don't think that's going to be good enough for O'Leary. Many people are seeing now that he is bringing nothing to the club.

At Leeds, with a new player in every other week he was able to keep it fresh. That won't work at a football club these days as you actually have to manage and develop what you've got and you don't get those huge borrowed funds anymore.

What O'Leary needs to do is change the way they play football but I don't think he knows how to do this and that will ultimately lead to him getting the sack. I'm predicting before Christmas after a run of average or poor results.

Aston Villa have the players to challenge for Europe we now need the manager and soon enough Doug Ellis is going to see this.

Have an opinion on David O'Leary and the impending axe? Email damian@astonvilla.biz.