I realise that this may be going against popular opinion but I feel we have to face facts.

As much as O'Neill is a charming, intelligent and in many ways accomplished manager he does have crucial faults which I believe are holding Villa back.

Firstly, the style of play. Much has been said about Villas inability to keep a clean sheet. The common misconception seems to be that if we can just stop a few going in at the wrong end we are always going to score at the other. This to me seems a little naive. We score a lot of goals because we play a very direct style which involves getting the ball forward quickly. This "percentage" style of play leads to us conceding possession against teams that retain the ball better than us (I.E every other team in the league).When we get it back, we get it wide and whip it in. This of course can, on a good day, lead to a plenty of 1/2 chances, a fair few of which we have managed to score from .The down side of this style is that we concede possession cheaply and put our defenders under a great deal of pressure. Laursen and Davies are fine centre halves but you can only plug the dam for so long before you cave in.

Secondly, O'Neills purchasing strategy (or lack of it).There has been much hyperbole regarding the amount of players we have bought this summer but lets face it. We were with out a right back for 18 months !It's an absolute joke. We are still short of a right back by the way as Luke Young represents a decent back up to the world class defender you would have thought O'Neill was taking so long to select.

Moving to the left hand side, Shorey has been a little disappointing but I suspect we would never even have bought him had Freddie not been injured. I haven't a clue how good Cuellar is so I shall refrain from commenting until I have seen him play.

Sidwell looks decent to me but we are desperately short of imagination in midfield. Arsenal bought Nasri for the same money that we paid for Milner.I don't want to talk too much about that deal as it makes me want to cry.£12 million for a winger with no pace.Gawd help us.

Upfront is another area for concern and another area O'Neill has had plenty of time to address yet despite selling Maloney and Moore we have seen no replacement. I pray that the rumours we submitted a bid for Heskey on deadline day are without foundation

Thirdly, O’Neill’s apparent distrust of foreign players. What the hell is that all about. Please don't quote Cuellars or Petrovs names to me as they were playing in Glasgow and we all realise he has connections there.Broadly speaking O’Neill has a distrust of foreign players and we as a club cannot afford to indulge that prejudice.

English players cost a hell of a lot more than the majority of players available in the world market.Does anybody believe we could not have purchased a pacy,tricky winger (IE Joaquin) for the same sort of money as we paid for Milner?

The day that Blackburn bought Santa Cruz for £3.5 million (IE the same price we paid for Harewood) I could have wept.I had seen Santa Cruz play and knew he was a class act. Why then did our scouting network not know?

If we could buy the very best English players then fine, but we can't so we have to cut our cloth accordingly and try to be a little more canny. Sorry to repeat myself but Nasri represents far better value for money than Milner......FAR BETTER !

I genuinely think O’Neill has fine man management skills and can certainly get players to run their hearts out for him. The trouble is they run in straight lines with no interchanging of position or variation of play. The touch on the ball our players exhibit  means that although we have quick players, if we try any kind of progressive possession football the ball moves too slowly between them

That brings me to my final point, Coaching. What exactly do our lot do all week ?Only 2 players show any composure on the ball (Young and Barry) and the rest try and get rid of it as soon as they can. That lack of confidence is bred from piss poor coaching.

I was happy when he took over and it grieves to say it but we have to get shot of O'neill and the team he brought with him and replace him with someone more tactically aware and more technically competent