| SMITH
SLAGS OFF O'NEILL
(Friday 9th June 2000)  Former
Wycombe Manager Alan Smith dropped even lower in the eyes of Chairboys
fans follow a scathing article criticising the management techniques of Martin
O'Neill. Writing in a column in The Observer on Sunday (4th June) Smith
said "He was, naturally, a hero at Wycombe for taking a
run-of-the-mill amateur club out of non-League...but there is another side to
O'Neill which is somewhat darker"Smith replaced O'Neill at Wycombe in the summer of 1995 but his reign lasted just 15 months culminating in a 6-3 reverse at Peterborough as Wycombe slumped to the bottom of the Division Two table. Smith said "It would have been a tough act to follow under normal circumstances, but my life was not made easier by the 'ghost' of O'Neill that haunted me and successive managers." Wycombe finished in 12th place after Smith's first season in charge but the following season things started to go wrong quickly both on and off the pitch. The horrendous kit from season 1996/97 will always be remembered as the 'Smith kit' and the departure of playing heroes Paul Hyde, Simon Garner and Steve Thompson earned him few friends on the terraces. Despite his relatively short spell at Wycombe, the memory seems to have stayed fresh in the mind of the man who has fallen on his feet as a 'back-room boy' at Fulham. He went on to claim that "At Wycombe, players said sometimes they would not see him (O'Neill) from Monday to Friday and then he would turn up in the dressing room on Saturday..He could also be obsessive, sometimes locked in his office watching videos of games, with no one, not even the chairman, allowed to interrupt him" Smith finished off by stating "I would question whether he will be able to motivate Celtic's players in the same way he has done at Wycombe or Leicester" Return to News Desk... |
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