| Some sympathy for Lee O'Neill 16:52 - Mar 1 with 1585 views | Superfrans |
I suspect I will be alone in this, but I really do have sympathy for Lee O'Neill.
He is in an impossible position. He is the most senior, day-to-day executive at the club. In the absence of Evans, he has to come out and talk today.
But no doubt he has been given very clear guidance on what he can and cannot say - and he has been told he can't comment about any sale.
The party line is clear - we have had no formal offer (which may strictly speaking be true), and that any managerial change is not connected (which has to be self evident if you are going to say there is no deal). No doubt O'Neill (and Evans) would be bound by a fairly tight NDA or some other confidentiality provisions (these may by in LON's contract, if he is not close enough to the deal to be personally bound by NDA), in any case.
Personally, I wouldn't have said all the stuff which seems to be vaguely supportive of Lambert, but we also don't know how close Gill continues to be to Lambert and we need him (and Walker) continuing to work for the club and doing their all over the next match, two matches, however long it takes.
I'm not saying that LON isn't being paid handsomely to do what he is having to do at the moment. But it isn't easy and there isn't a lot more he can do for now, aside from keeping the club ticking over in the middle of a pretty critical period of the season. |  |
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| Some sympathy for Lee O'Neill on 16:53 - Mar 1 with 1556 views | J2BLUE |
The thing about the NDA agreement theory is we have Brett Johnson liking posts on Twitter about taking over. So hardly a state secret. |  |
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| Some sympathy for Lee O'Neill on 16:55 - Mar 1 with 1524 views | WD19 |
He had to come out and talk, but he didn't have to come out and talk nonsense.
Any problems he made for himself by virtue of his own verbal diarrhoea and painful desire to be everyones mate.
Any sympathy I had evaporated today. |  | | |
| Some sympathy for Lee O'Neill on 16:57 - Mar 1 with 1493 views | borge |
I agree. He is on a hiding to nothing.
He clearly isn't told everything and isn't allowed to say many of the things he has been told. He is a mouthpiece for Evans and often ends up looking stupid because decisions are then made that contradict something he has said.
Some of the criticism he gets is grossly unfair, not least because he is a Town fan and has the best interests of the club at heart. I would very much hope that if the US folks do buy the club he is retained in some capacity to ensure there is some form of Ipswich/Suffolk link. |  | | |
| Some sympathy for Lee O'Neill on 16:57 - Mar 1 with 1490 views | rayman_10 |
I was literally talking to a mate a few minutes ago and pretty much saying the exact same thing.
He is a spokesperson for Evans and seems to be doing a lot of jobs rolled into one. Us as fans don’t really see how much (or how little) he actually does. If I remember rightly he was heavily involved in the academy before that posh fella left (Milne was it?). I would not be adverse to see him go back to that role if and when the takeover happens. Would certainly not be calling for his head or would lose much sleep if he does depart. Just think he’s slightly harshly treated by some without knowing the full picture. |  |
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| Some sympathy for Lee O'Neill on 16:57 - Mar 1 with 1484 views | Reuser_is_God |
| Some sympathy for Lee O'Neill on 16:55 - Mar 1 by WD19 |
He had to come out and talk, but he didn't have to come out and talk nonsense.
Any problems he made for himself by virtue of his own verbal diarrhoea and painful desire to be everyones mate.
Any sympathy I had evaporated today. |
Right now Lee O'Neill is pretty irrelevant so I wouldn't be too concerned about what he has said today.
As Frans says, it's just towing the party line. |  |
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| Some sympathy for Lee O'Neill on 16:58 - Mar 1 with 1475 views | Superfrans |
| Some sympathy for Lee O'Neill on 16:53 - Mar 1 by J2BLUE |
The thing about the NDA agreement theory is we have Brett Johnson liking posts on Twitter about taking over. So hardly a state secret. |
If I have a signed a mutual NDA, it doesn't matter what anyone else who has signed it does, a breach by me is a breach. I personally wouldn't do it.
Besides, liking a Tweet saying you're a great bloke isn't going to breach any NDA. | |
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| Some sympathy for Lee O'Neill on 16:58 - Mar 1 with 1464 views | jayessess |
Just your standard Evans comms weirdness. |  |
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| Some sympathy for Lee O'Neill on 16:59 - Mar 1 with 1457 views | Steve_M |
No, you're not alone but the desire for simplistic solutions is strong. He's exposed because Evans is so crap at his job, see also the various public pronouncements of McCarthy and Lambert (before the last month) where they have had to make statements which look foolish on the surface.
To repeat a point I made earlier, LON was instrumental in re-building links to the community that the club had carelessly cut. I don't think we should be quite as careless with that, nor his work in charge of the academy, to demand he's marched out of the door next. |  |
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| Some sympathy for Lee O'Neill on 16:59 - Mar 1 with 1455 views | LankHenners |
He's not blessed with great communication skills, and when combined with having to cover a very wide remit, he ends up talking a load of waffle.
It'd be better if he was given a more streamlined role and left to get on with it. That he hasn't is a fault of Evans, and it ends up with O'Neill coming in for a lot of criticism he doesn't really deserve but is the target for it in the absence of the owner or anyone else. |  |
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| Some sympathy for Lee O'Neill on 17:01 - Mar 1 with 1415 views | StokieBlue |
| Some sympathy for Lee O'Neill on 16:53 - Mar 1 by J2BLUE |
The thing about the NDA agreement theory is we have Brett Johnson liking posts on Twitter about taking over. So hardly a state secret. |
It's just good manners to not discuss the specifics of a deal underway, regardless of the industry.
There does seem to be an element on here (not everyone of course) who feel they should be privy to every minute detail of any ongoing discussions (both the takeover and managerial) and that's simply not the way things work.
SB |  | | |
| Some sympathy for Lee O'Neill on 17:03 - Mar 1 with 1390 views | Superfrans |
| Some sympathy for Lee O'Neill on 16:57 - Mar 1 by rayman_10 |
I was literally talking to a mate a few minutes ago and pretty much saying the exact same thing.
He is a spokesperson for Evans and seems to be doing a lot of jobs rolled into one. Us as fans don’t really see how much (or how little) he actually does. If I remember rightly he was heavily involved in the academy before that posh fella left (Milne was it?). I would not be adverse to see him go back to that role if and when the takeover happens. Would certainly not be calling for his head or would lose much sleep if he does depart. Just think he’s slightly harshly treated by some without knowing the full picture. |
Evans has consistently used all of his MDs/GMs in the most cynical fashion. Never giving them enough information or power to do their jobs properly, as with LON today.
Under new ownership, you'd hope you would have a ceo with proper power at the club (what Evans does), a head of the footballing side (what LON does), a head of commercial and potentially a head of comms/marketing (with Evans currently insisting on final sign-off on anything commercial or comms related). I'd find LON a role, probably doing what he currently does, but with a proper ceo above him. | |
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| Some sympathy for Lee O'Neill on 17:07 - Mar 1 with 1343 views | southnorfolkblue |
He has to be supportive of Lambert, because if he throws him under a bus what does that say to the next manager.
Bottom line, like all those before him, he’s a mouthpiece and has limited authority | |
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| Some sympathy for Lee O'Neill on 17:43 - Mar 1 with 1277 views | Illinoisblue |
Not sure why they had him do a presser. He can’t say what we want to hear so he’s on a hiding to nothing. Probably too much to expect Evans to step up and be a leader. |  |
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| Some sympathy for Lee O'Neill on 19:35 - Mar 1 with 1122 views | itfcjoe |
Ditto, he is being sent out to say nothing, about things that aren't even really his job as it is.
Working for ME must be tough, because there is just a massive void where he should be.
But for me he does go a bit OTT in his public statements, he hasn't mastered saying nothing yet and says too much supporting the wrong position when trying to flat bat [Post edited 1 Mar 2021 19:36]
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| Some sympathy for Lee O'Neill on 19:47 - Mar 1 with 1057 views | Dubtractor |
| Some sympathy for Lee O'Neill on 19:35 - Mar 1 by itfcjoe |
Ditto, he is being sent out to say nothing, about things that aren't even really his job as it is.
Working for ME must be tough, because there is just a massive void where he should be.
But for me he does go a bit OTT in his public statements, he hasn't mastered saying nothing yet and says too much supporting the wrong position when trying to flat bat [Post edited 1 Mar 2021 19:36]
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I have no issue at all with the non statements about the takeover and Paul Cook, but the extent to which he was seemingly singing Lambert's praises today, after we have basically sacked him, was just weird. |  |
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| Some sympathy for Lee O'Neill on 19:53 - Mar 1 with 1018 views | PositivelyPortman |
| Some sympathy for Lee O'Neill on 19:47 - Mar 1 by Dubtractor |
I have no issue at all with the non statements about the takeover and Paul Cook, but the extent to which he was seemingly singing Lambert's praises today, after we have basically sacked him, was just weird. |
.....and virtually giving the manager’s job to Gill ffs. |  |
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