Winner will always take all

Winning managers, and O'Neill is certainly one of those, set the agenda.

No-one will question the lost

£8 million spent on Zat Knight and Marlon Harewood, or the £4.5 million spent on Nicky Shorey, or the £1.25 million on Wayne Routledge. The focus is on Ashley Young - a steal at £9 million.

No-one will question him on whether John Carew has been shirking at training ever since he was publicly named and shamed after the breaking of a curfew before the Ajax game.

No-one will question him as to the audacity of playing Nigel Reo-Coker at full-back against Ronaldo.

For the time being the results against Stoke, Chelsea, Newcastle and Middlesbrough are
far overshadowed by memories of the glorious triumph at Arsenal, a fine display against
Manchester United, the mesmeric first half at Tottenham and the trouncing of Wigan.
None of the above is meant as a criticism of O'Neill, more a reflection on the nature of the business of football reporting.

Arsenal have lost back-to-back games and therefore William Gallas can say diddly-squat.
Would his criticism of an unnamed team-mate really have led to such a public outcry had Arsenal hung on to beat Tottenham and not lost to Villa?

O'Neill knows that a home draw to Fulham followed by a defeat at Everton and he'll be asked why he didn't spend on a striker in the summer window.

Graham Taylor used to say: "You'll never win any arguments if you don't win on a Saturday."

That was the blindingly obvious but what he meant was that the whole focus of a football club is entirely on what happens at 3pm on a Saturday, and not on what happens with regards to scouting, youth development or, most importantly, style of play.

"We used always to focus on results first and tactics second,'' said a cliched Alan Hansen on Match of the Day.
I'm sorry Alan, but you didn't.

So, to Tony Mowbray's apparent fascination with playing the beautiful game and not on getting results, which is now dominating the media's coverage of Albion.

So, to the Britannia Stadium, a lump of hard characterless concrete in Stoke-on-Trent, and to a mid-table team who fit it perfectly.

Albion lose again. Cue the questions: Are your team too soft? Are you too naive?
The emphasis is never on why a right-back didn't stop a cross, a left-back not jump, or a striker shoot straight at a keeper.

We are living in a selfish age where Premier clubs look after themselves.

It's an age where academies are full of foreigners and where the likes of Ferdinand, Rooney, Heskey, Lampard, Hart, Ashley Cole and Joe Cole can all miss an England game against Germany and miraculously be fit for their clubs.

It's an age where hit-and-hope football, or "percentage football - playing to our strengths" as some like to call it, is excused on the basis of having to compete on an uneven playing field.

Just perhaps, therefore, a manager who actually seems to give a stuff about supporters and entertaining at all costs should be cherished and not hounded by bloodthirsty hacks eager for a headline or a soft quote.