"Mr O'Neill, where did it all go wrong?"

Nice try, but first things first, losing 5-0 to anyone is a severe embarrassment, and it doesn't matter if the next game is against Man Utd, amends must be made immediately.

To address your point on automatic qualification for Europe, would this be qualification for a competition which was utterly devalued, even before we put out a reserve side in Moscow? Who is going to pay good money (and in these times, any money is good money) to watch us 'compete' in the Europa League?

As for posessing a collection of fine young players, I agree. But come the end of the season, if a fifth or even sixth place finish is 'achieved', that would likely change. Barry would leave, and Young might not be far behind should someone like Man Utd come calling for a Ronaldo replacement. Shorn of its two jewells, our impressive collection suddenly looks very bare.

Let's here some genuine optimism - not only from bloggers and supporters, but also from MoN, about our chances of finishing above Arsenal - something that is still perfectly possible provided MoN rallies and reorganises the troops. Anything less than Champions League qualification THIS season, whatever our results in recent seasons, will go down as a failiure, and a costly one at that. So let's not settle for fifth or even sixth best, but ensure that we have a platform on which to build something impressive in the future.

Gabe, presumably you're not familiar with the phrase 'strike whilst the iron's hot'. A fully fit Arsenal side is not what we've been up against for the entirety of this season. Besides, I saw their first choice team (minus Rosicky, who has a long history of injuries anyway) play Fulham earlier this season, and their lightweight midfield was bossed by Danny Murphy and Jimmy Bullard, hardly titans themselves. Their problems in midfield have been evident all season long. But anyway, it's not about Arsenal. I couldn't care less that Wenger has mismanaged them since the end of last season, other than it opened up a window of opportunity, that we are in danger of failing to exploit.

I don't know about you, but I think it's unacceptable that we have now gone two seasons without a right back, and this season without a left back. I still don't know whether Cuellar was a complete waste of money or not because he's not been given the chance to achieve any kind of consistency, having been shuffled between right back and centre back. Even more ridiculous was O'Neill's decision to go into the season with only two forwards in the squad he was prepared to select for league matches, despite Carew's patchy fitness history. This glaring error is only now being exposed because Agbonlahor (who, for me, in some ways has been our player of the season) is now burnt out. Ironically, O'Neill had the chutzpah to complain that this was a danger when he was selected for the U21's back in November. His solution? To sign Heskey in January, but I'm afraid this is a classic case of much too little, much too late.

It still can be a very good season (not a great one; that would have involved investing in January, back when we had a realistic chance of putting pressure on the title challengers), because Arsenal's run in is much harder than ours, and our strongest XI are more than good enough to make up the 3 point (or rather 4 point, factoring in goal difference) gap. But if we do, O'Neill will have got out of jail. I recognise that he has performed excellently in certain aspects of his job, and appreciate the contribution he's made, but the fact remains that we should be doing so much better, given the (admittedly slightly shaky) foundations O'Neill himself put in place.

As for next season being 'even better', with all due respect you haven't got a clue if you think that's possible after we lose our best and most influential player. I will make this prediction; whoever finishes 5th this season (unless things go really pear-shaped and Everton overhaul us) will finish lower next. And if it's us, come the end of next season we might be talking about an 8th placed finish being a success. I hope to God we are saved this indignity.

People allow Martin O'Neil more respect than he warrants. He threw the F.A.Cup, The Eufa Cup and now effectively he has blown the Champions League. He managed Leicester in a different era and Celtic in a different league.
Villa are one dimensional, cannot win at home, have been knocked out by lower league relegation fodder in the league cup for two seasons. Now, the best players will undoubtedly,leave. Just like Graham Taylor, Ron Atkinson, John Gregory and David O'Leary, he took the club so far, raised expectations and through poor tactical awareness, once our style was