Prior to the win over Bolton on Saturday, and according to Gabriele Marcotti from The Times Game Podcast, Martin O’Neill had been in charge for 77 matches and had gained 108 points.

Marcotti also compared this to David O’Leary’s managerial reign during the same number of games and apparently O'Neill comes out worse by four points.

Now, I'm not looking back and counting the results from the first 77 league matches but these statistics don't look good. But if you cast your mind back to O'Leary's first season it was a very good one; we finished sixth in the league, behind Newcastle on goal difference, on one of the rare occasions that sixth wasn't good enough for European qualification - 2008 being another.

'With five games left and the transfer gossip already starting, UEFA qualification is a must next season with Champions League qualification beckoning in 2009/10'


These times, though, were a little easier for managers; 60 points got you Champions League Football and the top half of the Premier League boasted the delights of Charlton, Fulham, Bolton and Birmingham City. Whereas now we have more genuine contenders trying to break into the elusive top four in Everton, Pompey, Man City, Blackburn and possibly Spurs.

I do, however, believe Villa have the best chance of them all with O'Neill. O'Leary moved the opposite way in his second season and we finished tenth, unlike under O'Neill, where we finished bottom half in his first season and look pretty certain to end up between fifth and eighth in his second and move in the right direction.

You now need nearer 70 points for Champions League football and the only way of getting there is to do it slowly, building on your position year by year.

Everton are the only team to break that Big Four monopoly in recent years and their run in the Champions League didn't exactly set the world on fire. It also resulted in a bottom half finish the following season.

With five games left and the transfer gossip already starting, UEFA qualification is a must next season with Champions League qualification beckoning in 2009/10, and maybe even European Champions 2011, 30 years after our first win (well, I can dream, can't I?).

This year, though, it does seem that our best bet is a top-six finish and entry to the Intertoto Cup, which at the end of the day is only two matches. An aggregate win and we're in the UEFA Cup anyway.

So here's to European football at Villa Park next season one way or another - and a bright future under Martin O'Neill.