I think one of O'Leary's biggest strengths as a manager is / was instilling confidence in young players. The Leeds team he oversaw were quite a young team, and he helped players like Ian Harte, Lee Bowyer and Alan Smith establish themselves at the top level sooner than they would have been expected to. He played a lot of less experienced players during his time at Leeds, and O'Leary seems to be a believer in "If they're good enough, they're old enough".

He did spend a lot while at Elland Road, especially in the last couple of years but I think the chairman Peter Ridsdale was the main reason Leeds imploded. O'Leary's tactics came in for criticism too on occasion and he was accused of naivety at times. Sometimes his squad would be thin in certain areas, and too full in others, eg Ian Harte was the only left-back at the club for a long time.

I was pleased to see him get another chance at Aston Villa, and he did do well there. But the Villa fans never really took to him, and turned on him at the first sign of trouble. He clearly also had a bad working relationship with the chairman (Doug Ellis), and that resulted in his departure.

I think the jury is still out for a lot of people, me included. He may have been unfortunate to have worked under two of the most infamous chairmen in the English game. When his name popped up in relation to the Republic of Ireland job there weren't many particularly keen on him. It would be interesting to see how he would do in a new managerial post.