O'Leary looks on the positives

David O'Leary has confessed to being "a bit of an arsehole" during his last year as manager of Leeds United, but accused the club of attempting to blacken his name over transfer dealings.

Now in charge of Aston Villa, O'Leary represents one of the season's managerial successes having taken his new team to the verge of European qualification after slashing the wage bill by 50% and offloading 12 senior professionals.

"I am trying to be myself again now," he explained. "I thought I was a bit of an arsehole in my last year at Leeds. I thought I had changed a bit and had too much to say. I was put up by the club to say too many things and now I think I just want to be myself again.

"I was told to do this and that at Leeds and became too opinionated about things that had no relevance to myself.

"I had changed and I suppose the court case (involving Jonathan Woodgate and Lee Bowyer) changed me a bit. There was a siege mentality. Now I just want to be the person I was during my first three years at Leeds."

O'Leary also insisted his transfer dealings were open to scrutiny. "After I left there was a sensational story about my transfer dealings but you could get the FBI and the CIA to investigate them. David O'Leary may be a crap manager but he is honest.

"I had to endure a smear campaign when I left Leeds and the way Leeds tried to do it was sad."

O'Leary's anger stems from a wrangle with Leeds over the £4m pay-off he was contractually due within seven days of dismissal. After taking the club to the brink of a tribunal, O'Leary is being paid in full, in instalments over several years.

"I have no complaints if someone wants a change, but just do it right," he explained.

"Just say 'thanks but we are sacking you', pay me off and wish me all the best. But to try and blacken you as well isn't right. It was dirty.

"You hear Leeds spent £90 million under me but you never hear that they recouped £60 million and qualified for Europe four years running. I also left them with good players, not people at the end of their careers.

"The smearing came as low as people saying that when I left Leeds we were on a bad run. We won seven of my last 10 games in charge and only lost one; people forget that.

"Then the smear came out about how I had lost the dressing room and it's amazing how stuff like that can stick. But it's amazing that all the players rang me to say goodbye."

O'Leary's reputation plummeted after the publication of his book, Leeds United on Trial, in 2001, detailing the fallout from the Woodgate-Bowyer court case. It was felt he had betrayed dressing-room confidences and players were unhappy with its serialisation in the News of the World.

O'Leary arrived at Villa on a mission to redeem his reputation. "This club has been ideal," he said. "I had to shut people up who had been conned a bit and were saying I could only manage with money. If I get this Villa side into Europe it will be my biggest managerial achievement."

He is endeavouring to do so by reverting to the tactical beliefs which initially served him well in Yorkshire before he was persuaded to switch to a more patient approach.

"Leeds played a very high-tempo game in my first three years and it worked which is why I'm trying to play a similar way at Villa."

A Leeds spokesman said the club had no comment to make.

Meanwhile, Italian coach Giovanni Trapattoni yesterday refused to rule out the possibility that former world player of the year Roberto Baggio could yet make the Italian squad for Euro 2004 in June.

Playmaker Baggio, 37, is set to make his first appearance for Italy in five years when he lines up against Spain in a friendly tonight in what had been billed as a farewell match.

Trapattoni said that Baggio's call-up, a month before he is due to retire from the game, was an "act of recognition" for his achievements.

However, when pressed about Baggio's future, the Italy coach said: "The future is in the hands of God. Roberto knows this is a long story that has been going on for two and a half to three years," said Trapattoni.

"I have always left the door open and today he is here which is significant in itself. In life you can never say never,"