With Alex McLeish’s tenure looking increasingly likely to end this afternoon, much focus will turn to the future and where the club will be headed and, more importantly, under who.
The two prime candidates, Roberto Martinez and Paul Lambert, both offer a style of football that is focussed on positive football, however their current squads are quite different.
Whilst Martinez has spent lots of time scouting Central and Southern America for talent, as evidenced by past and present players such as Antonio Valencia, Wilson Palacios, Franco Di Santo, Emerson Boyce, and Hugo Rodallega, Lambert’s picks tend to be closer to home with a squad containing only three non-UK or Irish players.
To that end, Lambert seems the better fit for Villa’s current squad given that he will, in the short term at least, need to deal with the likes of Richard Dunne, James Collins, and Stephen Warnock rather than a series of samba influenced players.
Martinez also seems likely to be out of reach now given another solid season at Wigan with his focus likely to be either continuing his project at the Greater Manchester club, or at seeking a club that will offer him more than Villa can at present.
So whilst many may have been excited by the club’s pursuit of the affable Spaniard, I imagine that the club’s short term policy of replacing players progressively will suit a man with more experience of home grown players, and of a man who has got the most out of a team with little spending.
Whether such a decision process is likely to be greeted with long term happiness after the excitement of McLeish’s exit dies down, is another thing. After all, such an announcement certainly provides a short term lift, but leaves the fans no more connected to the owner as things stand.
But, hey, at least it’s someone other than McLeish, right? Hopefully it will mean an end to the vitriol directed at the Scottish manager if he does leave as, whilst he may well be a poor quality manager, he is still a human being and, following a long and draining campaign at Villa, I still wish him all the best with his career away from Villa Park.
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