With Aston Villa’s managerial search continuing, or so we assume, in far less public circumstances than the pursuit of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the pool of names become more and more obvious.
With Solskjaer already ruling himself out at present, seemingly doing a U-turn which, for me at least, says more about what the board told him than a change of heart, the concern has to be about the board’s plan, and how that will prove to be an effective or ineffective solution to Villa’s current stagnation.
Whilst public stories suggested that Solskjaer’s rejection was based on not wanting to uproot his family, the words said don’t match the decisions made. After all, if Solskjaer had risked jeopardising his future at Molde over a bigger job, the one at Villa, he wouldn’t pull the plug without good reason.
As we all know, the board had stated during Alex McLeish’s tenure that the summer would largely be based around Bosman signings and a lack of net spending, presumably expecting any outlay to be recouped from the sale of current squad members.
The issue is that, to anyone with a degree of footballing knowledge and, more importantly, to any realistic candidate looking at the job, consideration will need to be made regarding the board’s plan. If the board consider they can just get on with austerity as is, they will find it very difficult to attract any manager, never mind a top class one.
Villa’s pay scale is high enough to sate the desire of a club with a top eight finish as is, but there are issue being treated by the board extenuating that need remedying, and that will cost money. Many members of the squad will, in my opinion, need replacing with upgraded players. Some contracts may need to be contemplated in terms of releasing players just so the club no longer has large outgoings. If the club can sell these players, great, but I imagine more severe measures will need to come into effect in order to move forwards.
Otherwise, the club will be trying to keep the wage bill below a £40,000 a week mark whilst some players continue to earn beyond that, leaving even less money to attract new blood and, with the limited subsection of players available on free transfers, it leaves a hard battle to attract new, “hungry” players who would invariably have to be paid less than £30,000 whilst others continue to pick up over £40,000.
In short, the club’s current setup is, as I have stated multiple times before, far more rotten than removing McLeish was going to solve. As Tim aka the Droyd had said after his meeting with hospitality, many fans renewed based on the logic that McLeish being gone was the end of the dark days. The reality isn’t anywhere near as simple.
Whether fans reflect on McLeish’s tenure with continued anger or, if they realise now that the man had a challenging job under circumstances that changed while he was there, the future will bear out the consequences.
With the two candidates currently strongly vaunted in the two Robbies – Di Matteo and Martinez – neither manager is going to take a job on where their hands are tied behind their backs. Yes, both managers may well be interested in continuing their careers at a club that offers them a new challenge, but unless the board supply funding, something that Martinez made an issue with Dave Whelan when agreeing to stay at Wigan Athletic last season, then both managers may well dodge the opportunity.
This is largely because, at present, the club’s setup diminishes the potential that managing Villa would normally provide. In ideal circumstances, where money is available to spend, and where the club did not have prior self-inflicted finances issues, top contenders would be lining up for the role. As it currently stands, few will take the poisoned chalice without assurances of money. Those who do so are desperate to clear their name more than anything, regardless of if they manage to change an iota. For further evidence of that see “McLeish, Alex”.
So unless Villa can, somehow, pour funding into a new beginning and a new opportunity, there will be no transformation of fortunes. Without trying to sound overtly nihilistic, the club is broken and it needs fixing. Merely bandaging the current gaping wound will do nothing as the poison inside continues to kill its host unless something is done.
The next steps in Villa’s future are crucial. If the board can not realise the full situation at the club, and continue with their blinkered financially focussed view, they may well, ironically, find out that the club will go down at some point, further crippling the finances at the club, and making the sale of existing, unsuitable players even more unpalatable.
Villa need a clean slate and a new manager – simply providing the latter without the former will, as with McLeish and Houllier before him, result in a continuation of Villa’s increasingly steep decline.
The Author
