After last week’s reprieve for supporters, also known as the FA Cup fifth round, Aston Villa will resume their Premier League campaign in lowly 15th. In what has been a stop, start campaign, this is unacceptable. Every time performances look to be improving and a corner turned we just take another step back.
I wouldn’t call myself an Alex McLeish supporter, if such a thing even exists. A McLeish sympathizer might be a more apt description. He has done his best with limited resources and the overpaid players he has inherited. That said though, when the situation has called for it, I have taken the manager to task when I have felt it appropriate.
We can all agree that where the club is now is unacceptable. Even with the restrictions McLeish has had to deal with, there is enough quality in this team to be in the upper half of the table. While I do believe that at this moment the manager will be back, if the results and league position don’t improve he won’t be back.
This is a pivotal summer for the club. Whoever the manager is will move on senior players whose contracts are winding down, and therefore will likely be backed in the transfer market. The task will be to build the next group of players to push up the table. We are coming out of what loosely could be called “The Martin O’Neill Era,” and this summer will be the beginning of a new one.
If McLeish is not the man with the vision to embark on this new era the next question is who should be that man. I’d take Brendan Rodgers or Paul Lambert personally, but the question is whether or not either man would view Villa as enough of a step up to leave their current jobs. Failing that I agree with Matt that the boards prerequisite of Premier League experience is a bit absurd. Would they rather have Steve Bruce or Mick McCarthy than Luis Van Gaal? It doesn’t make any sense to me.
The club needs to look beyond Britain for managerial candidates. One name I threw out while chatting with Matt on Twitter a while back was Lucien Favre, manager of Borussia Mönchengladbach. When he took over, they were bottom of the league last year. He has since steered the club to safety and now the club are currently in 3rd, in striking distance of the title, and with Champions League qualification almost assured.
What might suit him to Villa and our fans is that ee has done this playing attacking football with a core of young players. That last bit, “attacking football with a core of young players,” is exactly how this club should be built going forward. I have no idea how receptive he would be to taking the Villa hot seat, but isn’t it worth a try?
Given that his current club is punching above their weight, and players are already starting to be poached, he might well see it as a good time to move on. Irregardless, the idea that he doesn’t meet the board’s criteria or isn’t qualified to manage Aston Villa is absurd.
Managerial speculation is premature at this stage, but it is inevitable considering the circumstances. The club could, and probably should, take six points against Wigan and Blackburn coming up. That would likely put Villa back if those points are secured. This run in is McLeish’s audition to see if he is the man to take the club forward, and not just keep his seat in the dugout warm for the next guy.
Unless McLeish manages to put together a sequence of results that puts the club closer to mid-table than the bottom, he may well find himself supplemental to requirements at Villa Park next season.
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