Next Manager?

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/aston-villa-bookies-suspend-betting-11991316

I don't think we will be making an appointment this soon, so I don't think people should be getting the welcome mats out/panicking yet. There will be more twists and turns yet.

Shearer is saying today that he knows Bruce has talked to Villa about the job already. That seems at odds with what DrT is telling us. Maybe that's why some big bet's have been laid.

I expect we will be taking soundings and speaking to each of the 10 managers on the list already. In Bruce's case it's much less complicated as he's currently out of work so there's less need to go through clubs and agents etc.

Disappointingly I think that the two remaining candidates may well be Bruce and Clarke.

I was having the same thought. Wonder if one of the final three was an in-work manager who wasn't interested?

Sandie wrote:I was having the same thought. Wonder if one of the final three was an in-work manager who wasn't interested?

The third candidate has almost certainly ruled himself out. It would be strange to arrive at a shortlist of three and then discard one before making a final decision. That's not how a professional interview procedure works.

Wagner supposedly told the Chairman at Huddersfield that he won't leave for "another Championship club":
http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/sport/football/huddersfield-town/huddersfield-town-s-david-wagner-rules-out-move-to-championship-rivals-1-8170420

You know, much as I love to be surprised, I think we've guessed the two man shortlist bang on.

It does not look as though a serious search has been made for the best candidate.

I'm guessing it's gone a bit like this. Early last week KW/SR/BL would have sat down and had a brain storming session, throwing up a list of potential names. Then they would have added the applications from 'football professionals' who had sent emails or letters. That would have been the original 25.

Then they would have sifted through the list and thrown out non starters like Carver, Cotterill etc. I guess they had a good chuckle and a few shakes of the head which brought them down to 10 possible candidates. As each was discussed a choice between paying compensation for a contracted manager or going for an out of work manager would have emerged. The level of compensation and the odds against attracting a manager like Eddie Howe or Sean Dyche, would have removed them from the wish list at this stage, so very quickly they would have arrived at a list of probably 4, which became three almost immediately when Lee Johnson said that he would not leave Bristol City. David Wagner's chairman issued a hands off warning, and then there were two.

Steve Clarke may well be one of the two candidates, which in effect means that the whole of the "25 applicants" process was never a serious exercise. Assuming the other candidate is Steve Bruce, and he was almost certainly tapped up before RDM was sacked, then the whole manager search has been a smoke screen for appointing an experienced man who is known to be unpopular with a fairly large percentage of our fans.

"We appointed the best man available from a long and well researched list of applicants" we will be told. The reality is that we look like going for the cheap option and a reasonably safe pair of hands. An experienced but uninspiring choice that could have been made without trying to convince the fans that a highly professional appointment process was under way.

Fans are not daft, please remember that AVFC.

Whilst I'm not feeling as unhappy with the outcome I do agree with the spirit of your comments. Let's be honest, from the start this process has lacked imagination. To start with the two most prominent candidates were a manager who has available and experienced and successful at the level and a manager who, whilst inexperienced, was top of the division with a smaller club. There's no thinking outside the box with those choices and scant signs of ambition. We seemed to be looking at a fairly limited pool of people who would come and who had managed in the Championship before. No looking at successful performers in foreign leagues and no looking for well respected coaches who had worked below the radar.

At the end of the day, if it is to be Steve Bruce, he won't be the most inspiring or universally popular appointment. Nor is it one for the long term. What I will back him to do is return the club to the Premier League within two seasons and, through achieving better results, restore a bit of the pride to supporting Aston Villa. If he gets it, he'll have my full support.

If our new manager is to be either Steve Bruce or Steve Clarke then the players will be firmly remaining in their respective comfort zones. Bruce is an arm round the shoulder type who will tell them to go out and do their best and enjoy it. Clarke will expect more discipline in a playing sense, but neither managerial prospect will give the players a "Warnock Hairdryer" when they need it.

Both of them should be an improvement on RDM, but neither of them is going to drag this club into the modern footballing era.

I'm not sure the players we have now are in too much of a comfort zone. Under RDM they have just been badly managed. Odd substitutions, ill-conceived tactical plans and the persistent selection of Ashley Westwood were Di Matteo's undoing. There are far fewer rotten eggs in the camp this season than last and the way we have wilted late on in games is indicative of anything other than comfort. They need someone to give them confidence which Di Matteo, who was frankly as much use here as a cardboard cutout, could not do. I've also always imagined Steve Bruce to be an angry man when things go against him and people let him down.

As for "dragging this club into the modern footballing era" is it of concern that the man charged with building a Villa ethos has been stated today to be an admirer of Bruce? A negative sign for what we're trying to build?

Let's be honest, we have done little in the way of re-building so far. We have signed good championship players, a few with only a couple of seasons left in them for large sums. Our whole approach has been that of the "quick fix". Bruce won't be the only thing that's not for the long term.

Sandie wrote:I'm not sure the players we have now are in too much of a comfort zone. Under RDM they have just been badly managed. Odd substitutions, ill-conceived tactical plans and the persistent selection of Ashley Westwood were Di Matteo's undoing. There are far fewer rotten eggs in the camp this season than last and the way we have wilted late on in games is indicative of anything other than comfort. They need someone to give them confidence which Di Matteo, who was frankly as much use here as a cardboard cutout, could not do. I've also always imagined Steve Bruce to be an angry man when things go against him and people let him down.

As for "dragging this club into the modern footballing era" is it of concern that the man charged with building a Villa ethos has been stated today to be an admirer of Bruce?  A negative sign for what we're trying to build?

Let's be honest, we have done little in the way of re-building so far. We have signed good championship players, a few with only a couple of seasons left in them for large sums. Our whole approach has been that of the "quick fix". Bruce won't be the only thing that's not for the long term.

Our players have definitely retreated into a comfort zone over the last few matches (in my opinion). They have stopped giving 100% to win matches, and have settled for 75% in order to keep it tighter over 90 minutes. I know that RDM has to take responsibility for this, but part of the spotlight must fall on the players. Grealish, McCormack, Jedinak, Gardner and even Tshibola plus one or two others are clearly tiring after 65 / 70 minutes of the game. Players are going missing, and stop running off the ball. I was hoping that we would bring in a manager who would have the whole team as fit and lean as butcher's dogs. I wanted to see a manager who pressed a really high line so that our expensive strikers can pick up loose ball and stick it in the back of the net. In short I want a manager who's prepared to pick a team up and throw it at the opposition for every second of every match.

We have to concentrate totally on winning matches .... Not on not losing them.

For most of them (McCormack, Gardner and Tshibola) I think it's as much to do with a lack of fitness following injuries. Two of those guys seem quite prone to injuries, too. Grealish has no excuse but we've also seen last season how he wilts when he has a manager who stands up to him. Even this season he has been a passenger since his suspension. Bluntly, he's a player I wouldn't have in my starting XI.

No new news today. I reckon we will appoint Steve Bruce in the next couple of days. This 'new manager' search is looking so predictable it's bordering on a farce. Have they actually interviewed any of the 25 apart from a twenty minute conversation with Steve Bruce? Either Bruce or Clarke could have been appointed a week ago with minimal fuss and without trying to con the fans that there was a meaningful process taking place.

I hope I'm wrong and they surprise us, but it's looking like the kind of usual Villa performance that could have easily been improved on by a couple of ordinary fans.