Like most people this has come as a massive surprise, I went to the gym around 2 o’clock nothing on the TV screens then, I get home make some lunch have a look on twitter, and the place had gone crazy with MON resigned tweets…. didn’t see that one coming.
From recent Interviews you could tell he wasn’t 100% happy with the situation at Villa, but never expected him to quit, so many scenario’s come into my mind, is it the pending transfer of James Milner, surely not cause for £30m you can go buy a couple of players to replace him, I don’t think that would make him quit, maybe Lerner had told him he wasn’t getting all the Milner money to spend, maybe they factored a deal by bring a player from City that O’Neill just didn’t want, surely again not enough to make you leave a very successful job.
The other factor playing in my head is his wife, from the statements made by both the club and manager, it all sounds very amicable.
“I wish them all the best for the future. I will obviously be assisting the club in the immediate short-term with regard to the handover of my duties.”
This doesn’t seem like the words of a pissed off manager not able to stay at the club anymore, this sounds like someone that just can’t take charge of the team anymore, maybe his Wife has became ill again, it was the reason that he left Celtic all those years ago, I of course hope this is not the reason, but personal family reasons could be the cause of his departure.
It’s a sad day for both club and manager, and the fans are the ones that lose out ultimately, now the question is, who will take his place.
The bookies have Martin Jol as favourite at 5/2 if Fulham couldn’t get him to leave his Ajax role, I don’t see what Randy Lerner could do to persuade him, especially if money was the reason Martin left.
All the usual candidates are there, Curbishley, Eriksson, Bilic, Klinsmann, I doubt it would be any of them, however Klinsmann would not be a bad shout, with Jurgen’s connections in English football and over in the States, he could be interested in taking the Midlands job.
Next we’re given the option of picking managers who are already with clubs which I would be very surprised if they left a role after all the summer pre-season work, to start it all again, Steve McLaren, Allardyce, Lambert, Martinez, Holloway and Bruce will not be leaving their jobs at this stage of the season, to join a club about to lose their best player.
Aston Villa’s next manager will be someone not in a job right now, who can come straight in, no compensation needed, just a straight replacement, Gareth Southgate you say, maybe, but for Villa’s sake I hope not, is Glenn Hoddle a better or worse appointment than Southgate, I’ll leave that one up to you to decide.
A name that I thought of and I can see top of the bookies list is the man who took the USA to the Last 16 of the World Cup, Bob Bradley, they link is there surely Lerner an American with an American in charge, Bradley is a good coach, his son would also be a good replacement to Milner. With no English football experience it would be a bit of a gamble however the kind of gamble that could pay off, from what I saw at the World Cup Bradley looks a very good man manager, his team came from behind against England, Slovenia and Ghana, and played to the death against Algeria and progressed, playing some good football at time, he can also play 4-4-2 so will suit the Premier League fine.
Bradley would be my choice for the next Manager, we will have to wait and see how this one plays out.
