Remi Garde is clinging to the Aston Villa managerial position right now. Despite many reports saying he would be gone at the beginning of this week, we have gotten to Thursday with still no word on what is going on. It seems inevitable that an agreement between Villa and Garde will be reached sooner rather than later to terminate his contract and during the past week speculation has only intensified as to who the next man in the Villa Park hotseat will be.
The front runner appeared to be Nigel Pearson. As short as 1/4 with the bookies at the start of the week, the ex-Leicester manager bizarrely appeared to have a large section of the Villa faithful behind his seemingly impending appointment.
Incredibly, Steve Bruce somehow made his way into second favourite position with the camel coats, however thankfully, seemingly had zero popularity with the fans.
I understand the idea behind Pearson and Bruce; people are looking at managers who have taken teams up from the tough Championship division. However, this surely cannot be the only pre-requisite for managing such an illustrious club as Aston Villa.
Bruce has limited success in a managerial career now in its 18th year. Finishing as runner up in the Championship with both Birmingham City and Hull City, and also gaining promotion again with Blues via the playoffs is about it. You can throw in an F.A Cup runner up medal if you like, but Tim Sherwood had one of those also. Bad football and mediocrity is the norm and several relegation's are part of his CV also. Surely best avoided and completely uninspiring.
Pearson is the one which really troubles me however. Despite having promising signs as a manager, gaining both League One and Championship promotions with Leicester City, and guiding them to a great escape from relegation last season, the fact remains that this wouldn't necessarily translate over to Aston Villa. There seems to be a train of thought which everyone appears to be boarding, and that is that we should bring him in to save us as he did Leicester. If this applies to you, please realise that Leicester's escape was a freak occurrence in football. Pearson would not replicate this in our situation and also we are far worse off than Leicester ever were - despite similar positions, they were never as cut adrift and the table was much more congested and gains out of the bottom three could be made more easily. As for leading us back with immediate promotion, yes, he is a candidate based on this. However, there are far more pressing concerns which cannot be overlooked with this man. Namely, he is a lunatic. And there are examples aplenty to back it up
How about getting into a confrontation with a supporter and telling them to 'fuck off and die' and then refusing to apologise for it later on?
Or maybe the touchline incident with James McArthur after an accidental collision, in which he pinned the player down and then refused to let go of his shirt as McArthur tried to return to the playing field. When asked about it, a grinning Pearson simply exclaimed 'I can look after myself, don't you worry about that'.
Several prickly press conferences provide an insight into the nature of the man; labelling one reporter a 'prick' for asking a perfectly reasonable question about Leicester's position in the table. And to top it all off, the infamous 'Ostrich' press conference it which Pearson unmercifully berated a younger reporter.
This is not a man in control of his emotions. Can you imagine if he came under the pressure that Villa supporters have (rightly) been putting on the club this season. He would likely explode.
The very good news is that Pearson is no longer favourite. Step forward David Moyes.
When Sherwood was dismissed, I was not keen on Moyes. His reputation at Everton was solid yet relatively unspectacular and many Toffees had wanted him out for two or three years. A failing at Manchester United can be somewhat mitigated and it was an unenviable task on his hand to take over from the successful Ferguson era and the transition would've seen any manager in the world struggle at that time with the players at his disposal especially. Yet further failings at Real Sociedad, which eventually culminated in his sacking have seen his stock fall from it's once fairly lofty heights.
However, he is by far our best option at this point. Despite a lack of managerial honours, he has worked in the lower leagues successfully, albeit a long time ago now, with Preston North End. But he has achieved enough with his continuous galvinisation of Everton over many years, and the fact that he was even in a position to land the United job, to command a certain amount of respect that I don't believe other candidates have, or even Remi Garde has mustered. He is steely enough to not be overrun by our mutinous dressing room and he represents less of a gamble than other options available to us.
The rumours are that he would be prepared to drop down into the Championship with us. If this is true, it gives us some credibility and optimism back also - we are still a big draw. If the decision to sack Garde is already made, we should bite Moyes' hand off to get him in as soon as possible. Celtic are reportedly also sniffing around and we can't afford anyone else to turn his head at this moment in time.
It may just end up being a perfect match; a once lauded manager and a once great club, both damaged and in need of each other to get back to where they want to be.
Hopefully the incisive action shown by chairman Steve Hollis so far continues and Moyes is appointed without any further delays.
