Kevin MacDonald the next Manager???

[Concrete John]

You don't give it him because of one game, you give it him on the same criteria of the other managers in the frame, which is who would be best for Aston Villa.  The only thing is he's just given quite a convincing audition for the job, which the other candidates have not!

[JUAN PABLO]

Kevin MacDonald is the new favourite in the Next Aston Villa Manager Betting Odds following his side’s impressive 3-0 win over West Ham on Saturday. It seems that performance could be enough to give the caretaker the job on a permanent basis, or at least more time to prove himself in the role.


Kevin MacDonald Lets The Results Do The Talking
What made Saturday’s win all the more impressive was the fact that MacDonald was able to integrate a number of promising youngsters into his side and that will surely have caught the attention of spend shy chairman Randy Lerner. MacDonald is now the most likely Next Aston Villa Manager and he can be backed at 7/4 currently with VC Bet, Ladbrokes and Blue Square. In what looks a three horse race he is beginning to look a very strong bet.

[stevenjos]

Lets hope he's not new manager if he's willing to treat europe like MON did!

[DANNYG]

Im not getting carried away but quite a few players have allready said hes more of a man manager than  O'Neill which is a really good trait to have ...the players trust him and you know deep down he would love the job but as many people have correcly pointed out has he got the required skill set to bring in players or even sell the club as well as other managers....I quite wanted to see a foreign manager for a change to see if we could maybe bring in a few rough diamonds from abroad but the squad seems quite happy and maybe Stephen Ireland is the last signing anyway........all will be revealed no doubt but good luck to KMAC and everyone is behind him which is great to see, he lifted the club last week with his brave tactical decisions and has given most of us a bit more hope !

[Toronto Villa]

Lets hope he's not new manager if he's willing to treat europe like MON did!

so you already don't trust him? Great. I suppose he should give each of us a call regarding team selections in the future. I mean, what if he's confident in the players? I hope our lads don't wave the white flag tonight like some fans are.

[Chris Smith]

If Jol has ruled himself out (I haven't seen it myself) then I think it's going to be MacDonald almost by default because there don't seem to be any credible alternatives at the moment. I'm discounting some of the more fanciful names because they are not going to come here to help us reduce spending.

[Chris Smith]

Im not getting carried away but quite a few players have allready said hes more of a man manager than  O'Neill which is a really good trait to have ...the players trust him and you know deep down he would love the job but as many people have correcly pointed out has he got the required skill set to bring in players or even sell the club as well as other managers....I quite wanted to see a foreign manager for a change to see if we could maybe bring in a few rough diamonds from abroad but the squad seems quite happy and maybe Stephen Ireland is the last signing anyway........all will be revealed no doubt but good luck to KMAC and everyone is behind him which is great to see, he lifted the club last week with his brave tactical decisions and has given most of us a bit more hope !

Of course the players are going to praise him, they want to get picked. If we bring in another manager they'll soon be saying how excited they are by his appointment. That's not to say MacDonald isn't a good candidate but rather that you cannot take soundbites from players too seriously .

[jonzy85]

I would agree that all of the 'candidates' dont exactly enthuse me but, and i hope im wrong, I just see K-Mac's appointment ending in tears.

[ozzjim]

I still think we could tempt a Pellegrini type.

Thing is, if we play like we did on Sat on a regular basis at home and finish 6th ish doing so, then let Kevin Mac have the job. Let him bring a couple of his own men in before the window shuts (Flamini preferably!) and get on with the season ahead.

[D.boy]

Sad to say but all players (bar the odd one) are mercenaries and will suck up to whoever is in charge.

[Concrete John]

I don't buy into this theory that K-Mac getting the job and failing would put us back 2 or 3 years.  What I'd be thinking is:-

Spending is being cut and we're going to try and get the wagebill down.  That means working with what we have and he's the best placed man to do that.  So give him a year's contract.  If he does well then give him a longer deal and lend him spend next summer (when the wages will be down and the incoming fees still available) and if not then get a new manager with the enticement of a decent kitty to spend.  Worst case scenario is it goes wrong to the point where we have to sack him and get a new man in, which would be no different to where we are now.

To me it's a no lose scenario!

[Risso]

I like Kevin, and think he'd do as good a job as anybody we could realistically appoint at this late stage.

Is it just me though who thinks he looks like a rabbit caught in the headlights when interviewed?  It strikes me that he'd be perfectly happy coaching the first team, but all the other associated managerial requirements like dealing with transfers, and giving TV interviews etc, I'm not so sure.

[Concrete John]

So get a media friendly assistant and let them do that!

[Mazrim]

I think he's ice cool and that comes across in interviews. Also, because he's not wary of the media yet as he might become, he's refreshingly candid.

[Monty]

He just doesn't seem to have the necessary insanity to be a manager. If he's wondering whether or not he should do it, these days that really means you shouldn't do it. You need to be mad, you need to be driven, you need to be able to say "f**k you media, I don't care if you're intrusive or whatever, I just want to manage". The comments about his family were particularly illuminating, as were his constant assertions that he "just likes training with the players", because those comments indicate that he likes the quieter, behind-the-scenes role, and to be the permanent manager at a big club like the Villa these days you've just got to want it more than this or you won't survive. If he gets on a bad run of results I'm not sure he'd know how to respond.