Who Should be Aston Villa Manager ? Now with new, revised poll

[Holte L2]

Doesn't Hughes also live in Manchester still?

If he does, Il kidnapp him tomorrow and drop him off at Villa Park on my way to Wembley on Saturday.

[ozzjim]

I love that you have gone for a proper brummie phonetic spelling of Rijkaard. Roykyeard. Brilliant.

[Phil from the upper holte]

Put that in you pipe !

And as for the o - its only coz I'm in bed and the O and I are next to each other.

I am sorry, I obviously didn't know Stephen Hawkins was monitoring my grammatical content.

Stephen Hawking wouldn't monitor your spelling that's not his field

[Marlon From Bearwood]

I wonder if after all this we may end up with 1 of the 5 Dutchmen available...

Martin Jol
Louis Van Gaal
Frank Rijkaard
Marco Van Basten
Schteve McLaren

[Michel Sibble]

Steve O'Mac's first press conference:

"Yeah, when the chairman rang me up, loike, I couldn't say no, could I? Great club, and it's noice seeing Stewie again.

Bostin'. Now for that cuppa Bovril..."

[Arsey]

Hughes odds going back up, given his resignation that seems very odd.  He is now only odds on with one of the bookies.

Carlo's odds keep falling, now second favourite at 5/2

He was 25-1 last night!

[damon loves JT]

'Roykyeard' is closer to Roy Kinnear than Rijkaard

[pauliewalnuts]

Hughes odds going back up, given his resignation that seems very odd.  He is now only odds on with one of the bookies.

Carlo's odds keep falling, now second favourite at 5/2

He was 25-1 last night!

The prices are just following the money, and the bookies are minimising their exposure. They don't have any great insight into what's going on.

Lots of people see Hughes has left Fulham = money piling on him, his price tumbles.

Word leaks Villa aren't interested = people look elsewhere, see that Ancelotti story from earlier, money goes on him.

A market like this will not take very much money, so relatively small amounts can affect the price quite markedly.

[ozzjim]

I love this place when something is going on. People are panicking -  me last night at the thought of Sparky for the next 4 years, getting over excited - holtepaul, getting depressed - greg all the time, being sensible - usually Chris Smith - but overall it is just great to have so many opinions coming so quickly on a subject we have no control over.

[adrenachrome]

Grauniad

 

Mark Hughes leaves Fulham but Aston Villa do not want him as manager

• Hughes activates break clause to leave Craven Cottage
• Aston Villa unimpressed by course of events

    Stuart James, Jamie Jackson and David Hytner
    guardian.co.uk, Thursday 2 June 2011 23.00 BST


Mark Hughes will not be the new Aston Villa manager, despite walking out on Fulham on Thursday night. The Welshman had been the favourite to succeed Gérard Houllier but Villa, unimpressed with the course of events that culminated in Hughes activating a break clause in his contract and leaving Fulham, have turned their attention elsewhere. Hughes has been left without a club and Martin Jol and Steve McClaren are at the top of Villa's short list.

In a further twist Jol and McClaren, who are out of work and eager to return to employment in the Premier League, will also be leading candidates to take over at Craven Cottage, where Hughes had been expected to sign an improved two-year contract. Martin O'Neill, a former Villa manager, will be another major contender for that post.

Mohamed Al Fayed, the Fulham chairman, was furious after Hughes activated the break clause and tendered his resignation. A Fulham spokesperson said: "The chairman became increasingly annoyed by Mark positioning himself for another club, whilst still negotiating with us, and having agreed terms."

Fayed was, however, ready to extend Hughes's deal. One view from sources at the club is that contract talks with Hughes fell apart when Fulham felt unable to match the fees demanded by his representative, Kia Joorabchian.

Villa's reluctance to move for Hughes comes as something of a surprise. He has been the frontrunner for the Villa post since it emerged this week that Houllier would be stepping down on health grounds. Villa, however, told Fulham that they would not be making an approach for Hughes in the hours before his decision to leave.

The Midlands club have since made it clear that their stance has not changed after Hughes's departure from Fulham. It is understood they would have grave reservations about appointing the former Blackburn Rovers and Manchester City manager because of how his departure from Fulham has been handled.

Hughes, who is on holiday in Dubai, said in a statement: "I would like to take this opportunity to clarify that neither myself nor my representative have approached or have been approached by another club. This decision to leave Fulham has not been influenced by any outside party."

When Villa parted company with Houllier on Wednesday evening, Fulham believed that Hughes would stay loyal to them, as Fayed had done with him on Boxing Day, when the Craven Cottage crowd had called for Hughes's sacking after a 3-1 home defeat by West Ham United that dropped the club into the relegation zone. Hughes's new contract had even gone to the lawyers, with the terms and conditions agreed, in readiness for his signature.

Yet in the hours that followed Villa's announcement of Houllier's departure, Hughes went cold on Fulham – and nobody at the London club considered the two events to be unrelated. What Fulham could not understand, however, was that Paul Faulkner, the Villa chief executive, had made it clear to Alistair Mackintosh, his counterpart at Craven Cottage, with whom he gets on well, that Villa did not want Hughes. The Welshman, who describes himself as an ambitious young manager, may have taken a leap of faith as there was a deadline of midnight on Wednesday on the activation of his break clause. The clause permits him to walk away from the club as a free agent at the end of June. Premier League rules prevent him or his representative from contacting or being contacted by other clubs until after that.

His back-room entourage, which includes Mark Bowen, Eddie Niedzwiecki, Glyn Hodges and Kevin Hitchcock, remain under contract at Fulham for another year, with no break clauses in their deals.

Fulham accepted Hughes's resignation and their impression was that he thought he would get the Villa job, despite the assurances they had received from Faulkner that he would not. Fayed is clear that there is no way back for Hughes at the club. "Roy Hodgson appreciated the club after he had left and [Fayed] believes Mark will do the same," a spokesperson said.

Villa say they have an open mind about filling their vacancy. Speculation that Carlo Ancelotti is among their leading candidates is wide of the mark, however. The former Chelsea manager has not received any contact from Villa and he is known to have no interest in the position. Ancelotti, according to sources close to the Italian, is holding out for a club that can offer Champions League football. Roberto Martínez, the Wigan Athletic manager, has, however, emerged as an outsider for the Villa post.

O'Neill, who has been out of work since leaving Villa last August, is the bookmakers' favourite for the Fulham jobAs well as Jol and McClaren, other names likely to feature on Fulham's shortlist may include Gianfranco Zola, the former West Ham manager, and Chris Hughton, who led Newcastle United back to the Premier League at the first attempt before being sacked in December. Jol had been Fulham's No1 target last summer, ahead of Hughes, and he had wanted to come. He was blocked by his then club, Ajax.

[1780liam]

My Friend works at the Belfry, and he just told me, Rafa was there yesterday....I do hope that was the only reason he was in Brum

[Dave Cooper please]

27 people out of 220 says it all !

People are voting on the options that are there, we all know that Ancellotti is the manager most of us would love to see at Villa Park, but he might not want to be our manager. The very fact that he's a bloody good manager means he gets to pick who he wants to manage from a pretty good field of clubs. Now I'm an optimist and I think he'd come given the right terms, but it's not a given is it?

So, we remove Carlo from the poll, and Moyes because it looks like he's happy at Everton for the moment, and we start the poll again (remember no Ancellotti, no Moyes) reckon Hughes would still be on 12%?

[olaftab]

Steve O'Mac's first press conference:

"Yeasch, when the chairman rang me up, loike, I couldn't shay no, could I? Great club, and it's noice sheeing Shtewie again.

Boshtin'. Now for that cuppa Bovril..."

[pauliewalnuts]

Wow. Where to start with that?

- we never wanted Hughes, and told them that
- Ancelotti not even near the top of the list and isn't interested anyway
- Steve McFuckingClaren a major contender

Christ almighty.

[Michel Sibble]

My Friend works at the Belfry, and he just told me, Rafa was there yesterday....I do hope that was the only reason he was in Brum

I own a rat in The Barton Arms, he told me he saw a Heineken beer bottle next to some scraps of food.
Must be Martin Jol.