Aston Villa board will talk to Alex McLeish - insisting he is a free agentVILLA’S board WILL talk to former Blues boss Alex McLeish as the managerial Battle of Brum intensifies.
Randy Lerner and Paul Faulkner will press ahead with plans to discuss the Villa Park vacancy with McLeish despite angry resistance from their bitter rivals.
Villa believe McLeish is now a free agent after his shock resignation from St Andrew’s on Sunday afternoon and have emailed Blues to explain they are within their rights to contact the Scot.
Despite Big Eck’s Birmingham baggage, the claret and blues’ top brass believe he is a good fit for the job and are keen to interview him as soon as possible.
Lerner and Faulkner are patently aware of the fall-out any such move would cause on both sides of the Second City divide.
Large sections of disgruntled Villa and Blues fans have besieged internet messageboards opposing McLeish’s potential appointment at his former club’s fierce foes.
But Villa have earmarked McLeish as the prime candidate to replace Gerard Houllier and believe his credentials and suitability outweigh the prospect of major supporter discontent.
Villa are not believed to have been put off by Birmingham acting chairman Peter Pannu’s statements about compensation amid suggestions that McLeish is claiming constructive dismissal.
If that is the case it is thought Villa could talk to, appoint and unveil the 52-year-old former Rangers and Scotland boss without Blues’ legal wranglings disrupting the process.
It would then be a matter of McLeish continuing his constructive dismissal claim against Birmingham from his new position as Villa manager.
Although, a manager taking on another job so soon after leaving his previous role would effectively waive his right to personal compensation at any subsequent arbitration hearing.
Meanwhile, ex-Villa and Blues striker Dwight Yorke believes McLeish can win over the claret and blue dissenters – as long as he restores the club to the higher reaches of the Barclays Premier League.
Former Holte End hero Yorke is speaking from experience having indirectly crossed the Second City divide.
Following his glittering Villa Park spell from 1989-98 he went via Manchester United and Blackburn before flattering to deceive during a short stint at St Andrew’s in 2004-05.
Yorke acknowledges he struggled to get the Blues supporters onside, but the retired frontman reckons McLeish has the strength of character to cast aside the criticism that would surely come his way if he took the Villa hotseat.
“Villa have huffed and puffed a few times over the last few years, but they haven’t really got up there and been successful,” he said.
“They need to get back on track and if McLeish can do that sooner rather than later then Villa fans will learn to live with the fact that he’s come across from Birmingham.
“It’s like anything else, if they support the club, then they will want whoever is in charge to do well and if it is McLeish then I hope they give him a chance.”
Yorke understands the appeal of managing Villa over bossing Blues because of the claret and blues continued status as the Second City’s premier club.
“It’s a rivalry which is no different to Manchester Untied and Manchester City or Celtic and Rangers, that’s the kind of rivalry between Birmingham and Aston Villa,” he added.
“The two teams have been going at it and the team with the most status, Aston Villa, have been the dominant force in the city for a long time.
“Alex McLeish is an ambitious man and he will know that the Aston Villa job is a bigger job than the Birmingham one.”
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