Manager for next season

[Tuscans]

Sounds about a done deal....

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/7186676/Roberto-Di-Matteo-is-the-new-Aston-Villa-manager-on-a-35000-a-week-contract.html?CMP=spklr-_-Editorial-_-TWITTER-_-TheSunFootball-_-20160531-_-Football-_-480380804-_-Imageandlink

[dave.woodhall]

Can we please not link to the Sun? Thank you.

[ozzjim]

That is the inly site that has ever crashed my phone.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

My guess is a press conference has been called for Thursday.

[PeterWithesShin]

The Scum

ROBERTO DI MATTEO is the new manager of Aston Villa and expects to be behind his desk within 48 hours.

SunSport can reveal the 45-year-old Italian has been notified the job of returning Villa to past glories is his, following a positive meeting with Villa chairman Steve Hollis last Thursday.

Hollis was "bowled over" by Di Matteo after meeting the former Chelsea and Italy midfielder for the first time and moved swiftly over the weekend to finalise the finer details of Di Matteo’s £35,000-a week contract.

Those negotiations are expected to conclude within 48 hours after Di Matteo’s blueprint for the future delighted Villa’s new owner in waiting Tony Xia.

He personally pushed for the Italian after being impressed by his pedigree, which peaked when Di Matteo led Chelsea to Champions League glory four years ago.

Aston Villa’s board, led by Hollis, had originally singled out Nigel Pearson for the job – while David Moyes was also spoken to, after Villa whittled down an initial list of more than 50 candidates.

But once he had met Di Matteo and heard his far-reaching plans Hollis was convinced Villa had their man – and significantly, Pearson accepted the Derby County job the following day.

Di Matteo is so keen to get started, Xia has given the move his blessing BEFORE he has officially been passed as a ‘fit and proper director/owner’ by the Premier League and Football League.

The Chinese multi-millionaire is currently awaiting the green light to assume control from Randy Lerner officially after agreeing a £76million takeover deal, rising to more than £100m to buy out the Midlands giants.

In a perfect world Xia would have been in charge when Di Matteo’s appointment was officially announced but the new man stressed his desire to start moving on new signing targets - and sorting out a structured and detailed pre-season straight away.

The former MK Dons, West Brom, Chelsea and Schalke manager intends to hit the ground running in the next 48 hours and sources close to the former Di Matteo say he can’t wait to get started and expects to be "behind his desk at Bodymoor Heath before the weekend."

[Villa in Denmark]

Calm down, Leicester_Villian, it's hardly a shambles. I won't start panicking until the 1st of June.

Are you taking 2016 or 2017 .........

No manager ...... no pre season .......... no date to return to training ........... no new kit ........... no board .............

Isn't life great being a Villa fan 

No Manager -  Is obviously waiting on the formal confirmation of the takeover.
No Pre season - last season we started on 6th July, 4½ weeks before the opening day false dawn at Bournemouth on 8th August.
This season starts on August 6th, so 4th July won't be too far off.  In terms of an actual friendlies programme, presumably we'd prefer that the manager actually has some say in it? 
Will it really be the end of the world if there's not a trip to Portugal or Germany as part of the programme? Do you really believe that no provisional fixtures have been set up?
How many other clubs, other than Man Utd and Chelsea milking the US and Asian markets with a 2 week tour have announced anything yet? (I'm guessing at Man Utd and Chelsea because it's what they usually do and I can't be arsed to look, feel free to look yourself)
No new kit.  That will have been put to bed ages ago. I'd imagine that any announcement might be postponed to get maximum exposure for whoever (allegedly Under Armour) by tying it in around the formal completion of the takeover / appointment of the new manager.

No Board? See comments about takeover on takeover thread.  Ther can be no formal announcement until 2nd June and when we officially fall under Football League jurisidiction.

[ozzjim]

If he's in now then at least we have a manager who knows how to get up at first ask. 

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Collymore calling it too.

[damon loves JT]

Collymore calling it too.

He always 'calls' things once he's read them in The Sun.

[Jimbo]

I'll gladly take RDM. Now hopefully he can set about clearing the poison out of the squad.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Collymore calling it too.

He always 'calls' things once he's read them in The Sun.

Ha! Well it's not like he can turn to the Birmingham Mail, it seems it's not just H&V that are blanking them. Somebody at the club has obviously seen their true value.

[saunders_heroes]

Collymore calling it too.

He always 'calls' things once he's read them in The Sun.

He just congratulated him on getting the job that's all.

[saunders_heroes]

I'll gladly take RDM. Now hopefully he can set about clearing the poison out of the squad.

Yep. There's a hell of a lot of work to be done.

[four fornicholl]

I'll gladly take RDM. Now hopefully he can set about clearing the poison out of the squad.

Yep. There's a hell of a lot of work to be done.

Confidence and belief is all 70% of our players need, that was Pearsons legacy to Leicester.

[The_ads]

Not my first choice (or even 2nd, 3rd or 4th ad infinitum) but you have my unwavering support Roberto. I just hope you show the bollocks the others haven't. UTV