By Dave Woodhall.
Life at Villa Park is never easy, and often highly confusing.
At the start of the week it seemed that events were taking a smooth course for a change, with Gerard Houllier stepping down and, presumably, a succession plan already in operation. Then the story broke somewhat prematurely on Tuesday morning, with Villa – naturally – denying the departure and after a further day of speculation came a press statement late on Wednesday evening that the manager was indeed leaving. Houllier’s subsequent comments, though, when he spoke of his “disappointment” at not being able to carry on, stretched the term ‘mutual consent’ to its limits.
Mark Hughes was installed as favourite for the job, but all hopes of a smooth takeover were shattered on Thursday, a day when bookmakers must have thought of taking up a less stressful occupation. Sky’s Italian channel claimed Carlos Ancelotti had accepted the job, causing the odds on his appointment to tumble, as low as 3/1 in some cases. Hughes then resigned as manager of Fulham, which then caused his odds to then plummet until he was an unbackable 1/10. He says he’s not taking the Villa job, Villa say they haven’t approached him and he goes back out in the betting, with Ancelotti being tipped once more.
Hughes is still the bookies’ favourite and although both he and Villa have denied any contact, getting out of that apparent contradiction would be a simple matter of “Once we knew he was available…” There’s a way around everything in football, provided you’re publically seen to be abiding by the rules and stick to the regular script. There’s especially a way around the clause in Hughes’ departure from Fulham banning him from being approached by another club until the end of June, and I’m sure everyone knows what that particular get-out is.
As we approach the weekend there’s still no rumours of an appointment being imminent, although Five Live’s Pat Murphy has claimed Steve McLaren is now strongly fancied – a move that would be guaranteed to go down badly with Villa supporters. McLaren may still prove a good manager one day, but he retains too much baggage from his disastrous reign as boss of the national side to make his appointment at the moment anything but a huge gamble for any English club.
I’m no wiser than anyone else as to what’s happening. Indications from the start have been that the situation will become clearer by the middle of next week, and while that’s still on the cards there has been no credible information as to who the next incumbent might be. But I can’t get round the fact that Villa showed admirable loyalty to Houllier during the season, backing him in the transfer market when he was tipped for the sack, only to ensure his departure once the season had ended. Such an apparent contradiction leads me to conclude that they must have something out of the ordinary in mind. At least, I hope so.