Aston Villa have not ruled out the possibility of naming a new manager before Sunday’s FA Cup fifth-round tie at home against Leicester City but the Midlands club would prefer that Paul Lambert’s replacement is a long-term appointment rather than a stop-gap until the end of the season.
Tom Fox, Villa’s chief executive, is tasked with leading that search for a new manager, assisted by Paddy Reilly, the club’s director of recruitment. There is an acceptance within the club that it is a tough managerial landscape and that, with only 13 league games remaining, Villa stuck in the bottom three and the transfer window closed, the timing is difficult.
Villa, however, are doing all they can to make a swift decision and have drawn up a shortlist of names with an open mind about how quickly the process can be completed and whether they can appoint someone capable of keeping the team up this season as well as buying into a longer-term strategy. The fall-back option – and it appears the more likely outcome at the moment – is to bring in a firefighter with a remit that does not extend beyond keeping Villa up.
For now Tim Sherwood remains the frontrunner, although Chris Ramsey’s decision to take the Queens Park Rangers job until the end of the season means the former Tottenham Hotspur manager would need to find a new No2. Ramsey was also seen as the coach in that partnership. There is no substance to speculation that Sam Allardyce, the West Ham United manager, is under consideration.
Villa want to bring in a manager who is keen to bring through younger players, prepared to work closely with Reilly – who returned to the club from Liverpool in November – and someone who is comfortable operating in a structure that will also see a director of football operations appointed.
Fox, meanwhile, appears to have upset Lambert after sacking him over the telephone – the Scot released a statement via the League Managers’ Association in which he pointedly made no mention of the chief executive. However, it is understood that Lambert did not get on the team bus and return to the Midlands with the Villa players after the 2-0 defeat at Hull City on Tuesday night.
With the Villa squad not due to train until Friday morning and Lambert not around on Wednesday – it is unclear whether he returned to Scotland – Fox was unable to break the news to the manager face to face.
