KEVIN MacDONALD remains the frontrunner to become the new Aston Villa manager, despite Sunday’s humiliating defeat at Newcastle United, and will be given the two matches this week, against Rapid Vienna and Everton, to prove he is capable of doing the job on a permanent basis.
Although Villa were thrashed 6-0 at St James’ Park, Randy Lerner, the chairman, and Paul Faulkner, the chief executive, have treated the scoreline as a freak result.
MacDonald impressed in his previous two games as caretaker manager, against West Ham United and Rapid Vienna, and Lerner and Faulkner believe it would be unfair to disregard those two performances and judge the 50-year-old purely on the basis of a woeful afternoon at Newcastle.
MacDonald will have the chance to turn things around against Rapid Vienna in the second leg of the Europa League play-off tie at Villa Park tomorrow, and against Everton in the Premier League on Sunday, in what effectively amounts to a two-game trial.
Two positive results and MacDonald, who stepped up from his duties as reserve-team manager when Martin O’Neill resigned five days before the start of the season, will almost certainly be offered the position.
Although Lerner and Faulkner have faith in MacDonald and admire his work behind the scenes at Villa over the last 15 years – he has played a key role in developing the youngsters that have broken into the first-team during that period and is regarded as an excellent coach – their willingness to give him the chance to prove himself as a manager is also a measure of the club’s lack of options.
There has been no shortage of interest in the Villa post but the two managers who would have been strongly considered, Mark Hughes and Martin Jol, are already in work, at Fulham and Ajax respectively, and regarded as out of reach.
One school of thought is that Villa might try to lure Jol if Ajax lose their Champions League play-off tie against Dynamo Kiev tonight – they drew 1-1 in Ukraine in the first leg – but there is no indication that such a plan is in place at the moment.
MacDonald has yet to confirm whether he would be interested in succeeding O’Neill – he has hitherto expressed concerns about how the job would impact on his family life – although Villa are reasonably confident he would not turn the opportunity down.
Lerner and Faulkner will, however, have a problem if results go against MacDonald, especially as the plan is to have a permanent manager in place by the end of next week, when there is an international break.
Guardian Service
