Former Aston Villa striker Andy Gray has urged the club to take their time on identifying the manager to lead them back into the Premier League.
With Remi Garde sacked this week and the club’s relegation to the Championship all-but confirmed, Gray claims the Villa board face one of the biggest decisions in the club’s recent history.
Out-of-work Nigel Pearson and David Moyes plus Ipswich boss Mick McCarthy are believed to be the leading contenders for the Villa hotseat with Gray hoping the club opt for a manager with Championship knowledge.
Gray, who played for the Villa Park club from 1975-79, told Sport360: “What happened this week is what should have happened last week. Aston Villa should have bitten the bullet with Remi Garde and told him he has to go. Settle his financial payment and get on with it.
“They’ve wasted days messing about and not coming to an agreement with Remi.
“Now the club has one of its biggest decisions in their recent history in who they’re going to appoint next season for the Championship. They are a team that if they don’t get out at the first time of asking, then they might struggle to get out for a few years.
“Someone is going to go in there and perhaps not realise just how big a club Villa is but if they get it going the fans will go with get behind them and flood back, and everything will look much rosier around the place.
“I’m not worried if the right person is put in charge this week or next week, but it needs to be made before the season ends and needs to be the right one so I hope Villa take their time.
“I don’t know who the right one is but there’s certainly a right kind. I don’t know whether they want to go British but I hope they do, because I do believe in the Championship they will need a coach with knowledge of that particular league.
In quotes: Eric Black on what he’s looking for now in the closing weeks of the 2015/16 campaign. #AVFC pic.twitter.com/oX1BUE9Olh
— Aston Villa FC (@AVFCOfficial) April 1, 2016
“There are many managers without a job right now: Nigel Pearson, David Moyes, Brendan Rodgers, Garry Monk – four very good British managers that could step in at Villa.
“Would they go down to MK Dons to Karl Robinson and take a chance with a young manager like that but there are plenty out there with the right credentials,” the beIN Sports presenter added.
“I just think going foreign would be wrong. Admittedly, Aitor Karanka has done a wonderful job at Middlesbrough but he had decent knowledge of the Championship and there aren’t too many of them around.”
