McLeish is taking the club nowhere fast, why not get in a young ambitious manager instead?
The toughest thing about a mistake is admitting making it.
American owner Randy Lerner still seemingly has not realised his appointment of Alex McLeish is proving as unsuccessful as it was unpopular.
While many Aston Villa fans are quite happy to get behind the Scotsman for the good of the club, many have voted with their feet, refusing to renew season tickets, with others have beginning small-scale protests.
With Villa sitting without a home win since the Autumn, and heading for a dismal finish in the lower half of the table, the protests are only likely to get more vociferous.
Not only are results poor, but the side are playing a typically McLeish dour brand of football, and you have to ask how much longer will the club’s prized assets like Darren Bent be willing to stick around.
Bent will be looking up at the table at a resurgent Sunderland wondering if he made the wrong decision in quitting the Black Cats.
Randy Lerner needs to get a grip on the situation fast.
Seven points above the relegation zone Villa shouldn’t have any problems with avoiding the drop, but wasn’t that said after McLeish’s Birmingham City won last year’s Carling Cup final 12 months ago.
Now is the time to act, with one of the brightest young English managers in football available in Lee Clark.
Clark was surprisingly dismissed by Huddersfield despite an extremely bright start to his coaching career, only missing out on promotion to the Championship in the play-offs last year and currently lie fourth in League One.
He is a young coach who experienced playing in the Premier League with Newcastle, and he will be snapped up very soon by somebody, so Villa should attempt to get him on board before they miss the opportunity.
Clark would put Villa in pole position to secure much-wanted Huddersfield striker Jordan Rhodes who has scored 29 goals in 28 games this season and was linked with Liverpool and Tottenham in January.
Rhodes could strike up a lethal partnership with Bent and get the Villa fans excited again.
If Lerner fails to act, Villa will simply meander through the season, at worst getting relegated.
Obviously if Clark was brought in now he would not be able to make signings but his arrival would give the squad a much-needed lift and allow him time to adjust to the players and surroundings ahead of pre-season and next year.
He is ambitious, he would love a chance to manage at the top level, and has a point to prove, feeling that his sacking from Huddersfield was unfair.
Sadly for fans who may agree, we are not expecting it to happen, we don’t think Randy Lerner is ready to admit his big mistake just yet.
Villa fans, would you like to see Clark in for McLeish?
image: © ell brown
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