Aston Villa were linked with a move for Paulo Fonseca.
According to The Mirror, Shakhtar Donetsk manager Paulo Fonseca wasn’t interested in the Aston Villa job due to the role of John Terry.
Fonseca, 45, has starred since taking charge of Shakhtar in 2016, winning two league titles and two cups, whilst taking his side to the Champions League knockout stages last season after beating Manchester City.
The Portuguese boss has side in the Champions League again this season, but he was intriguingly linked with a move to Championship side Aston Villa earlier this month.
Amid claims that Fonseca is represented by Jorge Mendes, the agent who has strong ties to Aston Villa, the Birmingham Mail reported that Fonseca had become a target for Villa.
Now, The Mirror claim that Fonseca wasn’t keen on the job because John Terry would have been placed in as assistant manager no matter what, and he wasn’t interested in having to essentially groom his assistant for his own job.
The Telegraph somewhat contradict that though, as they report that new Villa boss Dean Smith was told that bringing in Terry was not a deal-breaker, though he did accept bringing Terry in.
It’s of course possible that both stories are true; Fonseca could have been very put off by having his assistant decided for him, and when he, Thierry Henry and Rui Faria allegedly backed away over the same issue, Villa may have tweaked their idea.
Once they got into talks with Smith, Villa may have taken a softer approach by suggesting that appointing Terry wasn’t set in stone, in an attempt to get a manager in – and having landed a Villa-supporting boss in Smith and got Terry in as his assistant, it appears to have all worked out well for Villa.
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