Former Borussia Dortmund manager Peter Bosz admits he spoke to Wolves and Aston Villa before the Premier League duo hired Julen Lopetegui and Unai Emery instead, speaking to ESPN.
It’s testament to the pulling power of English football that Lopetegui and Emery – two coaches with Europa League winners’ medals adorning their personal trophy collection – could be convinced to sign on the dotted line at clubs staring down the barrel of a relegation battle.
Emery succeeded Steven Gerrard in November and has presided over an immediate turnaround at Aston Villa; beating Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur while opening up a ten-point gap on the bottom three.
Wolves, meanwhile, were circling the plughole before the appointment of a former Sevilla, Real Madrid, Porto and Spain boss; Lopetegui’s ever-improving and big-spending side claiming a confidence-boosting 1-0 victory over fellow underachievers West Ham on Saturday.
Suddenly, they and their Midland neighbours are looking up rather than down.
Aston Villa and Wolves held talks with former Ajax coach Peter Bosz
On current form, few at Villa Park or Molineux will feel that they are backing the wrong horse, having held talks with one-time Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen and Ajax coach Bosz before shaking hands with Emery and Lopetegui respectively.
“I spoke to Wolverhampton Wanderers and Aston Villa,” Bosz explains. “But those clubs chose a different manager.”
Bosz, by his own admission, prides himself upon playing ‘beautiful, attacking football’. There is a fine line between swashbuckling and reckless, however, and Bosz’s teams have a history of striding across it. Lyon finished eighth in Ligue 1 last season, scoring 66 goals but conceding 51. It was a similar story at Leverkusen and Dortmund; a suicidal high line and a tendency to crumble under pressure leading to Bosz’s inevitable departure at the Bundesliga giants.
Both Emery and Lopetegui, in contrast, prefer to build from the back, laying foundations upon the platform of a rock-solid backline. With survival on the line, perhaps Wolves and Villa felt that Bosz was a risk not worth taking.
Peter Bosz still without a job after Lyon exit
“I think the Premier League is something special in itself,” adds the 59-year-old Dutchman, still holding out for an offer from English football.
“Of course, you would prefer to go to a club that plays a little higher. But it is perhaps also logical that the clubs playing at the bottom change coaches,
“(There is) so much money (to spend in England). You could really build something up if you had the time, I think. You see that at clubs like Brighton, who suddenly play at the top.”
Bosz was linked with the Rangers job too before Mick Beale’s Ibrox return. A 2017 Europa League runner-up with Ajax, Bosz has since rejected a return to the Eredivisie with Utrecht and Groningen.
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