Former Aston Villa star Steve Sidwell has delivered his verdict on the situation at his old club following Steve Bruce’s sacking.
Aston Villa sacked manager Bruce after winning only one of their past nine Championship matches.
Villa are 12th in the table and drew 3-3 with bottom club Preston on Tuesday after missing a last gasp penalty to win a game which would have propelled them up to eighth and just five points off leaders Leeds.
The 57-year-old, who was appointed two years ago, had been under increasing pressure from Villa supporters, with one fan throwing a cabbage at him before Tuesday’s game.
He led the club to the Championship play-off final last season, which they lost to Fulham at Wembley but will be replaced by under-23s manager Kevin MacDonald while the owners search for their next manager.
Speaking on Sky Sports’ The Debate, Sidwell, who played for the club between 2008 and 2011, said he felt for Bruce and pondered what is next for his ‘huge’ former club.
“We all know in football now that time is not on a manager’s side but I just feel in that Championship things can turn around so quickly, I’ve experienced that,” Sidwell told The Debate.
“I know they were on a bad run of form and I think the whole thing stems from the summer. The infrastructure just wasn’t there, going from the appointment, about Thierry Henry possibly coming in, the transfers – there was no-one coming in, no-one sort of knew what was going on with the club and it filtered onto the pitch and it showed in the way they were playing, there was no identity and that’s what you need as a football club especially one the size of Aston Villa because it is huge.
“I just think it is a bit premature because if you are going to want someone to get you out of that league, he’s obviously got the pedigree, what’s he done it four times I think and as I say in that division things can turn around for you so quickly.
“With his man management and the players that are there that I know in that dressing room that they would turn it around.
“This is a transitional period now for a huge football club. I mean I can’t tell you how taken aback about how big the football club was when I walked in the doors, huge pressure. I feel sorry for Steve Bruce.”
Brentford boss Dean Smith, a lifelong Villa fan, David Moyes, Henry and Paulo Fonseca are the early frontrunners for the job with bookmakers.
Villa face Millwall at the weekend.
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