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Aston Villa’s new owners have said that they want to make a ‘statement’ with their new manager. David Moyes is not this statement.
Words by Regan Foy (@FindFoy)
Aston Villa fans should be wary in the coming week of falling into the bookies trap of ‘favourites’.
The current bookies favourite, David Moyes, would not be the big statement that the owners of Aston Villa football club, Wes Edens and Nassef Sawiris, have allegedly said that they would like to make in the wake of Steve Bruce’s sacking.
Had we been sitting here five years ago as David Moyes was winding down as manager of Everton, it would be a different story and a number of fans would be rather receptive of having the former Scottish international managing at Villa Park.
But since the three time LMA Manager of the Year left Goodison Park, his career has been less than spectacular.
The 55 year old moved on to Manchester United, lasting less than a full season, but boasting his best win-rate as a manager across 51 games, at 53%.
Since then, he’s had incredibly poor spells at Spanish side Real Sociedad, Sunderland and West Ham, all of which he struggled to reach the heights of his early career with – managing win rates of 29%, 19% and 29% respectively.
Granted, he took over West Ham with the aim of helping them avoid relegation to the Sky Bet Championship and managed to guide them to a 13th placed finish last season – but he’s almost the epitome of a broken manager.
Some wouldn’t go as far to say that he’s a dinosaur in his management approach, but in regards to the washed-up management round-about that includes the likes of Sam Allardyce, Alan Pardew and many others, Moyes is one of the prime suspects.
Edens and Sawiris have allegedly made it clear that they will be making a rather large statement with their new manager, and David Moyes would be rather wide of the mark of hitting that statement, especially in the eyes of the fans.
Word on the grapevine is that the impending arrival of a new Director of Football will have a huge impact on the new manager to take on the role at Villa Park – but it’s highly unlikely that this Director of Football will be announced before the manager as to ‘give the game away’, as it were.
Fans have called for a new approach, be that a ‘foreign’ manager from Continental Europe, or an untested manager in the form of Arsenal legend Thierry Henry – of whom major shareholder Nassef Sawiris is clearly fond of. Many have called for Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers to return to English football after some successful years in Scotland – and some media outlets have said that Rodgers is the kind of statement that the owners want to make.
Whilst David Moyes is currently the favourite, in reality, it means nothing. The odds at which you could back Frenchman Henry to become Aston Villa manager during the summer were so poor that you’d have expected him to be sat outside the Recon Training Complex with a number of suitcases, ready to take over.
Don’t be fooled into thinking that just because a manager is the favourite, that he’s going to be in the dugout any time soon. Bookies have an agenda to push, remember.
