Should Gary McAllister be the next Aston Villa manager?

After Sunday’s impressive victory over Arsenal under the astute guidance of Gary McAllister and the current health problems of current manager Gerrard Houllier , would placing Gary McAllister as permanent manager be the way forward for Aston villa?

Obviously, you can’t base McAllister’s managerial ability on one good performance and result but for a club like Aston villa, which has a big number of young British players in their squad a British manager could be exactly what Villa need.

To say the season for Villa has been disappointing is an understatement, and Houllier’s popularity at Villa Park has only got worse as the season’s gone on.

Unpopular decisions like his team choice Villa’s FA cup replay against Manchester City, have hampered his first year back in English Football, and questions whether Houllier has lost touch with the premier league have been mentioned on numerous occasions.

With this in mind, and Houllier’s current health issues, I think the Frenchman would be more suited to an advisory, director of football type role at the club. Houllier would be very familiar with this position considering his last job was technical director for the French football federation, and I feel a similar role at Villa Park could only benefit him and the team.

The Frenchman is a well-known person in football, and the contacts available through him could hugely benefit the club for personnel, and in this role Houllier could concentrate a lot more on the transfer’s side whilst leaving the team affairs to McAllister. And with the pair being friends for a number of years , the chance of them working well together is likely.

There is no doubt that any sort of move like this would put a huge amount of pressure on McAllister to deliver at the highest level, but in my opinion having the Scot in charge would create stability at the club, something that is vastly needed after such a below par season this year.

Sunday’s performance shows McAlister is able to motivate a team that many have not got contracts next season or are possibly leaving the summer and that really has nothing to play for and deliver such an impressive result. Also, it seems the Scot is earned the respect of a lot or if not all of the villa players which reportedly Houllier had lost.

After an impressive start to his managerial career at Leeds, McAllister certainly impressive a number of people at his time there, but like all managers had a bad stint towards the end of 2008 at Elland Road which resulted in him being sacked. The opportunity to manager such a big club in the premier league could see McAllister thrive as a manager.

Jamie Hopkins