Bob Bradley emerges as favourite for Aston Villa job
Aston Villa must have wished Martin O’Neill had made his decision to resign a week earlier.
Mark Hughes was sitting on his hands waiting for a top Premier League side to offer him a job, and eventually settled for Fulham last week, leaving the Villa board with the unenviable task of headhunting a suitable replacement just days before the start of the new season.
There is speculation that the club will still target Hughes, despite the Welshman having only been at Craven Cottage for just over a week, but if this were to happen then Aston Villa would be made to pay through the nose for his services. Fulham’s owner Mohammed Al Fayed would make sure of that.
All of the obvious candidates dominate the market for the new permanent Aston Villa manager, including Sven-Göran Eriksson, Alan Curbishley and Martin Jol, but it’s a relatively unknown figure – certainly in European football – who has emerged as the frontrunner for the vacant position at Villa Park.
United States coach Bob Bradley is in the frame to take over from O’Neill at the Premier League club after a successful spell in charge of the national team. The 52-year-old guided the US to the Confederations Cup Final in South Africa last year, before leading them to the last 16 of the World Cup finals in the summer just gone.
Aston Villa’s current owner, Randy Lerner, is also American, and is believed to be keen to interview his compatriot with a view to bringing him to the West Midlands. Meanwhile, Bradley himself has expressed on numerous occasions in the past that he would one day relish the opportunity to manage in Europe.
And it seems that the time is now right for the former Metrostars and Chicago Fire coach to set sail from North America, to embark on an altogether more different challenge with Aston Villa.
If he does agree to take charge of the club, he will become the first manager from America to manage in the Premier League. The opportunity to create history will certainly act as a further incentive for Bradley, who appears to posses the necessary credentials to keep Villa inside the top half of the table, at the very least.
However, it would undoubtedly be a risk. Plucking a manager from outside the Premier League is always a gamble, never mind from outside of Europe.
The Villa faithful are still mystified and reeling after O’Neill’s decision to quit the club, and only a big name manager will appease them. The board know they’re under-pressure after yesterday’s shocking news and may find themselves under increasing scrutiny should they hire Bradley.
The fact is, though, the supporter’s preference, Jol, is extremely unlikely to join the club after agreeing to stay at Ajax; while a safe appointment such as Curbishley would probably be regarded as a backwards move in the eyes of the club’s fans.
Bradley may not have forged a reputation for himself in Europe; but if his stint with the US national side is anything to go by, Villa could do far, far worse.
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