Gary McAllister to take over as assistant at Aston Villa
New Aston Villa boss Gerrard Houllier has named Gary McAllister as his assistant manager at the club. The new assistant watched Aston Villa play out a 1-1 draw with Bolton on Saturday before being due to take over his role at the club.
Houllier, who has just taken over as manager of Aston Villa has been quick to appoint McAllister as his new assistant. McAllister played for Liverpool under Houllier in what was the Liverpool manager’s most successful season when he claimed a treble which
included the League Cup, FA Cup and UEFA Cup.
McAllister started off his playing career at Motherwell and made 70 appearances for the club before he moved to Leicester City for a fee of £250,000 in 1985. The midfielder then moved on to Leeds United after five seasons with Leicester. In the 1991/1992
season, McAllister was one of the key players for the Leeds manager Howard Wilkinson in winning the league title. However, the Leeds side could not recapture the title-winning form and finished in a lowly 17th position in the 1992/1993 season.
In 1996, McAllister moved to Coventry City for a fee of £3,000,000 and played 140 games, scoring 26 goals. McAllister was then brought to Liverpool by Houllier who signed the Scottish midfielder on a free transfer under the Bosman rule.
McAllister’s represented Scotland over 50 times and captained the team in the 1996 European Championship. As manager, his form proved indifferent and he resigned as the Coventry City manager due to personal reason. In January 2008, McAllister took over as
the Leeds Manager, but was sacked by the chairman Ken Bates after a string of bad results in December 2008. In May of this year the Scottish international was appointed Middlesbrough first team coach until he was offered the position of Aston Villa assistant
manager by Houllier. McAllister will work alongside Gordan Cowans who was also offered a position as one of the backroom staff.
Houllier recruited McAllister after Phil Thompson, Dietmar Hamann and Kevin McDonald rejected the role. McDonald has been the care taker manager since Martin O’ Neill’s departure. McAllister may well see the move as a stepping stone to a full time management
role and has been keen to establish himself in management once again. The 45 year old will face a tough role as assistant manager and will take over the position vacated by McDonald who will move to managing the reserves. The new look Aston Villa management
team will be looking to consolidate on the work that former manager Martin O’ Neill achieved. O’ Neill narrowly missed out on a place in the Champions League over the past number of seasons and overachieved at the club. He left the club after the American
chairman Randy Lerner decided to sell James Milner and refused to provide funds for new players.
Houllier and McAllister may find it difficult to inspire the Villa team in a way that O’ Neill did.
The two ex-Liverpool employees will have very little financial resources in the future if Lerner continues to sell his best players. Stephen Ireland has yet to establish himself in the way he did with Manchester City and it will be up the likes of McAllister
to bring out the best of the mercurial midfielder. McAllister and Houllier will also have to convince the likes of Ashley Young that they should stay at the club. With McAllister’s indifferent managerial record and Houllier only coming back into the role of
manager since his time at Liverpool; it will be interesting to see if Aston Villa can continue on as a top side in the Premier League. McAllister will certainly hope that he can be remembered as an influential figure in the backroom staff as he has been remembered
as a player.
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