With Roberto Di Matteo finally unveiled as the new Aston Villa manager on Friday and Steve Clarke set to appointed imminently, Aston Villa Football Club may have found a managerial pairing fit to lead the club back to the Premier League quickly and build from there.
As a fan, the last few weeks have begun to fill me with a cautious sense of optimism, something I hadn’t felt for a while in relation to Aston Villa, and I actually enjoyed renewing my season ticket. The new management team has plenty of experience in the Championship and Di Matteo and Clarke will be able to identify the players needed to take us forward.
Former Chelsea team-mates, the pair could complement one another nicely. I feel that Clarke is a particularly shrewd appointment: although his record as a manager isn’t exceptional, his record as a number two certainly is and he is well respected. He will bring a very hands-on approach to the training ground and won’t be afraid to tell some home truths to a few of Villa’s underperforming players in order to move on from the disaster that was last season. This means that Di Matteo will be allowed more time to come up with the tactics, playing style and systems needed to make Aston Villa Football Club a force to be reckoned with in the second tier.
The need to bounce back at the first time of asking is obvious: with the vast amounts of money being pumped into the Premier League, we cannot afford to be miss out on more than one season’s worth. The owner in waiting will want to return to, and remain in, the Premier League. However, it seems that he has ambitions far beyond just being an established Premier League side once again.
As much as I’d love to see the Villans return to Europe, there is a long way to go before we can even begin to contemplate a few days abroad to watch our beloved club in competitive action. For now, I want to see Di Matteo diving into the transfer market and bringing in some experienced Championship players who know what that league is all about and, most importantly, how to gain promotion from it.
