Tony’s Choice
In May last year, the name Roberto Di Matteo wasn’t even making the bookies’ list of potential candidates to take over the Aston Villa job.
Nigel Pearson was the shoe-in, selected by former chairman Steve Hollis and his team. The new owner though wanted a more marketable name.
Tony Xia perhaps got a little too caught up with the fact that Roberto Di Matteo had won a Champions League trophy with Chelsea. It seemed to fit his wild and outlandish calls of making Villa a top three club in the world, winning the Champions League (European Cup) again and being the biggest English team in China.
The fact that Di Matteo had tasted Championship promotion with West Brom suggested he could at least complete the short-term task of promotion. After all, it was a necessity within the next two years for Xia and the Recon Group.
With Matteo now a goner according to MOMS sources, which is backed up by all the press reports, Xia plans are in a precarious position. As is the club, if Xia doesn’t get Premier League TV rights money within two years, what happens next?
Supporter Reservations
MOMS like many others had initial reservations to Di Matteo‘s potential suitability to the task. First there was journalist intel on RDM’s work ethic at West Brom. Then there was the fact he had previously always inherited decent teams within the context of their division – MK Dons, West Brom and Chelsea and Schalke. The Villa job required rebuilding a team from scratch.
A large percentage of the Villa fanbase was uneasy with Roberto Di Matteo, but the introduction of Steve Clarke and Kevin Bond on his backroom staff relaxed any initial fears.
That summer transfer spend of over £50 million further relaxed supporter views on the Italian, as it was by deemed by a majority of the fanbase to be the best transfer window for the club in many a season.
Di Matteo certainly had the tools to do the job. Of course, it would take a few games to bed it all down and he could have ideally done with a few more weeks of preseason to do that, but there was always enough time in the Championship.
Question Marks
However, there was still big question marks about Villa’s team considering the urgency of promotion. Why take a chance with an unproven 21-year-old goalkeeper without a proper backup? (Gollini’s critical errors have cost Villa six points). Why didn’t Di Matteo really tackle the club’s major problem in recent years – the midfield – which even after the transfer window lacked options and depth (and ability).
Core Stat
MOMS totally prescribes to having patience with managers. 15 to 20 games is normally a good marker to properly gain an impressions as to if a manager is likely to work out. Certainly in the early stages of Di Matteo’s reign he was let down by some injuries and mitigating circumstances, but the team showed plenty of endeavour and spirit. The game against top of the table Huddersfield was a good example of it, but the effort of the players in closing down space and battling in that game seemed to have deserted them in recent games. In fact, Villa seemed to be regressing.
Under Di Matteo, Aston Villa have managed to win only ONE game in 12 matches – 11 games against Championship teams and one match versus a Division Two (old division 4) team.
Patience goes out the window, when it looks like relegation is a more likely outcome to a season than promotion.
Rash
I can’t see many Villa supporters losing much sleep over the sacking of Di Matteo. He was on a decent wicket but considering his tally on it and slow progress, bowling him out is simply putting him out of his misery.
As for the question of who’s next? We’ll tackle that elsewhere, but one thing is for sure, it’s become a rather boring question. In the past year or so, Villa have had the same amount of managers as the club has had wins – four.
Whoever comes in, lets hope he’s the kind of guy that might actually last four seasons and I’m not talking about Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer.
UTV
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I’d give him to December. The players are talented enough. They just need a rocket up their ….. Can’t understand how or why Westwood still commands a place. If Lescott and Gabby aren’t good enough, I would put Westy in the same bag. We must strengthen midfield. To his credit, he tackles, but then what? Not that there’s anyone else to take his place. We’ve got forwards and defenders, but not enough gritty midfielders.
Nigel Pearson or Big Sam would’ve been my choice as manager.
You cannot delay any longer. He has to go. Sorry, nice enough bloke but not for Villa. Steve Bruce for me what he achieved at Hull was remarkable.
so who in their right mind would want to come to the managerial graveyard that Villa has become . But why is that ?
Could it be the rapidly growing number of yellow cards the team seem to acrue ? It certainly seems that Villa players seem to have to battle harder than most to reach opponents goals whilest risking those infernal cards yet opponents at times seem immune to them & more easily collect open invites from refs to shoot @ the Villa goal .
Or should I just say sack the squad & the manager along with them as it would seem they will never be good enough for some even if we have been picking up points but not the bragging rights from a win that some fans are desperate for ?
As for yesterdays loss to a team I was worried we could not beat what can I say ! Other than they were managed by Grayson who I wanted @ Villa before there was talk of RDM