Now that Tim Sherwood has finally, and somewhat inevitably, met his doom at Aston Villa, talk will of course now turn to his successor.
All sorts of names have been mentioned, from the likely (David Moyes), to the possible (Remy Garde), to the outrageously, hilariously left-field (Dwight Yorke).
Patrick Vieira and Nigel Pearson have also been mentioned, and will presumably be in with a good chance. I would like to throw a name into the ring that possibly has not been mentioned before, however. Uwe Rosler is now out of work since being sacked by the notoriously trigger-happy Massimo Cellino at Leeds United, and I think he could be the man to revitalise what has been a sorry season so far at Villa Park.
Rosler has already proved his ability at lower levels, first in Norway before becoming Brentford manager in 2011. There he oversaw their highest league finish in six years in his first season, before coming within a few inches of promotion in his second (THAT missed penalty by Marcelo Trotta against Doncaster which led to the latter side scoring and wrapping up automatic promotion themselves).
[ffc-gal cat=”aston-villa” no=”5″]
He then departed for Wigan in December 2013, with the Bees flying high and looking candidates for promotion again. When they eventually achieved that, the players were quick to thank Rosler for the part he had played.
At Wigan he again came agonisingly close to getting promoted there, with only a playoff defeat to Charlie Austin-inspired QPR getting in their way.
After being harshly sacked by the Latics after a poor start to the next season, he took a break from the game before becoming Leeds manager in May this year. Frankly it’s hard to judge his time at Leeds because he was there for such a short time; 12 games with only two wins, but then only four defeats.
In short, it is an impressive CV. While admittedly it would be a gamble, as Rosler has never manager in the Premier League before and Aston Villa are a big, traditional club to take over, with plenty of expectation and pressure, I believe Rosler would definitely be up for the challenge. During his time at various clubs he has shown his desire to play quick, pressing football, and has shown himself to be tactically flexible, sometimes operating with a 4-3-3 and sometimes going for three at the back.
He has also shown he can get the best out of his players on a regular basis, like during his time at Brentford and his first half season at Wigan. Previous players suggest that standards are high and that everything is done to a Premier League standard – sounds like Rosler’s been thinking of managing a club at this level for some time.
There are plenty of others who might be considered the ‘safe’ appointment, but I would suggest the time has come for Villa to stop thinking safe and start thinking about who would excite the fans with their football and get Villa Park rocking again.
Villa would no doubt be a baptism of fire for a man who has never worked at this level before, but he might just be what this squad needs – a new face who can sweep the cobwebs out of Villa Park and inject some life and self-belief into a squad that has seemed badly lacking on that front so far this year.
His ability to give sides confidence and get them to believe in themselves and in him has been seen in abundance in the football league over the last few years – now it’s time for Rosler to take those abilities into the Premier League.
It’s a long shot, but it could just pay off.
[ad_pod id=’ffc-survey’ align=’center’]
[ad_pod id=’writeforus’ align=’center’]
