Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
It’s been a busy day in The Championship with no fewer than 3 clubs appointing new Managers over the course of the day. Aston Villa’s appointment of Roberto Di Matteo arguably grabs the biggest headline. The Italian who masterminded Chelsea’s 2012 Champions League success is the man tasked with resurrecting the side which finished bottom of the Premier League last season.
Di Matteo has been linked with the post for some time so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that he has appointed by new owner Tony Xia. He was believed to be one of three possible candidates, with David Moyes and Nigel Pearson both reportedly in the frame. With Moyes going on record that he didn’t fancy a move to Villa Park and Pearson getting the Derby County job last week it left Di Matteo as the frontrunner
That’s not to say that Di Matteo has got the job by default. As mentioned above he has a Champions League winners medal to his name and has relatively decent spells in charge of both West Brom and MK Dons. He has got quite the rebuilding job in front of him at Villa Park but with a new owner there must be at least some optimism that the club can go straight back up after a season in The Championship
Another fallen giant and this time it’s Leeds, they get through Managers like there is no tomorrow and after the sacking of Steve Evans earlier in the week they have announced that Garry Monk will be the next man to move into the hottest hotseat in the Football League. Monk has been out of work since being sacked by Swansea in December, he spent 18 months at The Liberty Stadium but a worrying loss of form towards the end of reign saw Swansea slide down the table and that ultimately is what done for Monk
It seems as Leeds finally got their man or should that be any man at the third attempt. Both Karl Robinson and Darrell Clarke turned down offers to manage the Yorkshire Club, that would come as no great surprise as they probably felt that to walk out of a relatively safe job and into the circus that is Elland Road would be an almost suicidal career move but if you’re out of work then the job is still an attractive one
The question now is whether or not Monk can be the man who finally gets Leeds back in the top flight, if that is to be the case then you get the feeling that he is going to have to be given the one thing that managers don’t seem to get under Massimo Cellino and that is time. They’ve already gone through 6 managers since he bought the club will Garry Monk turn out to be lucky number 7
And finally Owen Coyle completes the hat-trick of managerial appointments as he has been installed as Blackburn boss. This comes soon after he quit Houston Dynamo after wanting to return back to Britain and it seems as if Coyle’s love affair with the North West is set to continue. It’s now the 4th club from that region that he has taken charge of. Expect him to Preston North End Manager by 2018
