Gabby Agbonlahor insists Aston Villa could hire Thomas Tuchel or Mauricio Pochettino after Steven Gerrard sacking
Gabby Agbonlahor has offered his opinion on Steven Gerrard’s sacking at Aston Villa and insisted that the club can hire “whoever we want” to succeed him.
Gerrard was given his marching orders at Villa Park after Thursday evening’s 3-0 defeat to Fulham. After his 11-month spell at the club, the board are now in pursuit of a successor.
Speaking to talkSPORT, Agbonlahor thinks the club won’t struggle to find a new man for the hot seat, with Villa able to poach many top European managers due to their size.
“I think it was the right call. That performance [vs Fulham], they weren’t first to any balls or pressing as a team. It was a shambles.”
When asked who Villa should pursue to be manager, Agbonlahor responded: “We could take [Antonio] Conte off Spurs. Aston Villa aren’t a mickey mouse team – big ambitious owners with a lot of money they will invest. Huge support, I think [Mauricio] Pochettino will be a good signing.
“But there’s loads of managers out there – Thomas Tuchel – we can have who we want.”
Villa have a huge pull
The current position of Aston Villa is not great on paper, but Agbonlahor is right – the club is huge and represents a great project for any manager in Europe.
Villa’s squad is certainly worthy of a top-half Premier League finish, they just need the right man to get a tune out of them.
On top of that, any new manager who walks in is guaranteed to be backed by wealthy owners with the ambition of being a club that can consistently challenge for European qualification.
There will definitely be a handful of elite managers out there looking for a long-term project where they’ll be backed and valued by the club board.
Gerrard was supposed to take Villa up to the next step and have them challenging in the top half of the table, but it sadly didn’t work out.
But no one can argue that he wasn’t backed, and he’s left a squad behind with huge potential.
In other Aston Villa news, Simon Jordan says Mauricio Pochettino would be lucky to manage Aston Villa