SOCCER:ASTON VILLA may have to revisit candidates they had rejected for their managerial vacancy, including Mark Hughes, after Roberto Martinez spurned their advances out of loyalty to Wigan Athletic.
Owen Coyle, the Bolton Wanderers manager, is on Randy Lerner’s wishlist and was one of the few options not to have been sounded out by the Villa owner prior to the official move for Martinez. Everton’s David Moyes has not been approached, having announced at the end of last season that he was not interested in leaving Goodison Park for Villa Park.
Villa remain confident of appointing a new manager before pre-season training resumes on July 7th, but any attempt to prise Coyle from the Reebok would be expensive, with the 44-year-old having joined Bolton following a controversial departure from Burnley in January last year. Coyle may also be dissuaded from another acrimonious move by the fact Lerner spoke to several managers before him.
Carlo Ancelotti, Hughes, Rafael Benitez and Steve McClaren have all fallen out of the running to replace Gerard Houllier for varying reasons in the past week. Ancelotti decided to take a sabbatical from the game, Hughes left Lerner unimpressed with the manner of his departure from Fulham, Benitez was unconvinced Villa can challenge for the Champions League in the short term, and a scheduled interview with McClaren was cancelled following fans’ disquiet at his candidacy.
Hughes, Benitez and McClaren do, however, still possess the attraction of being available and the former Fulham manager is believed to remain keen on the job.
Villa knew Martinez’s ties to Wigan and Dave Whelan, his chairman, made his appointment far from certain, even with the Spaniard able to double his wages and have a greater transfer budget at his disposal at Villa Park.
Lerner held informal talks on Wednesday with the 37-year-old, who also spoke to Whelan about his future before informing the American billionaire that he intended to stay with Wigan, the club that gave him his break in English football as a player and in the Premier League as a manager.
In a statement Villa said: “We remain focused and are working hard to secure the best candidate for Aston Villa who will complement the club’s commitment to be true to our heritage, competitiveness and passionate fan base, and will have the new manager in place to prepare the players for the pre-season programme and next season’s campaign.”
Martinez followed his rejection of Villa by signing an improved contract with Wigan.
He had one year remaining on the contract signed upon his arrival from Swansea City in 2009 and that has been replaced by the new three-year deal the Spaniard was promised before the final game of the season at Stoke City, a match that secured Wigan’s Premier League status.
The Wigan manager said: “Over the last two years the chairman has been very supportive to me and loyal, and now I feel I need to be loyal and supportive back to him.”
Whelan hopes Martinez’s decision will encourage several Wigan players to follow suit and reject approaches for their services this summer.
“He is so popular with the players that it could influence a lot of them to stay,” said the Wigan chairman, who admitted: “Roberto has to sell a player to buy a player. I’m not going to put Wigan into too much debt.”
Martinez, who took charge at the DW Stadium two years ago, said: “I haven’t finished my job at Wigan Athletic – there is much work still to be done.
“I don’t know how long that will take, but such is the belief that I have always had that I would only ever decide to move once the club is ready for a new manager.”
Whelan has already admitted he expects Martinez to move to a bigger club in future but was always hopeful he could persuade him to stay this time.
The pair have a good relationship dating back to when Martinez first joined Wigan as a player in 1995.
Whelan added: “Roberto is staying, that is the great news. I had a gut feeling that he wanted to stay at Wigan. He is signing a new three-year contract today and obviously we have had to give him an increase in basic salary and incentives. But money has not been what this has been about.
“Villa will be disappointed but I am over the moon and I am sure every Wigan supporter will join me in saying it is fantastic and we’re so pleased to have Roberto.
“I don’t think we were really close to losing him but he has to consider his future, he is in football.
“He is going places, we all know that. Aston Villa are a bigger club and when you get a club like that wanting your services, it is something to be proud of. I would never have blamed him if he’d gone and would have wished him the best of luck.”
Wigan’s Charles N’Zogbia is wanted by several clubs, including Everton, and is expected to leave for around €12 million. Moyes has made N’Zogbia a transfer priority for this summer but needs to sell the likes of Yakubu Ayegbeni and Joseph Yobo before entering the bidding for the 25-year-old.
