Aston Villa are reportedly set to target Mauricio Pochettino as a potential replacement for Steven Gerrard.
Pressure has been building on the current Villa boss for some time as having collected just nine points from our opening 10 Premier League games so far this season, we sit just two points above the relegation zone.
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In truth, the issues date back to last season and so with a lack of progression, improvement and solutions to move us up the table thus far, it was natural that talk would build over his future at the club if he was unable to turn things around.
According to The Telegraph, Villa will target Pochettino to replace Gerrard, and it’s added that this is now a critical week for the latter as a result against either Fulham or Brentford might not be enough to save his job.
The report adds that Villa will make a serious and ambitious attempt to convince Pochettino to take the job but do face a battle, and so it remains to be seen how things progress in the coming days and weeks.
There is a sense that Gerrard’s time as Villa boss could be coming to an end as we simply haven’t seen enough improvement in individual players, as a team and in results under his stewardship since he was appointed last November.
Villa sit in an almost identical position as we were in this time last year under Dean Smith, and so he has clearly struggled to meet the remit and demand from the Villa hierarchy when making the decision to give him the job.
In turn, it remains to be seen if our performances and results against Fulham and Brentford this week change the situation at all, but it’s certainly encouraging to see that the Villa management are looking to make a high-profile and ambitious appointment of a manager like Pochettino with a proven track record.
Given the work he did at Southampton and Tottenham coupled with his experience at Paris Saint-Germain as well as an opportunity to again develop and improve young players at Villa while working with a strong South American core at the club with the likes of Emiliano Martinez, Emiliano Buendia, Douglas Luiz and Philippe Coutinho, there are several factors which make this potential move a sensible one.
However, time will tell if it’s the job that convinces Pochettino to come back into management, and ultimately first and foremost if the Villa hierarchy are indeed ready to pull the plug on Gerrard’s tenure.
