‘JONES AND RUTTER WOULD BE PERFECT'
LEGEND MORTIMER’S CHOICE FOR VILLA JOB:
EUROPEAN Cup and League title-winning captain Dennis Mortimer is warning Aston Villa’s new owners not to be dazzled by big names as they pick a successor to sacked Steve Bruce.
Morty’s shock choice would be Luton boss Nathan Jones and his assistant Steve Rutter.
Billionaires Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens saved Villa from going bust when they bought a controlling interest in the club three months ago.
They now face making the decision that could make or break the club.
Bruce was sacked on Wednesday, nine days short of his second anniversary in a job that has seen seven managers dismissed in the last eight years.
Chief executive Christian Purslow, who has only been at Villa two months, heads the search for a new manager assisted by super agent Jorge Mendes, who has a growing influence at the club.
One of Mendes’ clients, Shakhtar Donetsk’s Portuguese manager Paulo Fonseca, is a contender and Thierry Henry is another big name possibility.
But Mortimer, leader of the most successful side in Aston Villa’s noble 144-year history, is urging a reality check.
“I wouldn’t go for a name,” he said. “I wouldn’t go for an ex-Premier League player or an international player. Aston Villa is a Championship club at the moment, not a Premier League club.
“They haven’t got Premier League players so someone coming in has got to work with players who, at most, are average with some good ones.
“You go to the Premier League and they are not average, they are not good, they are brilliant.
“If you are a manager who thinks you are going to work with that type of player at Villa then I’m sorry, that’s not what you will get.
“What you need at Villa is someone that has already worked in that area, done his homework, has grafted to get to that position, who understands that you are working with good or average players and you have to make them into a good team. Otherwise you won’t survive.
“People are pointing to what Dean Smith has done at Brentford and he’s done very well, but there’s another guy on my radar who I know from being with him for over a year on coaching courses.
“It’s a lad called Nathan Jones. He’s at Luton. He was also with Chris Hughton at Brighton.
“Jones is a good at pulling it all together, he does the analysis and he’s a good coach because he works with the players as individuals.”
Analysis
The 45-year-old Welshman took the reins at Luton in January 2016, guided the Hatters to the play-offs in his first full season in charge and led them to promotion to League One last term.
“He has taken on a new assistant manager called Steve Rutter,” says Mortimer. “I used to work with Rutter at the FA.
“He understands the game, understands how players work, understands how teams work and what happens on the pitch.
“Rutter worked with Panathinaikos for two-and-ahalf years.
“The great thing about a coach is that it’s not about what you say, it’s what you do.
“He showed them how he wanted them to play their roles and the Panathinaikos players loved to it. He makes it easy for players to understand roles and responsibilities.
“Jones and Rutter are smart up-and-coming coaches who won’t go out and buy a £50m player.
“When you have great individual uals, a lot of time for the man ager it’s about motivation but when you work down in the low er divisions you have to coach."
There is a precedent for Vil la to look lower down beacause back in 1998 club secretary Steve Stride advised chairman Doug Ellis to have a look at John Gregory who was with Wycombe in the third tier.
Gregory was a success and Mortimer adds: “The problem is that the new owners might want a big name. But they haven't got to be dazzled by a big name Their mentality has to be they have got to interview carefully not go along with ‘Oh, we can get
Thierry Henry’. It’s a difficult time for Aston Villa. They could fall away into the wilderness and become the new Leeds or Nottingham Forest, spending years in the Championship.”
Wilderness
Villa won the old First Division in 1981 and the European Cup the following season under Mortimer’s captaincy and have been Premier League runners-up and League Cup winners since.
They were a top six Premier League club, beaten League Cup finalists, FA Cup semi-finalists and playing in Europe under Martin O’Neill only eight years ago.
But now they are in their third season in the Championship and Mortimer says: “The biggest disappointment to me is that I can’t see any kind of team understanding, responsibility, nothing that translates back to me that the players know what they are doing.
“All I see is loads of individuals who think they are good players. The biggest culprit is Jack Grealish. He is trying to be Mr Clever, Mr Smart, Mr Ronaldo and you can’t do it all by yourself because you need another ten players to work with you.
“Grealish is not performing because the team is not performing. Consequently he is suffering. That has got to be sorted out on the training pitch.”
Bruce and the whole of his coaching staff have been cleared out.
A new director of football is imminent and with new ownership and a new CEO, there has been a quiet revolution at Villa.
Peter Withe, the man who famously scored the goal that won the European Cup in 1982, is so upset by the demise of the club he says he would go in now and manage them for free.
After managing Wimbledon, Withe was No.2 to Villa boss Jozef Venglos and has had successful spells abroad with the Thai and Indonesian national teams
“This is how confident I am in my ability,” said the 67-year-old. “I would take on the Aston Villa job for free to prove that we can move the club forward and in the right direction.”
If they don’t take up his offer then Withe says Villa must not just listen to Mendes, they have to listen to what another Villa hero, Brian Little, has to say.
Little played for Villa and managed them to their last trophy, the 1996 League Cup, and is an advisor to the board.
“They are all new people but they have someone there who knows every aspect of Aston Villa and what makes it what it is,” says Withe.
“The owners and the chief executive must listen to Little’s experience of both Villa and English football.”