Lack of style and substance bring axe for manager McLeish at Villa

Villa are looking for a fourth manager in less than two years after Martin O’Neill’s resignation and then Gerard Houllier having to quit on health grounds before McLeish was appointed last summer.

It was always a calculated gamble to appoint McLeish given his frosty relationship with Villa fans after his spell in charge of local rivals Birmingham – and one that patently failed and ended with his sacking yesterday.

Villa only avoided relegation from the Barclays Premier League during the penultimate weekend of the season and the brand of football on show has been uninspiring.

Lerner said: “We need to be clear and candid with ourselves and with supporters about what we have lacked in recent years. Compelling play and results that instil a sense of confidence that Villa is on the right track have been plainly absent.

“The most immediate action that we can take is to look carefully at our options in terms of bringing in a new manager who sees the club’s potential and embraces our collective expectations.”

Villa axed McLeish less than 24 hours after a performance the Scot described as “woeful” in a 2-0 defeat at Norwich, whose manager Paul Lambert is expected to be amongst the leading candidates.

Manchester City’s income from Premier League broadcast payments for last season was a record £60.6m – but even bottom club Wolves earned £39m. Half the domestic TV cash and all the overseas rights income are split equally between the 20 clubs.

Each club received an equal share of £13.7m from domestic TV money, £18.7m from overseas broadcast rights, plus £755,000 for each place they finished in the final league table – that was the sum received by bottom-placed Wolves, while champions Manchester City earned £15.1m.

On top of that, each club receives around £570,000 each time they are featured in live TV matches – at least £5.7m but in Manchester United’s case £13.5m after taking part in 26 TV games.