Ancelotti is the fans choice to take over at Aston Villa
Published:The managerial merry-go-round as to who will replace Gerard Houllier as Aston Villa boss continues to rotate with Carlo Ancelotti the new favourite to take over at the club.
Aston Villa have done a fine job of keeping their future plans secret in the last year, with the appointment of Houllier last summer and the January capture of record signing Darren Bent both being completed with seemingly little knowledge from the media.
The media now seem equally stumped in relation to who will be the next Aston Villa manager, as despite numerous pieces of speculation, the club appear no nearer to appointing another boss.
Mark Hughes had previously been backed in to odds-on after leaving Fulham but is now 5/1 because of further rumours linking him with the Chelsea vacancy, while the weekend money came for Rafa Benitez.
Former Liverpool manager Benitez was as short as 5/2, but is now back out to 11/4.
This is because the latest revelations are that Ancelotti is the number one target at Villa Park, particularly among the fans of the club.
A number of Aston Villa fans have made their opinions known on twitter that they want Ancelotti, while the manager himself has stated that he would like to stay in England after being axed by Chelsea.
Further speculation is that Ancelotti has been seen in Birmingham and making such an appointment could place chairman Randy Lerner in a no-lose situation.
Success for Villa under Ancelotti would make any investment worthwhile, but if it goes wrong for the Italian then Lerner would have the fallback option of telling the fans that he was appointed based on what they wanted.
Ancelotti is 9/4 to be the next Aston Villa manager, with former England boss Steve McClaren still positioned towards the head of the market at 5/2.
