Former Aston Villa striker Stan Collymore backs Alex McLeish for vacant manager’s job

EPL ; Alex McLeish – Gerard Houllier, Birmingham City v Aston Villa(Getty Images)

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Former Aston Villa striker Stan Collymore has backed Alex McLeish to take the manager’s job at Villa Park.

McLeish resigned as boss of Villa’s city rivals Birmingham on Sunday but his resignation is yet to be accepted by the Blues board.

And now Collymore, a Villa fan, believes McLeish, who is the bookmakers’ favourite for the job, is the right man to replace Gerard Houllier.

“I think he’s a fantastic manager and exactly what Villa need,” Collymore told talkSPORT.

“We’ve got a lot of young players, there is a lot of instability at the moment after Gerard Houllier and Martin O’Neill.

“I genuinely can’t see other than the fact that he managed Birmingham City what the problem is for a lot of Villa fans.”

Villa had a difficult start to the season following the shock departure of Martin O’Neill just days before the first game of the campaign.

Gerard Houllier was named the club’s new boss in September but left by mutual consent earlier this month due to his health, with Roberto Martinez an early contender to replace him. But with the Spaniard choosing to remain at the DW Stadium, McLeish is now the front-runner for the job.

And Collymore believes McLeish could be the man to shore up Villa’s defence whilst helping develop some of the talented youngsters on the club’s books.

“What they need to do is look at the candidates and look at their abilities,” he added.

“The one thing that Villa haven’t done, particularly last season after Martin O’Neill left, is defend very well.

“Build from the back and bring through some of the youngsters. He’s got people like Kevin MacDonald and Sid Cowans on the staff and I genuinely think, looking at it dispassionately, that Alex McLeish would be an excellent manager for Aston Villa and that’s all I care about.”

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