Villa Considering Fonseca, Hjulmand & Steven Gerrard Among Favorites To Replace Dean Smith

Marvelous Nakamba’s Aston Villa are reportedly linked to a host of candidates after dimissing Dean Smith on Sunday due to poor start to the season.

According to British news outlets, former AS Roma coach Paulo Fonseca, Denmark coach Kasper Hjulmand and Rangers boss Steven Gerrard are among the hot favorites to take the vacant seat left by Dean Smith whom many still regards highly at Villa Park.

The 50-year-old Smith was dismissed after suffering his fifth successive defeat in the Premier League and is credited for guiding Villa to promotion from the Championship in his first season in charge and led them to Carabao Cup final in 2019-20 season in his three years at Villa Park.

However the team has struggled this season, they last picked up a win against Manchester united in September and they have endured a bad patch – picking up only ten points from the first eleven games played so far this season and they are languishing at 17th position on the log.

Former AS Roma boss Paulo Fonseca is reportedly first on the list with Villa beleived to have made informal contact with the Portuguese ‘s representatives. The 48-year-old was linked to Villa before Smith took over in 2018.

Denmark coach Kasper Hjulmand is another candidate linked to the job. His Denmark squad impressed at Euro 2020 where they reached the semifinals of the competition.

Another name linked on the list is Rangers boss Steven Gerrard, the former Liverpool and England international is touted by many pundits as the perfect candidate to take over at Villa Park.

Marvelous Nakamba has featured in 49 premier league matches ever since he was brought to Villa from Club Brugge by Dean Smith at the beginning of 2019-20 season.

It remains to be seen whom Aston Villa is going to settle for, but whoever is coming needs to raise the bar from where Smith left.