I was pleased to see some loyalty - Good luck to Manager and Chairman !

See you next year in the Prem.

charliegeorgessideburns

I agree, Whelan must have had some assurances from Martinez before giving his blessing to speak to Villa. Although i must say, i am surprised he didnt take it, Swansea - Wigan - then Villa, is slow progrssion as a manager.

If Wigan do struggle again this season then Martinez' head will be on the chopping block & his profile as a manager will have nose-dived tenfold.

10/10 for respect though (to Martinez).

So...whoever comes now will know they were behind the WIGAN manager in the queue.

Sparky'll love that!

So...whoever comes now will know they were behind the WIGAN manager in the queue.
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That may or may not be the case. But that's how it appears. Which means that Villa's handling at least of the PR side of this hasn't been great. Sometimes you need to be less secretive otherwise assumptions will be made and rumours abound.

I reckon that Villa ought to have had a shortlist of at least three strong and keen candidates, including Martinez. If they had and those candidates know the position then there's probably no damage done. If they hadn't, it raises questions about what they think they were doing.

If McClaren was dropped simply because perceived lack of enthusiasm from fans that would be very odd. In spite of the England thing, he's a very good manager, and should have remained in the frame unless there were clearly better choices (not sure Martinez was in any way better). Likewise if Hughes has been dropped because of leaving Fulham, that would be very odd; Hughes was entitled to leave when he did, it was his choice to make. But maybe Sparky is still in there.

If Villa aren't going to consider foreign coaches like Rijkaard, Ranieri or Louis van Gaal (all of whom would go down well with the fans I think), and if Moyes isn't interested (nobody really knows) then that does leave Sparky top of the pile.

There ain't much left out there now. Looks like we'll end up with dog-do.

What a snub though! Is that what's happened to this once great club. Not worth leaving Wigan? No disrespect meant to Wigan fans, just been brought down to earth with a bump.

We can pass this off as a PR stunt but in reality the Villa job should've been an unpassable opportunity. Truly unbelievable.

Hughes all the way it seems ..

Well done Martinez.. honour is still in the game, although not enough.

Lesson to Hughes

Good point by the OP.
Good PR for both teams' managerial staff and owners.
It would seem though that Villa don't want Hughes just yet, [maybe he is asking for too much: salary/funds], if they want him at all, or else he jumped the gun too early.
Either way they could do with someone in place fairly soon.
Bradley being lined up by Lerner?

i dont care he stayed thats all that matters

I think Fulham have done pretty well out of this latest circus merry-go-round to be fair. Martin Jol is definitely a step up from Mark Hughes.