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Aston Villa sacks Roberto Di Matteo

By Michael Abayateye
Roberto Di Matteo
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Aston Villa have sacked manager Roberto Di Matteo after a run of just one victory in 12 games in charge of the club. 

 

Owner Dr Tony Xia has lost patience with the side sat in 19th place despite a £50million summer spend on new players, with former Hull manager Steve Bruce emerging as an early frontrunner to replace Di Matteo at Villa Park.

The Italian's former assistant, Steve Clarke, will take temporary charge of Villa following Di Matteo's departure.

Clarke will be the sixth man to take charge of Villa in the last 12 months, after Tim Sherwood's sacking on October 25, 2015 sparked a downward spiral for the club which also saw Remi Garde lose his job before Villa were relegated from the Premier League. 

A Villa statement read: 'The club decided to act following a run of disappointing results which has the left the team occupying 19th position in the Championship.

'The club would like to place on record its appreciation to Roberto for all his efforts in helping rebuild the squad and wish him well for the future.

'Steve Clarke will take over as caretaker manager during the search for a new manager.' 

Xia tweeted after the decision was announced: 'A difficult decision 4the board. But rather sooner than later we'd make the decision. All need learn &not repeat mistakes again&again [sic].' 


Di Matteo was tasked with guiding Villa to immediate promotion back to the Premier League but, at the time of his departure, they sit 10 points off the play-off places and, alarmingly, only two above the drop zone with almost a quarter of the campaign completed.

It is a new low in what is a remarkable fall from grace for Di Matteo who, after leading Chelsea to the FA Cup and Champions League double while interim manager in May 2012, was sacked by the Blues the following November before lasting less than a year in charge of Bundesliga side Schalke. 

Huddersfield Town manager David Wagner has drawn admiring glances from Villa Park while Steve Bruce has been a long-time contender despite having previously been in charge of city rivals Birmingham. 

Villa's hierarchy are set to begin the process of finding a replacement shortly with the international break providing a suitable window.


Di Matteo has been able to call upon £15m Jonathan Kodjia and £12m Ross McCormack, as well as major new signings such as James Chester, Mile Jedinak and Tommy Elphick, but found results hard to come by.

Villa have drawn seven of their games, dropping nine points by conceding late goals.

Xia has kept a keen watch on all Villa's games and waited for signs of encouragement but the 2-0 defeat at Deepdale brought significant calls from fans for the dismissal of Di Matteo and helped the Chinese businessman make up his mind.  Mail online

 

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