Consortia bidding for Villa favour O’Neill as manager

MARTIN O’NEILL remains the favourite to succeed David O’Leary as Aston Villa manager and could be appointed before any takeover is completed.

At least three of the four consortia in the running to buy out chairman Doug Ellis are thought to favour the former Celtic manager.

And Ellis himself, plus many Villa supporters, apparently see 54-year-old O’Neill as the perfect manager to guide the club into a new chapter.

Ellis has always insisted he would only relinquish control of the Premiership club if he thought it was in the best interests of the club and is unlikely to pass up the opportunity to recruit O’Neill in what could then prove to be his final act for Villa.

American billionaire Randy Lerner admits he is “interested to some extent” in the possibility of buying the midlands club.

The Cleveland Browns owner said: “There is nothing right now. I am interested to some extent – there are opportunities – but nothing more. Right now, my concern is if I put myself in a position where I speak clearly on it I don’t want to be misleading.”

Lerner had talks with Ellis last week but appeared to pull out of the running as several other groups prepared bids in the region of £60million.

Meanwhile, defender Gary Cahill is unconcerned about the prospect of having to prove himself to the new manager after breaking into the first team last season.

“We know that something will change within the next couple of weeks, but no-one knows what that change will be,” he said.

“It’s a fresh start, but you never know whether the new boss has been watching the games that we’ve been playing in already.

“There will be a new challenge, but if you’re performing well then it shouldn’t matter who the manager is, you’d hope to be in the team.”