Former Lyon coach Gerard Houllier is being lined up as Martin O’Neill’s successor at Villa Park.

Martin Petrov has not pulled his punches when asked his opinions about his former employers.

Kevin MacDonald is the frontrunner for the Aston Villa job after telling the board he wants to succeed Martin O’Neill as boss. MacDonald has been in charge for five games.

After an unpredictable start to his tenure as caretaker manager, the jury is still out at Villa Park on the probable long-term successor to Martin O’Neill.

Germany striker Miroslav Klose is linked with a move to Turkey and Bayern Munich team-mate Martin Demichelis is reportedly sought by Italian and Spanish clubs.

Bolton boss Owen Coyle insists midfielder Matt Taylor remains a big part of his plans despite interest from West Ham. Taylor has lost his starting place to Martin Petrov.

United States coach Bob Bradley admits he is keen to manage Aston Villa. He has had no formal talks with Villa’s US owner Randy Lerner but his representatives have made contact.

Dear Martin & Christian, Firstly I hope you don’t mind me calling you by your Christian names. At the moment I feel it is more appropriate to do that as you seem to have more enemies that you do…

Martin O’Neill was rumoured to make a shock return to Glasgow but not according to the current manager at Celtic.

Dutch legend Ronald Koeman has emerged as one of the candidates to replace Martin O’Neill as manager of Aston Villa. The US FA have denied rumours that Bob Bradley has quit.