• Caretaker worried about effect of manager’s job on family
• Ashley Young out of weakened team to face Rapid
Kevin MacDonald has yet to decide whether he is interested in becoming the Aston Villa manager on a permanent basis as he weighs up the effect that the job would have on his family life.
MacDonald has been installed as the favourite to replace Martin O’Neill in the wake of Saturday’s impressive victory over West Ham United but the man who was in charge of the reserves before being promoted to caretaker at the start of last week is still struggling to adjust to the responsibility that comes with the post.
That he has concerns about taking over will come as no surprise to the club’s owner, Randy Lerner, who, after talking up MacDonald’s credentials at the weekend, questioned whether the former Liverpool midfielder “is comfortable with the idea of being Villa’s manager”.
He will have another opportunity to impress Lerner morrow night when an understrength Villa take on Rapid Vienna in the first leg of their Europa League play-off, but MacDonald has said he will not decide whether to throw his hat into the ring at least until after the Newcastle game on Sunday. “I still find it difficult to realise what it’s about,” he said, when asked whether management was growing on him. “I think I will know if it’s what I want – and who is to say I am going to get the job – by the weekend or the middle of next week. But Mr Lerner might have other people in mind before then.”
There is no indication that is the case at the moment, with Lerner prepared to give MacDonald a run of games because of the confidence he has in him as well as the absence of any outstanding candidates elsewhere. MacDonald said, however, that he has realised the job is all-consuming and he harbours concerns his family will end up feeling “excluded”.
“I think if you are a manager of a Premier League club your life is not going to be your own,” he said.
“I’ve got to look at that because, as much as I love football, we all have lives outside of football and that would be taken away if you became a Premier League manager. It is difficult for families and I don’t know how they feel because I’ve not really had time to talk to them. The people on the periphery get pushed to the side very quickly and I would be careful of that because it’s quite important to me.”
Progress into the group stages of the Europa League would enhance MacDonald’s case but Villa have arrived in Vienna, where they lost 1-0 at this stage last year before going out on away goals, with a shadow squad.
Carlos Cuéllar, Steve Sidwell, Gabriel Agbonlahor, James Collins and John Carew are injured while Richard Dunne is suspended because of a red card picked up playing for Manchester City in the Uefa Cup in 2009. MacDonald has, however, taken the rather surprising decision to rest Ashley Young, Stilian Petrov and Luke Young.
All of which leaves Villa with a weakened team made up of the past, present and future. Nigel Reo-Coker, Curtis Davies and Habib Beye, all frozen out under O’Neill, will start alongside a couple of regulars, Stephen Warnock and Stewart Downing, and a sprinkling of youngsters. Some Villa supporters will have concerns that the line-up bears a resemblance to the type of team O’Neill controversially selected in Moscow last year but MacDonald defended his decision.
“I’m not really looking at it from my point of view,” he replied, when it was suggested picking a stronger team would have given him a better chance of getting the job. “I’ve been looking at it logically knowing that some of the players have played in internationals and been away and after tonight there’s matches Sunday, Thursday, Sunday. Whether it’s brave or whether it’s calculated who knows? The result will dictate that.
“But the thing I would say is that when people say ‘youngsters’, these lads are 19, 20, 21-years-old, and they’re two years older than they were in Moscow. Make no mistake, I want to stay in this competition. And I believe this group should be good enough to keep us in it.”
Rapid Vienna probable (4-2-3-1): Hedl; Kayhan, Sonnleitner, Patocka, Katzer; Heikkinen, Hinum; Kavlak, Hoffman, Saurer; Jelavic
Aston Villa probable (4-4-2): Guzan; Beye, Davies, Clark, Warnock; Albrighton, Reo-Coker, Bannan, Downing; Heskey, Delfouneso
Referee A Hamer (Luxembourg)
Aston VillaPremier LeagueEuropa LeagueRapid ViennaStuart Jamesguardian.co.uk
