Aston Villa have made Ruben Amorim their No.1 managerial target - but he will come at a world-record price.
The monied west Midlands club are looking to prise the 37-year-old from Sporting Lisbon after Steven Gerrard was bulleted on Thursday night. Amorim has a whopping €30m release clause in his contract - around £26.3m - and that’s the cash Villa will have to stump up to land their man.
That sum will be the biggest ever handed over by one club to another for their manager, eclipsing the €25m paid by Bayern Munich for RB Leipzig’s Julian Nagelsmann. Amorim’s star is on a rapid trajectory and he has already been the subject of a fee after Sporting handed over the fourth-highest compensation figure when he was lured from Braga just over two years ago for €10m.
But it has so far proved value-for-money for the Lisbon side as they won the title for the first time last season following a 19-year hiatus.
Ambitious Villa owners Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens have a combined net worth of over £10bn and have already committed over £400m of their fortune into turning around the fortunes of the former European Champions.
The hefty price tag is likely to have put off west Midlands’ rivals Wolves who could have approached the ex-Portugal international as he is a client of super-agent Jorge Mendes who has close links with Molineux.
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Amorim was asked about the situation ahead of Sporting’s game today against Casa Pia and said: “Regarding other clubs, I’m Sporting’s coach and there’s nothing to say on the matter, once again.”
The early bookmakers’ favourites to step into the hot-seat were ex-PSG and Spurs’ chief Mauricio Pochettino and former Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel. But it is understood the Argentine has his sights fixed on a club that has secured Champions League qualification while the German was not interested in the project at Villa Park.
Other names in the frame should Villa’s bid fail would be Sean Dyche who does have admirers within the corridors of power at the Birmingham club. Another boss whose name has been circulated is Brentford’s Thomas Frank - ironically Villa’s opponents this weekend.
The Bees’ manager said: “I understand the bookmakers - I am a good manager! “Joking aside, I’m happy here. Christian Norgaard came up to me this morning and asked: ‘What’s this on the rumours about Aston Villa?’ I have unfinished business at Brentford.”
Villa wasted no time in following up Gerrard’s exit by announcing that five members of his backroom team had also departed. Gary McAllister and Neil Critchley were the most senior of his coaching staff to have also been released.
Matchday duties for the visit of the Bees will fall to coach Aaron Danks who was part of West Brom’s academy staff before making the switch to join the first-team set up at Villa Park.
He said: “We want to do this for the fans, we want to do this for the crowd. They will be massive for us and hopefully we will put something on the pitch they can get behind.”
