Former Aston Villa coach set to land surprise new job two months after sacking

Neil Critchley (R) with former Aston Villa manager Steven Gerrard
-Credit: (Image: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)


Former Aston Villa coach Neil Critchley could be about to land the Heart of Midlothian job, just two months after he was sacked by League One Blackpool. Critchley joined Villa when reuniting with Steven Gerrard in the summer of 2022, when he replaced another former Liverpool employee in Michael Beale, who had left Villa to manage QPR.

Critchley, then at Bloomfield Road, agreed to leave his role as manager of the Tangerines to assist Gerrard, but he left the club in the autumn of the same season following Gerrard's sacking and the appointment of Unai Emery. Ironically, he followed the path trod by Beale to take up the reins at QPR following that dismissal, but Critchley lasted only months at Loftus Road.

Since, he has returned to Blackpool in League One but left the club this past August after the Seasiders were beaten in their opening couple of games. He has since been replaced by Steve Bruce, but for Critchley himself a return to work looks as though it is beckoning. Not The Old Firm report he could be unveiled today.

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The 45-year-old looks set to take over at Hearts, who parted company with Steven Naismith last month. Winless Hearts are bottom of the SPL having taken just two points from their opening eight league matches this season. They are already out of the League Cup but they have posted victory in their Europa Conference League campaign, against Dinamo Minsk.

"A fair dismissal? Obviously not no because I got sacked," Critchley said of his Villa departure shortly after leaving. "I understand the reasons, whether I agree with them or not it's out of my control. You try to do the best you can do whilst you're at the club, I was only there a short period of time, it didn't go the way I wanted it to go obviously, there were various reasons for that.

"When you lose your job it's not a nice feeling. It's the first time I've been in this situation but I've been in football a very long time, I know the industry and I know what it's like so unfortunately it's part and parcel of the game."