Yahoo News Former manager candidate prepares to finally pay Aston Villa long-awaited visit
Aston Villa entertain Lille at Villa Park on Thursday night for the first leg of their Europa Conference League quarter final tie - and in doing so they'll extend a welcome to a former managerial candidate in Paulo Fonseca.
Portuguese coach Fonseca has been in charge of Lille since the beginning of last season, having previously led Serie A side AS Roma; a man who has won a host of trophies during his decorated spell in Ukraine with Shakhtar Donetsk and also collected silverware in his native Portugal while at the helm of Porto and Braga, Fonseca is hoping to win a first European title this year.
Lille are too far behind champions-in-waiting Paris Saint-Germain in Ligue 1 this season, but they're fourth in the league having lost only five of their 28 games at the time of writing and are just four points behind second placed Brest, who are the surprise package of France's top tier.
Champions League football in France is earned automatically in the top three, while fourth involves qualifying through the preliminary stages next summer, but Lille have a strong chance of finishing second or third, the latter spot currently held by Monaco. Usual candidates Lyon have struggled this term - in a relegation battle earlier in the season, they're now tenth but 11 points behind Lille.
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Things are going well Fonseca, 51, in France, but it could have panned out so differently if, in November 2021, he'd have ended up in England with Villa. After two years in the Premier League, the Lions were struggling, under Dean Smith, as they began to learn how to live without the influence of Jack Grealish, in what was their third year back in the top flight.
Villa had won three of their first six games of the season under Smith, including the 1-0 win at Old Trafford thanks to Kortney Hause's winner, but they went on to lose five straight league games through October and into November, slipping down to 16th and into the midst of a relegation battle. Smith was consequently sacked after a loss at Southampton.
It was reported at the time that Fonseca, who had left Roma the spring previous, was sounded out as a candidate when the Lions made informal contact with the Portuguese. Fonseca was also linked with vacancies at Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur at the time, after the sackings of Steve Bruce and Nuno Espirito Santo respectively. Newcastle, of course, were rejected by Unai Emery, who'd decide that Villa was for him around a year later.
Firstly, though, they turned to Steven Gerrard, who did offer brief relief before things turned awry in the second campaign he oversaw. Fonseca, who had been linked with the Villa job when Smith replaced Bruce orginially in 2018, did eventually get himself back into work with Lille, in the summer of 2022.
He does expect that his trip to Villa Park this week, you could argue a few years in the making, could be the greatest obstacle Lille must overcome if they're to put their name on the trophy beneath West Ham's this year. Fonseca, speaking to the French press, has conceded that Villa are the best side of the eight remaining in the ECL.
“I think it’s a huge achievement for Lille to reach this stage of the competition," he said. "The reality is that we ended up with perhaps the best team in the competition. I have to be cautious about my wishes. I have a lot of faith in my players, I have a lot of faith in our team, and we’re going to fight and work hard to somehow get past this big obstacle that is Aston Villa.
“The essence of this team is to be dominant, to pressurise, to win the ball back in high areas, but above all, to control and dominate the game. What we’re trying to be is a dominant team, one that plays in attacking midfield and is a team that reacts strongly when the ball is lost.”
