OPINION
A lot of names have been linked with the managerial vacancy at Aston Villa after Steve Bruce was sacked on Thursday, but one name that should be under consideration by Christian Purslow is Ralph Hasenhüttl.
The 51-year-old Austrian is currently without a club but is best known for establishing RB Leipzig as one of the top teams in German football after performing miracles with them in their first season in the Bundesliga.
Even though Leipzig had just been promoted to Germany’s top-flight, Hasenhüttl led them to a staggering second-placed finish and was unlucky to not win the league as Bayern Munich managed to continue their grasp on their Bundesliga title.
Hasenhüttl took Leipzig to the Europa League quarter finals the season after while also securing a sixth-placed finish in the league, despite most of his young squad being new to the tiresome task of challenging on multiple fronts.
The former Ingolstadt boss, who played for Austria and Bayern Munich in his playing days, left Leipzig at the end of last season, and that means that he is available for Aston Villa to make their move.
It would be refreshing for Villa to go for an increasingly reputable manager from Europe, who clearly works well the type of structure that could be put in place at the West Midlands club.
According to the Telegraph, chief executive Purslow wants to appoint a new technical director as Villa continue to revamp their recruitment system and Hasenhüttl should be used to this having coached Leipzig with Ralf Rangnick as director of football.
Clubs have gone up from the Championship with this type of appointment in the last few years and Villa are almost guaranteed to find themselves returning to the Premier League in the near future if Hasenhüttl is hired.
All they have to do is ignore the likes of dinosaurs like Mick McCarthy throwing their hat into the ring.