Having walked out on Villa, Martin O’Neill has created a manager shaped hole at Aston Villa that urgently needs filling if the club are to maintain the heights that the Northern Irishman took them to during his tenure.

Many Villa fans would be hoping that a large queue would be forming outside Villa Park of top class managers, desperately clutching their CV and trying to catch the attention of Chairman Randy Lerner.

Lerner though could have trouble luring such candidates to the job, as he himself admitted the club has a sell-to-buy policy in operation and even if a manager is quickly installed, they will little time to bring in any fresh faces before the close of the transfer window.

Martin O’Neil has left the managerial position at Aston Villa with immediate effect and Kevin MacDonald has been appointed caretaker boss.

Appointed in 2006, O’Neill successfully guided Villa to three successive European campaigns and their first Wembley final for ten years in the League Cup.

Having left without clarifying what made him jump ship, Villa find themselves stranded without a manger and limited future prospects, exaggerated by the fact that the Premier League season starts in under a week.

At about this point last season Aston Villa’s season was beginning to implode, as we stumbled towards a respectable sixth place finish.

A considerable achievement perhaps, but it could have been so much more considering the fact that Martin O’Neill’s side were at one time lying in fourth place, eight points ahead of Arsenal.

Over the course of the remaining games Arsenal shone and expressed their superiority by cruising into the remaining Champions League place.