Former Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino among favourites to replace Steven Gerrard

Former Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino is leading the race to replace sacked Steven Gerrard at Aston Villa according to reports in Birmingham.

Mauricio Pochettino is back in the UK after leaving PSG and there is no hiding from the fact that the Argentine manager would love to work in the Premier League again.

Gerrard was sacked on Thursday evening after a wretched game against Fulham where his side lost 3-0.

The writing was on the wall even before the game against Fulham with Villa just recording two wins from their last 11 games and the house finally came down on Gerrard after the defeat in west London.

Villa are 17th on the Premier League table having collected just the nine points from the 11 games they have played this season.

Mauricio Pochettino still has credit in the bank for his work at Southampton and particularly at Spurs where he led them to the Champions League final and made them a constant top four side in the league.

Other managers being linked to the Villa job is former Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel who is still in London after losing his job at Stamford Bridge earlier in the campaign.

Thomas Frank who is literally squeezing water out of stone with the cracking job he’s doing at Brentford has also been touted even though it’s hard to see why he’ll leave the Bees at this point.

Unai Emery who was not so successful at Arsenal but has been a golden appointment for Sevilla and Villareal is also in the thinking but he turned down an approach from Newcastle and it will be interesting to see if he’s ready to return to English football.