Bruno Lage's move to Aston Villa halted amid huge fan support for manager Dean Smith

Bruno Lage was well on the path to taking over at English Premier League club Aston Villa as the new head coach.

The agreement to take over at Aston Villa was not dependent on Villa avoiding the drop into the English Championship, with Lage prepared to become manager regardless of the division they would be playing in.

Indeed, it is understood that initial talks between the club and Bruno Lage started weeks ago, at a moment where relegation from the Premier League looked a near certainty for the Villans.

Aston Villa were underperforming in the league, and it was initially felt that a fundemantal change was required for Villa to improve next season, regardless of the division in which they played. Lage was therefore expected to take over in time for the start of the 2020-21 season.

The desire of Lage has been to manage in England, and while the Premier League was peferred, he did not mind making a return to the Championship, having worked with Carlos Carvalhal in the English second tier at Sheffield Wednesday. Therefore, had Villa been relegated, it is expected that Lage would have succeeded Dean Smith.

However, after Smith pulled off a great escape with Aston Villa by preserving their status in the English top flight, fans have shown a huge wealth of support for their manager, and those at the top of the club hierarchy have decided that he deserves to have the chance to lead the Midlands club into the new campaign, causing a major U-turn regarding the appointment of Bruno Lage.

At the same time, however, Lage is still very much in the pipeline to take over from Smith should Villa make a poor start to the new campaign, and it remains highly possible that Lage will be in charge of Aston Villa by the end of the year should they fail to live up to expectations, with negotiations being overseen by superagent Jorge Mendes.

That, however, also depends on whether Lage receives another lucrative offer from another club between then and now.

A Bola report that Lage was so keen to return to England that he turned down the chance to manage Braga in order to make the move to Aston Villa a possibility.

Lage, 44, was manager of Benfica just last month, but departed after Benfica only managed to earn 2 wins in 13 matches and was swiftly replaced by assistant coach Nelson Verissimo, who was put in temporary charge.

Lage’s poor end at Benfica was in stark contrast to his start though. Across his first 36 league matches in charge of the Lisbon outfit, his side won 34 times, losing just once, while they were also incredibly free-scoring, finding the back of the net an extraordinary 114 times across those 34 games, averaging over three goals a game. By contrast, they conceded just 22.

He was also the manager that oversaw Benfica’s historic 10-0 victory over Nacional last season, the first time a side had won a game by ten goals in the top flight of Portuguese football since 1964.

Aston Villa stand. Photo author: dom fellowes. License link.