So the summer long saga of who will take control of villa has finally been resolved with American Randy Lerner, owner of the Cleveland Browns American football team, set to take over Aston Villa after the club accepted the terms of his offer. Villa have made a statement to the Stock Exchange this morning recommending that shareholders accept the bid from Lerner, which values the club at £62.6million.

The takeover will end the reign of 82-year-old chairman Doug Ellis, who has run the club since 1982. Ellis said: “It has been my sincere pleasure to have been involved with Aston Villa these many years, both as chairman and as a substantial shareholder. The club has been an enormous and immensely enjoyable part of my life”.

Many Villa fans will be celebrating upon hearing the news after summer long demonstrations trying to force ‘Deadly Doug’ out. During his time at the club he worked with 14 managers, and how a club can be expected to retain any form of stability with such a revolving door of managers I don’t know!

With new manager Martin O’Neill already in place, perhaps he will now be given the funds required to start rebuilding the Aston Villa squad. Sources suggest Stilian Petrov could the first through the door with perhaps Thomas Graveson to follow. The two of them would be a potent central midfield pairing in my opinion but we’ll just have to wait and see.

The old cliché is that Villa are a sleeping giant. While in the past a great manager alone could awaken a club from their slumber, these days it also takes a significant injection of cash. If O'Neill is given money to work with then the fans will soon see the effects. At Leicester, he had an excellent record working off a very small budget and he is capable of bringing the best out of limited players. But if Villa are serious about re-establishing themselves in the elite and returning to European competition then he will need substantial support. Football is different these days and you need financial muscle to compete.

He certainly brings out the best in players. At Leicester he helped Robbie Savage develop into a Premiership player and gave Emile Heskey the confidence to become an England international. With Celtic he built a team that could look the best teams in Europe in the eye. There is something about him that players respond to. His players will always work hard for each other and play as a cohesive unit. He is certainly one of the best man-managers around.