ASTON VILLA HAVE confirmed Gerard Houllier, formerly of Liverpool and Lyon, as manager.

Houllier left his role as Technical Director of the French Football Federation to take up the position of Villa manager.

Martin O’Neill stepped down from the role on 9 August, and Kevin McDonald had been caretaker manager since. Houllier was Liverpool manager for six years until 2004, and saiod he was happy to join a “great and historic club”.

“I could not turn down the opportunity to manage a club whose approach, both on and off the pitch, I have long admired,” he told BBC Sport. ”Aston Villa is one of England’s biggest clubs and has an amazing set of fans. This is a tremendous challenge and one I am very much looking forward to taking on.”

Phil Thompson rejected the chance to become Houllier’s assistant manager- reprising the role he held under the sixty-three year old at Liverpool.

“Sometimes in life you get presented with an opportunity that is too good to be true but, ultimately, has to be turned down,” Thompson said in a column for the Liverpool Daily Post. “Now don’t get me wrong, I would love to throw myself at such a challenge again but, at the same time, I do not want to uproot my wife and my two boys; I’m not someone who could live away from them through the week.”