Ian Taylor in a plea for patience at Aston Villa

Villa legend Ian Taylor today urged supporters to remain patient and trust American Randy Lerner to appoint the best manager available.

The club missed out on Ole Gunnar Solksjaer after he decided to withdraw from discussions and remain in Norway for family reasons, while Roberto Martinez is favourite at Liverpool.

Villa officials have refused to put a specific timescale for an appointment and Express & Star columnist Taylor believes there is no need to panic and it is better for Villa to take their time to get the right man for the job.

"I think a lot of fans are getting a bit worried but I know the club are fairly relaxed about the whole thing and not rushing it to make sure they get the best man out there," said Taylor, who made 234 appearances for Villa. "The last two managers didn't work out for whatever reason so I think everyone knows how important it is for Randy to get this appointment right.

"You can understand the frustrations because in this day and age with Twitter and the rest of it there seems to be a constant focus on what is going on and every little thing is scrutinised.

"Obviously if you can get someone in quickly the sooner they can get to work on everything, but there are a number of factors to consider so a few weeks in the long run is nothing when you think about it."

See also: