Aston Villa are considering a shock swoop for new Fulham boss Mark Hughes as the man to replace Martin O’Neill who resigned in a huff on Monday.

Hughes had only just recently joined Fulham this summer after taking over the departed Roy Hodgson, but the Welshman has been included in a list of candidates drawn up to become the next Villa boss.

The Telegraph reported that Fulham could allow their new manager to leave only if their Premier League rivals agree to buy out his contract, but it is highly unlikely that owner Mohammed Al Fayed would even contemplate that given that the new season is just a matter of days away and that the Craven Cottage club had already been made a laughing stock over the Martin Jol fiasco.

Other candidates likely to feature in the latest Premier League managerial vacancy would include lowly regarded Alan Curbishley, Sven Goran Eriksson and even Jol could be in the reckoning given Ajax’s early season wobbles despite the club having given their manager the financial backing he demanded as a condition not to pack his bags for Fulham.

Hughes is also mentioned after having been first linked to the job last April when O’Neill and Villa owner Randy Lerner had one of their many increasingly often disputes behind the scenes.

And it is because of this rising friction between the two that finally broke the camel’s back as O’Neill quit in a huff over the lack of financial backing in his bid to sign the players need to finally bring silverware to the club under his stewardship. The Northern Irishman had asked for all of the funds derived from the impending James Milner sale to be made available for new players but was turned down by Lerner and the club’s board in a meeting on Sunday. The resignation quickly followed the next day.

The American owner had also become increasingly concerned with the continuing losses that the club have had to endure since taking over in 2006. Villa sustained losses of £43.7 million last year and the club also failed again with a bid to qualify for the Champions League by finishing sixth in the Premier League.

Lerner was also frustrated with the rising wage bill that now totals £71 million and is comparatively more than that of Tottenham Hotspur’s and Everton’s. O’Neill was previously responsible for deciding how much to pay each player and with aging veteran Richard Dunne enjoying a salary of £70,000 a week, the American clearly did not believe what the Ulsterman was doing in appointing Paul Faulkner as chief executive and having him take over many of the roles O’Neill previously enjoyed.

Tags: Aston Villa, English Premier League, football managers, Fulham, Mark Hughes, Martin O'Neill