Exclusive - Collymore: Aston Villa fans must be patient with McLeish

Stan Collymore has asked Aston Villa fans to give Alex Mcleish more time to turn the club’s fortunes around.

Defeat to Newcastle at the weekend left the club 13th in the Premier League, trailing newly-promoted Swansea and Norwich, and punching well below their weight.

And reports have suggested that former Birmingham boss McLeish is at odds with members of the dressing-room including Charles N’Zogbia, Stilian Petrov and Stephen Ireland.

But former Villa striker Collymore has told talkSPORT that everything the manager inherited is not his fault and claimed he needs the time to re-shape and develop the squad.

“Patience is the key,” he said. “I know that Alex McLeish is an unpopular manager because of where he has come from and lots of other perceptions but if he can get the job done and keep them in the division then I would expect plenty of changes come the summer time.

“The scouting network at Villa has got to be much better so that you can pick a Papiss Cisse and a Yohan Cabaye, because that is the financial parameters within which Villa will be working.

“It’s not going to be £24m or £25m for a striker, they’re going to be looking at players between £2-10m to bring in.

“If they do what Alan Pardew and his scouting team do that have worked wonders at Newcastle, then Villa can be competitive next season but there are probably five or six players in the squad that Villa would like to move on.

“It’s going to be a big ask of Alex McLeish in the summer to bring in the right players but I would ask Villa supporters to be a little bit patient and at least give him the opportunity to do that because I think they might be pleasantly surprised.

“They’re not going to get into the Champions League or into Europe for the next two or three seasons, but let us see what the summer brings and when he brings his own signings there might be one or two pleasant surprises.”