Aston Villa manager Alex McLeish has confirmed a number of changes to his backroom staff.
Change for MacDonald; Villa name new goalkeeping coach
Aston Villa manager Alex McLeish has confirmed a number of changes to his backroom staff.
Former careaker manager Kevin MacDonald has been promoted to first-team coach from his previous post as reserve boss.
MacDonald will now work with Gordon Cowans on the first-team along with McLeish and assistant boss Peter Grant.
"I've changed the coaching staff round a little bit," said McLeish.
"We've enhanced it. We've got Sid (Cowans) there and Peter Grant, my assistant, and I've promoted Kevin to help with the first team as well. At a club like this we need all the best coaches we can get.
"Kevin's great, so is Sid who is quietly effective in terms of saying the right things to the young ones, and they've got a lot of respect for him.
"A lot of them have grown up with Kevin and he's definitely got something to add to it in terms of the information and his knowledge. We'll promote someone from within for the reserves.
"Loyalty's very important with your backroom staff, no doubt about it, but more importantly, the guys we've got have the credentials and they know what they're talking about."
Goalkeeping coach
McLeish also confirmed that he had brought in a new goalkeeping coach with Terry Gennoe replacing Rafa Gonzalez.
Gennoe has worked with current No.1 Shay Given for much of his career and McLeish has decided he should do so again.
"We've got a new goalie coach, Terry Gennoe, who will be on the staff until the end of the season at least and then we'll assess things," said McLeish.
"Terry worked with Shay for a long time and is a bit of a mentor for him.
"There's a couple of goalie coaches out there that Shay has worked with.
"But we know that Terry Gennoe has great qualities, we did a bit of diligence on him and I've had great feedback from people like Kenny Dalglish."
