Thursday 25 June 2015 16:56, UK
Ray Wilkins will join Aston Villa's coaching staff from the start of next season.
The former England and Chelsea star will work alongside assistant manager Kevin MacDonald as part of Tim Sherwood's backroom team.
Wilkins, who had spells in charge of Queens Park Rangers and Fulham during the 1990s, moves to Villa Park after a number of coaching roles including as Carlo Ancelotti's assistant at Chelsea in 2009 and as No 2 at Fulham in 2013.
He also coached Jordan's national side at this year’s Asian Cup, taking them to the knockout stages of the tournament for the first time in their history.
Wilkins, who played over 700 matches in a 14-year career which included spells at Manchester United, Milan and Paris Saint-German, told broke the news on Sky Sports News HQ saying he had been in discussions with Sherwood for 'several weeks'.
'Thrilled'
“Believe it or not, he’s (Sherwood) a bit similar to me in that he wants to win and he’s extremely bubbly,” said Wilkins, who won 84 caps for England.
“As soon as I spoke to him, it seemed a good mix, and I’m absolutely thrilled that it’s come about.”
Aston Villa finished last season strongly, and despite losing out to Arsenal in the final of the FA Cup Wilkins believes the club should be aiming higher in the forthcoming campaign.
“Villa should be a top-10 Premier League side, quite comfortably one would have thought,” he said. “They showed at the back end of last season what they can produce.
"With the players they have there’s no reason they shouldn’t be in the top half of the table and we’ll work extremely hard to try and get there. They’ve got a good squad but it can work a lot better and a lot harder.”
Villa start their 2015/16 campaign away at Bournemouth. Click here for their fixtures for the season.
