Richard Dunne admits he's happy Aston Villa haven't overly suffered during the club's managerial search.

Dunne is relishing a new start when Gerard Houllier's claret and blue revolution finally gets under way.

"It's a new start again," he said. "I'm getting a bit too old for all of this! I've never worked for Gerard, I don't know too much about how he goes about things, but we'll find out quickly.

"I think the main thing is that it gives the club a bit of stability and someone to push us forward.

"We'll now knuckle down and get on with moving up the table.

"It's taken a while for the club to get the new boss in place.

"Obviously Kevin MacDonald did a good job in the meantime, but they've gone a different way and we start fresh with new ideas and things to improve us for the rest of the season."