Kevin MacDonald remains favourite for the Aston Villa job, despite Sunday's 6-0 thrashing at Newcastle United.
The Birmingham Mail says bookies' favourites Bob Bradley, Jurgen Klinsmann and Ronald Koeman have all but been ruled out of the running to succeed Martin O'Neill in the Villa Park hotseat.
Far from being put off by MacDonald's credentials after Sunday's embarrassing defeat to Newcastle, Villa's power-brokers were impressed with the caretaker's response.
The temporarily-promoted reserve team boss bravely took the rap for the heavy losing margin and admitted he might have been a bit 'naive' with his team selection.
But MacDonald spoke to chairman Randy Lerner at Bodymoor Heath yesterday and he and chief executive Paul Faulkner hope Sunday's scoreline was a freak result.
