Aston Villa are battling to convince Carlo Ancelotti to take the manager's job.
The Daily Star says suggestions that Villa's American billionaire owner Randy Lerner would baulk at forking out more than £4m a year to land a man of Ancelotti's credentials appear to be way off the mark.
= Lerner is anxious to get this decision right and has already shown his intent by smashing the club transfer record to land striker Darren Bent from Sunderland.
Ancelotti would need to be convinced that Villa's ambitions match his own - and that may be the big stumbling block.
Though he has expressed a wish to stay in the Premier League, he is used to a diet of Champions League football - something that Villa can only dream of.
