Aston Villa’s season of crisis plunged to new depths yesterday when two senior directors resigned and accused Randy Lerner, the owner, of interfering in their work, including the hunt for a new manager.
David Bernstein and Mervyn King were recent high-profile appointments picked to help to lead a transformation of the relegated club, but both stood down with immediate effect with complaints that their roles had been made untenable. Their departures left Villa in renewed chaos only two days after their drop into the Sky Bet Championship was confirmed.
Bernstein and King were brought in to sit on a new football board whose duties were said to include finding a successor to Rémi Garde. But in letters published yesterday on Times Digital, Bernstein claims that