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Eriksson's agent linked with Villa
LONDON, England -- Sven-Goran Eriksson's agent Athole Still was spotted leaving Aston Villa on Wednesday as the club confirmed to the Stock Exchange they had received a "number of indicative offers" from potential buyers. Six months ago Eriksson was caught up in the `fake sheikh' controversy linking him with a move to Villa after his spell as England coach. Still is said to be part of a third consortium interested in buying into Villa and ending majority share-holder Doug Ellis' 31 years as chairman. And reports suggest that could open the way for Eriksson to make a surprise return to English football. So far Michael Neville is the only person to have gone public on his ambitions for Villa after his consortium tabled a 64 million pound ($117 million) bid on Wednesday lunchtime. His chances are considerably improved by reports that American billionaire Randy Lerner has pulled out of the bidding following a meeting with Ellis. Neville has made it clear his preferred choice of manager would be Martin O'Neill who enjoyed great success at Leicester and Celtic before taking a break from the game 15 months ago to spend more time with his wife Geraldine, who is ill. Neville said: "I think the management position is the most important and that is the first port of call. We have someone lined up to come in. "They are pre-committed to come in and I think people would be pretty excited. Martin O'Neil is top of the tree. He is a fantastic manager." Neville confirmed: "We have put in a formal offer letter which stated the details of the deal. It gave some clear objectives as to what we want to achieve and stated the offer was fully funded. "I'm not allowed to say what the deal is but I think it is competitive. I think it gives the consortium the chance to be competitive. "I think, for me, the only good thing to come out of this is Aston Villa will be taken forward." Randy Lerner, the owner of NFL side Cleveland Browns, clearly has more financial clout and has a personal fortune of $1.4 billion, but last night his interest appeared to have cooled. 
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