"?Aston Villa officially confirmed the appointment of Roberto Di Matteo as the manager who will lead them in the Championship next season following the departure of former boss Remi Garde in March.
"It's a wonderful honour for me to become manager of this great football club and I'm looking forward to the challenge of taking Aston Villa back to its rightful place," the Italian told AVFC.com.
We're delighted to announce that Roberto Di Matteo is our new manager. Details: https://t.co/DZuUWBUJFO pic.twitter.com/RtsaVZLIo6
A formal announcement had been expected since earlier in the week after reports revealed that very productive talks between Di Matteo and Villa chairman Steven Hollis took place last week and carried into the weekend.
New owner Tony Xia's ultimate goal for Aston Villa is to make the stay in the Championship as brief as possible with promises of £30m-£50m being made available for transfers. He then wants to see the club re-establish itself among the top six in the Premier League and qualify for Europe.
Despite his obvious European credentials and résumé with Chelsea, Di Matteo certainly has a history of success lower down the Football League ladder.
His maiden managerial appointment came with MK Dons in 2008 and he guided the club to the League One playoffs at the very first attempt. That was enough to earn him a move to West Brom, with whom he achieved automatic promotion to the Premier League in 2010.
Since leaving Chelsea in the autumn of 2012 after an underwhelming start to the season following Champions League success the previous summer, Di Matteo has also worked in Germany where he spent seven months in charge at Schalke in 2014/15.
"?"?