Stiliyan Petrov has revealed he’s applied for jobs at Aston Villa three times – but has been rejected each time.
The 40-year-old retired after failing to earn a contract at Villa in the summer of 2016 after battling back from leukemia.
The Bulgarian has since gained a Masters in sport management, learning alongside the likes of Gaizka Mendieta and ex-Liverpool man Luis Garcia.
Petrov, though, told The Herald he’s been turned down on three separate occasions by Villa for different jobs.
The inspirational midfielder has set his sights on either becoming a manager or working as a sporting director at a “big club” in the not too distant future.
“As somebody who played for Celtic, or any big club, if somebody came and said, ‘One day would you like to manage [them]?’ of course [I would],” Petrov explained.
“It is one of the best things that you can do. It shows you how good you are as a manager, what you have achieved and you have been appreciated to do the right job.
“But, at the moment they have a very good man as manager, my ex-teammate who is doing a great job. It’s his second spell but, in the future, who knows? If you ask Neil Lennon if he would like to be Man United manager or Chelsea manager, of course he is going to say, ‘Yes’. He won’t say, ‘No’.
“Sometimes we try to make people happy with what we say or don’t say but if you don’t have ambition, you should be aiming to reach these ambitions. If you want to be a manager at Celtic then you work towards that. Is it going to happen? Who knows? Maybe not, maybe yes.
“Not long ago I did a presentation on management and what is more important – man management or on-the-pitch management. I asked a manager – I won’t mention his name – would you rather be a good man manager or the manager that can put on the best sessions on the training pitch? Obviously, I knew the answer. My answer is the same I would rather be a better man manager than anything else and some managers do complicate it.
“Martin O’Neill was the one that I have really learned a lot from – how to keep things simple, how to manage people, how to communicate with people, with what is important in football.
“Gordon Strachan is another one, he is a man who had things down to every single detail. When you balance these two things and take the best of it, maybe you are going to come out with something unique that you can use to further your career – or my career.”
Petrov, on hopes of getting into management, added: “Not everything that you believe in will happen but you have to believe that you are going to get into a job some way, you have to keep tracking it, and aim to reach it.”
Aston Villa have rejected three job applications - Stiliyan Petrov - Birmingham Live
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