• Former Manchester United forward cites family reasons
• Martínez, Rodgers and Lambert on Villa shortlist
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer withdrew his interest in becoming the Aston Villa manager, leaving the Midlands club forced to reconsider other options as they continue their pursuit of a replacement for Alex McLeish.
Solskjaer returned to Oslo on Tuesday for talks with Molde's owner, Kjell Inge Rokke, to sort out his future. The former Manchester United player had flown to England for discussions with Villa last Friday and it was half-expected that he would tell Rokke that he wanted to be given the chance to manage in the Premier League.
Solskjaer, however, has decided to pull out of the running for the Villa position, citing family reasons. Although Solskjaer's willingness to meet Randy Lerner, the Villa owner, and Paul Faulkner, the chief executive, had taken many by surprise in Norway, there were always doubts as to whether he would be prepared to leave Molde behind at this stage of his managerial career and with his family so settled in his hometown of Kristiansund.
Molde will play in the qualifying rounds of the Champions League later in the summer and Solskjaer has a further two years to run on his contract. He has also enjoyed being able to see his three children grow up in Norway.
Although Villa never offered the job to Solskjaer, the 39-year-old made quite an impression during his conversations with the club, and his desire no longer to be part of the process will come as a major disappointment. Villa have always been keen to stress that they have been keeping their options open, rather than pinning all their hopes on one candidate, although their interest in Solskjaer had prompted excitement among the club's supporters.
Lerner and Faulkner will now return to a shortlist containing the names of Roberto Martínez, Brendan Rodgers and Paul Lambert, although approaches for any of those three managers would appear far from straightforward.
Martínez rejected the chance to join Villa last summer and has also been on Liverpool's radar, Rodgers turned down an interview at Anfield last week while Norwich have spoken about their determination to hold on to Lambert.
Villa have been careful not to set a timescale, although there were hopes that a manager could be in place by the end of this week. With the Norwegian Premier League entering a month's break after Sunday, everything seemed to fall into place for Solskjaer to part company with the club he led to the title last year and move to England. That theory, however, has been blown out of the water. Read More
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