Stiliyan Petrov may coach at Aston Villa

Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert has raised the possibility of Stiliyan Petrov being offered a coaching role with the club once he is healthy enough to pursue such an opportunity. Though it would appear as though nothing has been officially decided, it would certainly appear that a youth coaching position is there for the taking should Stan choose to accept it. I'm not qualified to make any judgment on Petrov's potential as a coach but Lambert certainly is, and if he thinks Stiliyan is the man for the job then I'm very much in favor of this.

Aston Villa will always be a club that gets a lot of young talent from the immediate area, and in that sense I think that having a true club legend like Petrov heavily involved in player development makes a great deal of sense. If you're a 16-year-old kid and you can't be motivated to give your best by a man like Stiliyan Petrov, you're probably not really cut out for the professional game. Additionally, it's always nice when there's some continuity in terms of a club's identity as players come and go; I have little doubt that Stan understands what it means to play for Aston Villa, and that's not a bad thing to know if you're tasked with the responsibility of preparing young men to do just that.

Certainly, I'd hope that Stan is able to make his return to playing the game, and that he can do so in a Villa shirt. But if that doesn't happen, I'd be thrilled to see him return to the club in some capacity. Even if it does happen, everyone has to have a life after football (aside from Brad Friedel, apparently) and there's no reason to think he couldn't step into the role when his playing days come to an end. Stiliyan Petrov has a whole lot of years left on this earth, and I hope he spends as many of them as possible representing Aston Villa in some capacity.