Former Aston Villa, Newcastle United and West Ham star lands England football management job

Former Aston Villa midfielder Nobby Solano has landed his first job in English football management.

The 49-year-old has been unveiled as the new first-team manager of Blyth Spartans and has been appointed on a 12-month contract. It is the first time that he has got a managerial job in England, having spent a large chunk of his playing career in the country.

Blyth were relegated from the National League North and were recently subject of a takeover. The Northumberland club have grand ambitions and have given Solano the task of getting them back in to the sixth tier of English football.

“It’s a wonderful challenge, I’m really pleased,” said Solano to the official club website about his new job.

“One of the reasons I accepted is the way my ex-teammate, Steve Howard showed me the ambition of the club which is some I love. It will be a great opportunity to work with the local lads.

“I know Blyth very well. It’s a very popular team in the North East. I’m very excited, with these wonderful players and the new owner, we need to to work hard, work together and get back up into National League North”.

Solano played for Aston Villa from 2004 to 2005 after joining from Newcastle United for a reported £1.5m He appeared 52 times and got nine goals as they finished sixth and tenth under David O'Leary in the Premier League. He returned to Newcastle United in the summer of August 2005 for the same fee Villa paid for him and reportedly rejected a move to Liverpool.

The Peruvian would go on to play for West Ham United for a year as well as Larissa and Universitario before spells with Leicester City, Hull City and Hartlepool United in England, retiring as a player in 2012. Since then he's gone in to coaching in his native Peru, managing two clubs and then working as an assistant for the national team from 2015 to 2022, as well as managing them at the Olympic games.