Mark Hughes open to job offers, but only from a club with ambition

Mark Hughes remains open to job offers after distancing himself from speculation that he left Fulham to put himself in pole position to snap up the vacancy at Aston Villa.

The Midlands giants have been linked with a potential appointment of Hughes, but there have been indications the Welshman is not top of owner Randy Lerner's hit-list.

Hughes has no knowledge of Villa's plans because it is understood the former Manchester City manager left Craven Cottage without having any firm idea of where he will go next. Rather than leaving Fulham in the lurch, he felt the break clause inserted into his two-year contract with the Cottagers provided the perfect opportunity to make a clean split.

Although Hughes has no issue with Fulham or owner Mohamed al-Fayed, after guiding the London outfit to an impressive eighth place in the Premier League in the season just ended, he felt it was possible to take advantage of any opportunities that sprung up during the summer. "Mark has a lot of confidence in his own ability and feels he will eventually find a club that matches his ambition," said a source close the situation. "That was one of the reasons he had the break clause inserted in the first place. He felt now was the right time for everyone, so Fulham knew what they would be doing. He did not think it was correct to go down the road of trying to sign players when he was thinking about what to do with his future.

"Mark has left Fulham without any compensation and has categorically not spoken to any other club."

If Villa ends up not being an option, it is not immediately obvious where Hughes might end up. However, it is clearly possible any Villa appointment could trigger a chain reaction, while it is not beyond the realms of possibility that Hughes will go abroad given his playing career took him to both Barcelona and Bayern Munich.

Hughes' agent Kia Joorabchian has revealed the Welshman may be willing to remain out of management for a year. "He wants to go to a club where he can fight for titles, whether that is in England, Spain, Italy or Portugal," the agent said. "If that means he has to be out of management for a year then that is the case."

Joorabchian admitted that Hughes would welcome any approach from his former club Chelsea, but re-iterated that no talks had taken place.

"I stick by what we are saying - we were not talking to anybody. No other club is in consideration," he added. "The timing may have influenced the press and public that he's headed in a direction. That's not the case. Chelsea have some candidates at the moment and we'll wait and see. If they approach Mark he'll be happy to speak to them. It would be an honour for him. But we've not spoken to any club."

Former Villa manager Graham Taylor, meanwhile, has urged club owner Lerner to appoint a new manager as soon as possible - to avoid a repeat of last summer's turmoil.Villa were left without a manager five days before the start of the campaign after Martin O'Neill left after four years in charge. It meant the transfer window had closed before Gerard Houllier arrived in mid-September and he had to wait until January before being able to make his mark via new arrivals.

The club are again looking for a new manager after Houllier ended his nine-month reign following his heart problems and Taylor hopes for a swift replacement. "I just hope Villa don't delay the appointment of a new manager because Gerard Houllier came in when the transfer window had almost gone. They should learn from that," he said.