Game of Thrones star helped teach Jesus Garcia Pitarch about Aston Villa

Yet Jesus Garcia Pitarch, the club’s new sporting director, is one of them, with the Spaniard’s knowledge of the popular TV show even helping convince him Villa Park is the right place to be.

When approached by chief executive Christian Purslow about the role last month, Pitarch claims his first thought was of a video recorded in 2014 by the actor and Villa supporter David Bradley, who played Walder Frey in the series, to mark the club’s 140th anniversary.

“I remembered it immediately,” he said. “He spoke passionately about his feelings for the club.

“I thought: ‘OK, this is Aston Villa’. When you have the chance to work with for this club, you have to say yes.

“If you know the history of English football and its culture, you have to be ready to accept immediately.”

Pitarch’s previous knowledge of Villa was by no means limited to a three-minute online video.

He was a teenager, trying to make his way in Valencia’s reserve team, when the club enjoyed its finest hour in 1982.

Aware of the history, he is also fully attuned to the present and the reasons why Villa currently find themselves in the bottom half of the Championship.

With the appointments of Dean Smith and John Terry having dominated the agenda for the past week, Pitarch’s arrival has to this point only registered as footnote.

Yet he has an important role to play in the club’s new set-up. Previously a sporting director at both Atletico Madrid and Valencia, who he left in January last year, Pitarch acknowledges his new post carries slightly less power than he experienced in Spain.

Instead, he sees himself as part of the team.

“In Spain, as a sporting director, you have big power to make decisions and deals,” he said.

“Here you have to adapt, it is a slightly different model. It doesn’t matter where you work, football is football.

“You have to adapt to the circumstances of the club. Here it is very clear, Christian is the CEO and I am proud to be part of the staff, helping the coach, players and management to improve our level of performance.”

Pitarch’s first task was to assist Purslow with the search for a new boss following Steve Bruce’s departure, eventually making the move to bring in Smith.

“Of course we feel Dean is the right man,” he said. “When I first met him I was very impressed. He is a big communicator and has leadership.

“He is clear what he has to do, to achieve what he wants. When you saw Brentford play, you knew what he wanted. It is a good style and we hope with our players to improve it further.”

Working in England, Pitarch claims, has always been a dream, one he prepared for by learning the language during time out of the game in 2012.

Helping get Villa back on course is no easy task but Pitarch believes his experience will help.

“I worked in tough times at other clubs,” he explained. “When I arrived at Atletico, for example, they had not played in Europe for ten years. It was a difficult time.

“Right now there are four or five teams in the Premier League with big budgets. But there are some teams who can take steps to compete and Aston Villa is one of them.

“The club won the European Cup and has won seven titles. In the 1980s and 1990s you saw the club competing with the best in the league and international competition. That has to be the long-term aim.

He continued: “The club now is in an uncomfortable situation, for everyone, especially the fans. They are here because of fathers, mothers, grandparents, they grow up with it, hearing history about the club which you are part of.

“For them, this is not a good time. But things are changing, we will change this situation.”