My understanding is they haven't named any specific person, just that they have heard the board have someone in mind and it had the potential to cause the kind of shock the Bent signing did in January. They didn't want to name names in case it ruined the deal!
With regards to facts, this is my understanding of the situation. Feel free to correct me:
- The board contacted a lot of people when the search began. Martinez and McLaren are two confirmed. We can assume there are many more whom we don't know about or some we suspect, but haven't heard any confirmation about (eg. Ancelotti, Moyes)
- Villa made contact with Wigan about Martinez 9 days ago but as he and their chairman were on holiday, they have only been able to get back to the Board in the past two days. We will likely find out by early afternoon tomorrow if he will be the guy or not as that's when Dave Whelan wants to know by.
- McLaren had an interview scheduled earlier this week but Lerner, after he arrived in the UK, cancelled it reportedly because of the fans negative feeling to his potential appointment and an interview would've been a waste of time.