Next Villa Manager, Who do you want (With poll)

GadgetMan wrote:Didn't we do business with Lyon in the summer? Was it for Veretout?

South London Villan wrote:We do have a huge number of backroom staff assembled at great cost, we could bring Garde in to work with those staff until his chosen ones are released.
I hope that common sense prevails, we cannot afford to allow this to run, we have lost a week already.

The departure of Tim Sherwood from his post as Aston Villa boss was inevitable, no matter how many former pros leapt to the defence of a man who had picked up just one point from a possible 27. The blame cannot be placed solely at the feet of the manager, who, it has been revealed, had little say in a number of the players bought in the summer to replace Christian Benteke and Fabian Delph.

Director of recruitment Paddy Reilly and sporting director Hendrik Almstadt reportedly didn’t see eye to eye with Sherwood, and their decision to opt for the risky policy of signing a large number of players without Premier League experience has rightly come under the microscope. Sherwood may have had his hands tied, but that was the path the club chose and he proved incapable of getting results from his players.

The club are, as Sherwood said after the late defeat to Swansea City on Saturday, in a hole. The former Spurs boss wasn’t helping to fill it, having failed to settle on his favoured personnel, let alone system. His decision to chop and change until something worked was far from convincing. Villa have used five different formations already this season, with 17 different players starting at least three times in the league.

The Villa board came to the conclusion that Sherwood didn’t know what he was doing after a slump that culminated in six consecutive Premier League defeats. He was no longer the right man for the job, having had the short-term impact the club so desperately needed, so who is right for Villa now?

The board appear to have made their mind up already, with Rémi Garde the clear favourite to take over at the Premier League’s bottom club. Reports suggest that Garde is very tempted by Aston Villa’s offer. Newcastle and Sunderland – the other two clubs in the relegation zone – have approached the Frenchman in the past but it seems his job will be to keep Villa in the Premier League. The quick conclusion both parties would have wanted is being held up by Lyon, who are reluctant to let his former assistants follow him to England.

The decision to pursue Garde as first choice has received a mixed reaction. Those familiar with the manager’s work think he has what it takes to succeed in the Midlands. Those that haven’t followed the 49-year-old’s career are understandably worried by Villa’s choice of a manager with no experience of managing in England – the policy of buying players with no history in the Premier League has proved dubious and they fear that the manager could also struggle.

Garde is known to have a fondness for English football. During an understated time at Arsenal he became a loyal and trusted figure under Arsène Wenger, who retains great faith in the former France international’s coaching credentials. Hiring Garde represents an opportunity to build bridges between the players at the club. He excelled in helping young French players at Arsenal. Used sparingly on the pitch, Garde was credited with helping new recruits settle quickly at the club. In that sense, Villa’s interest is understandable.

As manager of Lyon, during a time when the club was stripped of their best players and all but forced to put their faith in young talent due to a lack of transfer funds, Garde’s achievements were admirable. In his first season Lyon finished fourth and reached the finals of both domestic cup competitions, winning the Coupe de France. They would go on to win the subsequent Supercup and finish the 2012-13 campaign third. They dropped to fifth in his final campaign, but Lyon’s team rating actually rose year-on-year – from 6.94 to 7.04 – as Garde nurtured an impressive young squad. Lyon did not want their manager to leave but Garde came to the decision that the 2013-14 season would be his last before a sabbatical. It was understood that he wanted to move to recharge his batteries and then relocate to England.

In terms of playing style, Garde favoured a 4-2-3-1 formation in his first two seasons at Lyon, with the team spearheaded by Bafétimbi Gomis. He often switched to a 4-4-2 diamond once Alexandre Lacazette proved capable of forming an effective partnership with Gomis, who is now at Swansea City. Sherwood has utilised both systems this season. Settling on a structured way of playing should be the first task for the next Villa boss.

Developing young players will also be key. It was a vital determinant in Sherwood’s appeal back in February and one that remains important to the Villa board. Lacazette, Maxime Gonalons, Jordan Ferri and Nabil Fekir were given a chance to prove their worth at Lyon under Garde and the have gone on to flourish at the club. Lacazette and Fekir scored 40 league goals between them last season and Gonalons became an ever present in the side, gaining the captaincy and taking on the mantle of the experienced head in a midfield packed with potential.

Villa are obviously a different prospect altogether, but they aren’t a lost cause. While the teams around them have slumped to resounding defeats, Villa have only lost one match by more than a single goal this season – when Alan Hutton scored a freak own goal in a 2-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge earlier this month. Garde would face an uphill task, but not an impossible one.

He remains a risk but no more so than sticking with something so clearly broken. With the Premier League’s repairmen, Tony Pulis and Sam Allardyce, otherwise engaged, there aren’t a great deal of safe-bet managers available to Villa. David Moyes has been heavily linked to the job and would be considered among the best options given his vast experience of the league, but he seems keen to stay in Spain for the time being. Nigel Pearson may also tick a number of boxes.

Villa don’t seem equipped to adapt to the “Brendan Rodgers way”, and the evidently eager Dwight Yorke’s credentials boil down to the fact that he used to play for the club. So too did Bosko Balaban. If Villa are to be resuscitated from their current state, they need a long-term vision Putting anyone in charge of such of a task with so few realistic candidates available will always be a risk. Garde may well be one worth taking, with bigger and better offers unlikely to be too far off for the Frenchman.

South London Villan wrote:We will get our man VB, I am sure of it.

Garde is really keen, he wants to come, he and they will come, Fox Almstadt and Reilly want him to come, the worry is the time it takes.

villabromsgrove wrote:Without his assistants Garde will have to spend months turning new coaches into disciples. If he follows Wenger's methods then he will be looking to change lifestyles as well as football styles. It seems that he is a deep thinking guy who will need to get everyone to buy into his "new" ideas, so he definitely needs Genesio and Baticle to join with him if this is going to work.

No support team, no Garde in my opinion.

Randy Lerner has flown out to meet Aston Villa’s No. 1 target Remi Garde and is keen to make an appointment next week.

Garde remains the preferred choice to take over as Villa’s new manager and has been backed to succeed in the Premier League by Arsene Wenger.

Lerner, the Villa chairman, flew by private jet from his home in New York to meet Garde earlier this week and the club are hopeful of naming the Frenchman as Tim Sherwood’s successor before next Sunday’s game against Manchester City.

Garde has pulled out of media duties with French TV station Canal+ this weekend to focus on negotiations and is understood to have agreed terms on a three-and-a-half year contract.

Villa will have to pay compensation to Lyon for Garde’s former assistants Gerald Baticle and Bruno Genesio but the club are growing increasingly confident of striking a deal.

Arsenal manager Wenger has confirmed he was approached by Villa’s chief executive Tom Fox – who previously worked at the Emirates - for advice on Garde and has urged the 49-year-old to take the post.

He said: “Tom Fox [Villa chief executive] texted me, I think they met Remi Garde with the chairman and they made their opinion.

“I don't think Tom Fox knew Remi Garde, I don't think he was here at the time but certainly he got some information from people who knew Remi.

“It's a big challenge for him [Garde] but it's a big opportunity. You do not get 20 opportunities to come to England and at the moment, in Europe, you find 250 managers who want to come to England.

“My thinking is that he should just take it [regardless of the issue with the assistants].”

Kevin MacDonald will take the Villa team for Monday night’s game at Tottenham Hotspur, with Garde widely expected to watch from the stands.

Jim Villan wrote:I think it is really important that Remi Garde establishes a first eleven as quickly as possible, so far only 2 players have played every minute of every match and considering we have only played 10 matches that is extremely telling statistic and shows where Sherwood got it so wrong. This lack of consistency has been the single biggest contributing factor to Villa being bottom of the table and the reason why we lack cohesion.

Jim Villan wrote:I think it is really important that Remi Garde establishes a first eleven as quickly as possible, so far only 2 players have played every minute of every match and considering we have only played 10 matches that is extremely telling statistic and shows where Sherwood got it so wrong. This lack of consistency has been the single biggest contributing factor to Villa being bottom of the table and the reason why we lack cohesion.