Rémi Garde: Ex-Aston Villa manager

Sandie wrote:We finally make a couple of steps forward then we start to move backwards. Krulak is no doubt an engaging individual but football is not his world and his last few public comments have been downright embarrassing. I struggle to see what having him in an increased role will do for us rather than embarrassment and having a Lerner man acting as a brake on any progress the new board will make.

I think "acting as a brake" is exactly what he's been promoted to do.

Garde to be sacked in the next 48 hours claim The Mirror: http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/aston-villa-set-sack-remi-7591655

Sunday Mirror Sport understands boss Garde has lost support in the boardroom and dressing room to such an extent that Hollis is coming under pressure to act now, rather than wait until the end of the campaign.

I wouldn't care what the dressing room thinks. Some of that lot need to be out the door before Garde.

Hollis has already instigated a search for a British manager with a proven track record of getting teams promoted from the Championship.

Read more: Our Neil Moxley on Tom Fox's disastrous Aston Villa reign

Nigel Pearson, the former Leicester City boss, is the leading candidate.

After inspiring the Foxes’ incredible turnaround in form last season he left the club last summer. The team he built has kicked on to emerge as champions-elect.

Beggars can't be choosers and all that but Nigel Pearson?

I've got the vibes from Garde over the last 48 hours that he's finished at Villa. All that remains now is some kind of dignified exit.

Pearson is a typical Championship bruiser. Sadly he may well be the top of a short Vllla "new manager" list. I detest the man as a person, but he does kick arse or die. I hope we're prepared to pay top dollar to attract a better version of Pearson.

I had been on the fence about Garde but he seems unwilling and unable to change things and generate some form of hope and sod that if that's all we have to look forward to for the last two months of the season. We have to build towards next season whereas Garde seems to be holding us on stasis playing the same shit players who won't (and shouldn't be) with us next season.

The next appointment should Garde go will be crucial and tell us everything that we need to know. Fox's two appointments were incredibly botched but both were done with a sort of long term strategy in mind. The indications from that article seem to be that we're looking for a sticking plaster. A man who can get us back up then hit a glass ceiling.

This club has taken some medicine with regard to the senior management with Almstadt and Fox being shown the door and now it MUST have some for the playing side of things. Remi Garde should not be the scapegoat. The players are even more to blame and we won't do anything as long as leeches like Agbonlahor, Guzan, Westwood and others are feeding on the club. There needs to be a clearout. If they don't like the manager and their methods they need to sod right off. If it's player power ousting Garde then the people running the club are not what I thought they were. If they are instead thinking for themselves that he's not a strong enough manager to stand up to them (a view I subscribe too) then they are.

Whoever comes in needs to bomb out the pisstakers, the hasbeens and the neverbeens and completely rebuild the club and be given the time to do so. No sticking plasters. Is that Nigel Pearson? Is that Steve Bruce? Would they be prepared to rip it up and start again? Not keen on Pearson. Like Bruce but understand the reasons he's seen as being out of the question at this juncture. Neither of the above for me.

Good post Sandie.

May be Moyes is looking for a project. You would think he will look to get back in at a higher level than Villa, but perhaps a lower key period of rehab for his reputation (and good money of course) might persuade him. One thing is certain, the players would jump when Moyes said jump, and there would be no "player power".

It's not "if" Remi goes, it's "when", and that could be as early as tomorrow.

Another name that might be interested in a project is Brendan Rodgers. Rodgers and (to an extent) Moyes represent the middle ground between the sticking plaster manager and the foreign long term plan manager (the Remi Garde) and might be the best possible answer. Big question would be whether they would come to the Championship?

Another option would be a recently retired player. Maybe someone like Giggs?

Sandie wrote:Another name that might be interested in a project is Brendan Rodgers. Rodgers and (to an extent) Moyes represent the middle ground between the sticking plaster manager and the foreign long term plan manager (the Remi Garde) and might be the best possible answer. Big question would be whether they would come to the Championship?

Another option would be a recently retired player. Maybe someone like Giggs?

I think any new manager has to have gravitas and experience of the Championship League. Giggs would command respect until things started to get sticky, and then questions would be asked re lack of Championship experience. Rodgers is a manager that I like a lot, but is his style too tippy tappy for the job we'll need done next season?

I think the Championship has evolved somewhat in the past couple of years. We've seen some decent footballing sides manage to get promoted who have shown a bit of tippy-tappy play even in this division. Obviously there would need to be a blend of that and the kind of steeliness that lets you grind a win out at a cold night in Rotherham. The only problem with passing play is that the manager would need to do it with the dogends of our current squad that would be left. In some cases, trying to get them to do that is like stepping up to the first tee and trying to take your shot with a cricket bat.

Nothing has happened yet, although we generally announce things mid afternoon don't we. The players have been given the day off after all their hard work, so that leaves Remi free for a heart to heart chat with Bernstein. There's eleven days until our next match so now would be an appropriate time for the heavy handshake. I expect news from the club soon.

The departures of both Almstadt and Fox were announced at about 5 in the evening. If Garde is to go I expect it to be announced around that time today or tomorrow.

http://www.footballfancast.com/premier-league/aston-villa/exit-bound-aston-villa-manager-gave-up-due-to-players-attitude-insider?

I think this just confirms what we've been discussing for some time. Garde looks exactly like a man who's given up.

It isn't surprising. Some of our players need to take a long, hard look at themselves in the mirror. That said, if Garde had such a problem with so many players why not send a message by picking youth players? Instead he has sulked. Maybe there's an element of him trying to show everyone just how poor and unprofessional these players are? We know Remi. There's no need to keep telling us.

In other news, another name has been put into the fray for jumping into the dead man walking's seat: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3502832/Aston-Villa-consider-Anderlecht-coach-Besnik-Hasi-Remi-Garde-nears-exit.html

Sandie wrote:It isn't surprising. Some of our players need to take a long, hard look at themselves in the mirror. That said, if Garde had such a problem with so many players why not send a message by picking youth players? Instead he has sulked. Maybe there's an element of him trying to show everyone just how poor and unprofessional these players are? We know Remi. There's no need to keep telling us.

In other news, another name has been put into the fray for jumping into the dead man walking's seat: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3502832/Aston-Villa-consider-Anderlecht-coach-Besnik-Hasi-Remi-Garde-nears-exit.html

This guys got potential, but I'm positive the next manager will be from the UK.

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/david-bernstein-aston-villa-challenge-11072213?

This article has cheered me up immensely. It's good to have capable people on the board who are excited about putting Villa back where we know they belong. I get the impression that King and Bernstein see Lerner as a nice but dim partner, who can be largely ignored while they rebuild Villa for him.

I just hope that is what happens. Lerner just needs to sign the cheques and Krulak just needs to sit and listen and, at best, operate as a go-between.