Remi Garde - Departs Aston Villa

[andyh]

I am keen to see a front line partnership of Kozak and Ayew given a try.
There might be goals, as well as energy and movement in that pairing.

[Dr Butler]

I still think Garde will need a bit of financial assistance in January. A quality striker is a must, and so far Gestede looks like a total carthorse, albeit a carthorse who can head it a bit. Still, maybe the manager can get more out of him. He's another member of the French contingent, so maybe Rémi will find "les bons mots" to inspire him.

and a decent keeper too would be nice.

UTV
The Doc

[LeeB]

I still think Garde will need a bit of financial assistance in January. A quality striker is a must, and so far Gestede looks like a total carthorse, albeit a carthorse who can head it a bit. Still, maybe the manager can get more out of him. He's another member of the French contingent, so maybe Rémi will find "les bons mots" to inspire him.

If you can strip his role down to laying the ball off, and heading the bastard thing really hard into the net, then he may have a chance.

[Monty]

I still think Garde will need a bit of financial assistance in January. A quality striker is a must, and so far Gestede looks like a total carthorse, albeit a carthorse who can head it a bit. Still, maybe the manager can get more out of him. He's another member of the French contingent, so maybe Rémi will find "les bons mots" to inspire him.

If you can strip his role down to laying the ball off, and heading the bastard thing really hard into the net, then he may have a chance.

Except that he can't really lay the ball off. Well, maybe he can, it's unfair to judge any player based on their time being coached by Tim Sherwood, but I don't have high hopes.

[frankmosswasmyuncle]

Agree Ron. Agree ROB.  I can't wait to see what Remi makes it our squad. So far the foreign imports have been viewed through Sherwood's jaundiced eyes and it will be very informative who starts to do the business. I expect Ayew to come on leaps and bounds now released from being firmly put behind Gabby and once Veretout is properly fit and playing in front of Sanchez and Gana I expect a lot more from him. Interesting times.

This...
...and "Libor Kozak actually being in consideration after all he has gone through."


 

[LeeB]

I still think Garde will need a bit of financial assistance in January. A quality striker is a must, and so far Gestede looks like a total carthorse, albeit a carthorse who can head it a bit. Still, maybe the manager can get more out of him. He's another member of the French contingent, so maybe Rémi will find "les bons mots" to inspire him.

If you can strip his role down to laying the ball off, and heading the bastard thing really hard into the net, then he may have a chance.

Except that he can't really lay the ball off. Well, maybe he can, it's unfair to judge any player based on their time being coached by Tim Sherwood, but I don't have high hopes.

In fairness to him, most of the shit passes he receives arrive somewhere between his knee and the Trinity roof. Whilst he should do better, it would help if he got the ball into feet, and then with a modicum of team structure and understanding he should be able to find a teammate fairly easily.

He's never going to fire us into Europe, but utilised correctly he could keep us up this year.

[Damo70]

Some of the hyperbole about our current position makes me want to vomit.

We are four points from safety. The first week in November.

We're not getting hammered week in, week out, either.

Had we kept Sherwood, we would have been doomed, I honestly believe that - because he's a clueless shyster in a position way, way beyond his competence.

We've got rid of him, though, and appointed someone whose record suggests he should be well suited for what we want.

You can not spend weeks moaning about Sherwood and how he's condemning us to relegation and then continue to insist we're fucked before the new manager has even had his first day of training.

I can see both sides of the coin. We are not cut way adrift from safety as you point out. On the other hand with our record so far we could and possibly should be. Very similar to when Sherwood arrived in fact. Also as you correctly point out we are not getting hammered and conceding loads of goals. But we aren't scoring nearly enough. Very similar again to when Sherwood arrived. Sherwood has captained our ship like Tom Baker's Captain Rum in Blackadder. It has taken us a year to end up where we began.

[aj2k77]

It feels strange to hear our manager talk and it be some actual opinion and philosophy about football. We've had years of  I just do, we go again, the boys are up for it, the moral is great, I want buccaneering football, all meaningless, nothing addressing what has happened on the pitch or what we will try. It's nice but reminds me of how very poor our last batch of amateurs have been.

I really hope in 2 years time this will all seem like a bad dream.

[Monty]

I still think Garde will need a bit of financial assistance in January. A quality striker is a must, and so far Gestede looks like a total carthorse, albeit a carthorse who can head it a bit. Still, maybe the manager can get more out of him. He's another member of the French contingent, so maybe Rémi will find "les bons mots" to inspire him.

If you can strip his role down to laying the ball off, and heading the bastard thing really hard into the net, then he may have a chance.

Except that he can't really lay the ball off. Well, maybe he can, it's unfair to judge any player based on their time being coached by Tim Sherwood, but I don't have high hopes.

In fairness to him, most of the shit passes he receives arrive somewhere between his knee and the Trinity roof. Whilst he should do better, it would help if he got the ball into feet, and then with a modicum of team structure and understanding he should be able to find a teammate fairly easily.

He's never going to fire us into Europe, but utilised correctly he could keep us up this year.

We will indeed see what he's really made of, given that the service should improve. On the other hand, he does look really rubbish. I think he could have an off-the-bench role to play for us this season, but as the main striker starting every week? I think we're down if that's our best option.

[mr underhill]

Benty type signing in January - not another  Bent of course, someone better /more talented/etc for the same money. Embolo here we come!!

[ROBBO]

I would imagine Garde would have got guarantees from Lerner about the January spending, the trick will be to get us us to a position where we are competative before then. Garde appears to be his own man and unlike his predecessors will not be overawed by the task ahead. Fingers crossed.

[Duncan Shaw]

There's a short video on AVFC of him taking training yesterday - anyone know who all the different coaches are in the background, other than Duverne?

[Villa in Denmark]

In fairness to O'Neill his Celtic team, with Henrik Larsson in brilliant form, were very unlucky to lose the 2004 Uefa Cup final against Mourinho's Porto.

Thank you Eamonn. I think Larsson said that MON gave the most inspirational pre match team talk he had ever heard. Porto apparently had to resort to cheating in the end to get the better of them.

And if the criteria is the size of his trophy cabinet, how many trophies did it add to his record?

[Villa in Denmark]

I am very pleased with his appointment and very impressed by his first public words and demeanour.

For me what he has done is draw the sting of relegation. My wholly personal view is that playing winning football again is the most pressing problem not the accumulation of league points. Of course they go together but you have to put them in the right order.  Good football is winning football, winning football gathers points and you enter a virtuous cycle of happier fans and bigger crowds. Get it the wrong way round and play stink-the-house-out anti football and you may scrape survival for three or four or five seasons but you eventually have to face the reality of what you have become as a football club. The sniggering and mockery of the commentators at the Tottenham game is as low as it gets for Aston Villa in my book. Time to put the last five years behind us and do things differently.

So that I do not get accused of defeatism I will add that the key man to our survival in the short term is Duverne not Remi Garde. Improved stamina levels can be imposed relatively quickly and that ought to squeeze out the last quarter capitulations we have become resigned to for months now. The very thought of Gabby having to face up to losing the blubber or being on his bike cheers me enormously. As does Libor Kozak actually being in consideration after all he has gone through.

Welcome Remy and thanks for coming.

Thanks Brian.

Saved me a lot of typing on a phone with that.

Absolutely nailed it for me.

[Small Rodent]

I hope people don't get too upset if his first XI on Sunday is a conservative one. It might possibly be.

I think we'll be out of the bottom 3 by New Year's Day just by playing the right players in position.