Remi Garde - Departs Aston Villa

[LeeB]

He also has the "won't shit himself with the ball at his feet" thing going for him.

I like him but I'm not sure about that. His comical first touch in the cup final set the tone for the whole omnishambles.

[paul_e]

One of my sons, I can't recall which one, produced that programme with Merson sitting on a purple sofa in the centre circle at VP. He was not averse to using the club of which he is now so critical to help launch his media career.

They should have left the sofa in the centre circle for Westwood to sit on for ninety minutes of every home game.

I've read the transcripts of our new manager's press conference and I was impressed. I have allowed myself to become cautiously optimistic.

See I can let most of the criticism of Westwood go, his defending is pretty iffy and he does play sideways too much and his set pieces are pants but the one thing he has never been is lazy, he covers a hell of a lot of ground trying to be available for the pass and is probably the fittest player in our squad. On the opta stats for the amount of running he's always up at the top and is one of the highest in the league so far this season.  That work rate is why the likes of Sherwood and Lambert rated him so highly.

[Tayls_7]

One of my sons, I can't recall which one, produced that programme with Merson sitting on a purple sofa in the centre circle at VP. He was not averse to using the club of which he is now so critical to help launch his media career.

They should have left the sofa in the centre circle for Westwood to sit on for ninety minutes of every home game.

I've read the transcripts of our new manager's press conference and I was impressed. I have allowed myself to become cautiously optimistic.

There was talk of Westwood playing with concussion. Would that help or is that bad?
Cautiously optimistic. I love that phrase. It's almost meaningless and effectively covers my entire following of Villa.

I was borderline suicidal so to reach the giddy heights of cautiously optimistic* without the help of alcohol or happy pills is quite an achievement.

*This state of mind does not include tomorrows game.

Well at least they can't ruin our Saturday. They will leave that until later in the weekend.

[PaulWinch again]

I just love his interviews, he sounds so eloquent. Something just feels right about this appointment.

[dave shelley]

All of this 'no Premier League experience' guff is really annoying me. Even if we allow that it means anything, Remi has experience of playing in England for three years! And that was back when the English league was an awful lot more different to European leagues than it is now.

Put it this way: if an English manager had played at Roma for three years, and then wanted to manage Fiorentina, would idiots like Merson be saying he has no experience of Italian football? Merson who, by the way, said that Remi had plain never 'worked' in England before, when he'd actually worked with Merson for a year at Arsenal.

Berks, the lot of 'em.

Sorry Monty, I seriously doubt Merson would know where Italy is.

[The Edge]

All of this 'no Premier League experience' guff is really annoying me. Even if we allow that it means anything, Remi has experience of playing in England for three years! And that was back when the English league was an awful lot more different to European leagues than it is now.

Put it this way: if an English manager had played at Roma for three years, and then wanted to manage Fiorentina, would idiots like Merson be saying he has no experience of Italian football? Merson who, by the way, said that Remi had plain never 'worked' in England before, when he'd actually worked with Merson for a year at Arsenal.

Berks, the lot of 'em.

Sorry Monty, I seriously doubt Merson would know where Italy is.

He knows. There's lots of casinos there!

[Villa in Denmark]

All of this 'no Premier League experience' guff is really annoying me. Even if we allow that it means anything, Remi has experience of playing in England for three years! And that was back when the English league was an awful lot more different to European leagues than it is now.

Put it this way: if an English manager had played at Roma for three years, and then wanted to manage Fiorentina, would idiots like Merson be saying he has no experience of Italian football? Merson who, by the way, said that Remi had plain never 'worked' in England before, when he'd actually worked with Merson for a year at Arsenal.

Berks, the lot of 'em.

Sorry Monty, I seriously doubt Merson would know where Italy is.

He'd probably want to know why Juventus and Torino play in Turin instead of their own towns.

[Villa in Denmark]

In the build up to the Bournemouth v Newcastle match, Glenn Riddersholm, the former FC Midtjylland trainer (the team that knocked Southampton out of the Europa League) was talking about Eddie Howe.
Apparently as soon as Bournemouth's promotion was confirmed, he was off touring mainly Spain and Italy looking at different training regimes and tactical ideas, talking to various coaches looking for ideas and inspiration to improve his own preparations as he knew that what he'd done before was a bit too "traditional English" to give his players anything more than a cup-tie type chance against the better teams.

Riddersholm's closing comment was how refreshing it was to see a British coach going out to see what he could learn from any possible source as the British manager culture was very insular and reluctant to move away from bigger, stronger, faster as their starting point.

I should try and get a copy with subtitles sent to Sky Soccer Saturday or whatever they're called these days.

[Toronto Villa]

In the build up to the Bournemouth v Newcastle match, Glenn Riddersholm, the former FC Midtjylland trainer (the team that knocked Southampton out of the Europa League) was talking about Eddie Howe.
Apparently as soon as Bournemouth's promotion was confirmed, he was off touring mainly Spain and Italy looking at different training regimes and tactical ideas, talking to various coaches looking for ideas and inspiration to improve his own preparations as he knew that what he'd done before was a bit too "traditional English" to give his players anything more than a cup-tie type chance against the better teams.

Riddersholm's closing comment was how refreshing it was to see a British coach going out to see what he could learn from any possible source as the British manager culture was very insular and reluctant to move away from bigger, stronger, faster as their starting point.

I should try and get a copy with subtitles sent to Sky Soccer Saturday or whatever they're called these days.

Of all the British managers plying their trade in the PL he has built such a nice looking side. What's going to kill them is the players they have lost and their willingness to spend to get out of trouble. The style of football at Bournemouth is incredibly pleasing to the eye and you can see he is trying to play the game as it should as opposed to desperation stuff. It doesn't surprise me in the least that he might have been open minded enough to look at the wider world for education.

[Monty]

Carragher's had his say, presumably in his usual 'mosquito with a mouth full of soup' voice:

"This is not a side who were dragged down by a former manager, it is a poor group of players at a club who have seen Martin O'Neill, Gerard Houllier, Alex McLeish, Paul Lambert and Tim Sherwood come and go in just a few years, which shows where the problems lie."

Where to start? I mean, it's not the same group of players, is it? There's more than a team's worth of new arrivals in the squad this season. What does Veretout or Gana have to do with McLeish or Lambert?

This is the kind of thing which makes me really, really hope that Remi pulls it off, because it would just be great if it became completely obvious to everyone that Sherwood was indeed dragging down a good bunch of players. How will Tim's mates in the media react if we finish 14th? It would surely be too apparent then what a shyster he is.

[Villa in Denmark]

I agree TV.

The injuries they've suffered have been ridiculous and would probably drop any team 4-6 places without the option of buying similar quality in January, and that could be what does for them.

[OCD]

Carragher's had his say, presumably in his usual 'mosquito with a mouth full of soup' voice:

"This is not a side who were dragged down by a former manager, it is a poor group of players at a club who have seen Martin O'Neill, Gerard Houllier, Alex McLeish, Paul Lambert and Tim Sherwood come and go in just a few years, which shows where the problems lie."

Where to start? I mean, it's not the same group of players, is it? There's more than a team's worth of new arrivals in the squad this season. What does Veretout or Gana have to do with McLeish or Lambert?

This is the kind of thing which makes me really, really hope that Remi pulls it off, because it would just be great if it became completely obvious to everyone that Sherwood was indeed dragging down a good bunch of players. How will Tim's mates in the media react if we finish 14th? It would surely be too apparent then what a shyster he is.

If that was the case (let it be), there would be a less of a focus on how the media were wrong about Sherwood and more about what a miracle worker Garde was and then they would start linking him with 'bigger' clubs.

[Percy McCarthy]

Carragher's had his say, presumably in his usual 'mosquito with a mouth full of soup' voice:

"This is not a side who were dragged down by a former manager, it is a poor group of players at a club who have seen Martin O'Neill, Gerard Houllier, Alex McLeish, Paul Lambert and Tim Sherwood come and go in just a few years, which shows where the problems lie."

Where to start? I mean, it's not the same group of players, is it? There's more than a team's worth of new arrivals in the squad this season. What does Veretout or Gana have to do with McLeish or Lambert?

This is the kind of thing which makes me really, really hope that Remi pulls it off, because it would just be great if it became completely obvious to everyone that Sherwood was indeed dragging down a good bunch of players. How will Tim's mates in the media react if we finish 14th? It would surely be too apparent then what a shyster he is.

Yes Jamie, all those managers are no doubt ripping it up in leagues all over the world now they've been snapped up by clubs more worthy of their considerable talents.

Oh.

[SamTheMouse]

One of my sons, I can't recall which one, produced that programme with Merson sitting on a purple sofa in the centre circle at VP. He was not averse to using the club of which he is now so critical to help launch his media career.

They should have left the sofa in the centre circle for Westwood to sit on for ninety minutes of every home game.

I've read the transcripts of our new manager's press conference and I was impressed. I have allowed myself to become cautiously optimistic.

See I can let most of the criticism of Westwood go, his defending is pretty iffy and he does play sideways too much and his set pieces are pants but the one thing he has never been is lazy, he covers a hell of a lot of ground trying to be available for the pass and is probably the fittest player in our squad. On the opta stats for the amount of running he's always up at the top and is one of the highest in the league so far this season.  That work rate is why the likes of Sherwood and Lambert rated him so highly.

I wouldn't mind seeing some stats on Westwood because I certainly don't get this impression. I don't think he gets up and down the pitch at all. Most of his movement is in a circle about 10 yards across.

I remember when we played Liverpool, who had Gerrard in that deep quarterback role because his legs had supposedly gone. After the game I had a look at a stats site which showed their heat maps, and while Gerrard had basically popped up left, right and centre, including covering his full-backs, Westwood hardly ever crossed the halfway line and never appeared in any wide position. You could practically have chucked a blanket on the deck and it would have covered his entire movement for the afternoon.

[Stu]

Rémi Garde faces an almost impossible mission at Aston Villa