Remi Garde - Departs Aston Villa

[PaulWinch again]

Remi has actually made me believe again, and that's the biggest compliment I can give the guy.

For the first time in a long time, we seem to finally have a manager who isn't afraid to say what he believes, and what he says makes sense. Hallelujah!

I don't buy the argument he should have had bigger impact - he took over the Titanic long after it had hit the iceberg and IMO, this was always about the longer term.

We have seen greater effort, greater fitness, more tactical nous, some fight, and some steel decisions that all come as a relief to what went before.

If you can get past the fact that Guardiola would not have rescued the PL survival fight, things look like they are finally stabilizing and for me, after the last 5 years, that's a reason to believe better times lay ahead in the future

Well done Mr Garde

I agree I just have a sense he is the right man for the job.

[pauliewalnuts]

With Garde, after he'd had ten games without a win, I at least saw enough to make me think he knew what he was doing, this coming into a club nailed to the bottom of the table with four points.

With Sherwood, after 9 or 10 games at the start of this season, he not only could i not tell what he was trying to do, whatever it was, he showed no signs of getting better at it.

Garde is no Wenger - although I am not sure I've seen anyone say he is - but if we have to go down and rebuild the team, then he is the person I want to do it.

[class-of-82]

Makes you wonder where we would be now if garde had been appointed at the end of last season and had the benteke and delph money and what ever to spend

[FranzBiberkopf]

Makes you wonder where we would be now if garde had been appointed at the end of last season and had the benteke and delph money and what ever to spend

17th?

[curiousorange]

I still don't know about Garde either way (I do think we could have gotten a couple more wins, though luck hasn't been a friend to Villa this season either), but he does seem to know who he doesn't want instead of blindly sticking with friends in the dressing room. This alone makes me think he knows what kind of squad he wants to have - whether I'll like it is a different matter. I just wish the club hadn't concluded that survival is unachievable because Garde probably wants to begin rebuilding; having to wait five months to get his hands on some slim funds is very depressing.

[claret and blue blood]

I hope he isn't disillusioned already by a lack of support in getting signings in to help the fight, if it is purely down to prospective players turning us down due to our catastrophic league position then fair enough.
What he had to do at Lyon was build a side from their youth teams while the established stars were sold and I would like him to do the same here , building us up from ground zero with the right culture running throughout the club.
I really wouldn't want anyone else to do this and he deserves all our support while he does.

[berneboy]

I hope he isn't disillusioned already by a lack of support in getting signings in to help the fight, if it is purely down to prospective players turning us down due to our catastrophic league position then fair enough.
What he had to do at Lyon was build a side from their youth teams while the established stars were sold and I would like him to do the same here , building us up from ground zero with the right culture running throughout the club.
I really wouldn't want anyone else to do this and he deserves all our support while he does.

I, for one, agree, sir.

[brontebilly]

I struggle to think of too many "decent managers" who walked into such a perfect disaster as Garde did.

Pulis took over a woeful Warnock inspired Palace side and kept them up comfortably

Sherwood took over Lambert's rabble, remember the aftermath of that Hull game

The OP mentioned that managers are supposed to find a way.

Remi's way was to quickly assemble a Bomb squad 3 instead of trying to get a final lift from them

That said, we look much better at the back now despite Amavi's injury and dropping Richards and Guzan.

Ayew, Veretout and lately Gueye have improved a lot.

But our only league win was due to Hennessy literally throwing in our winner

[in exile]

I'm pretty sure we have won two league games

[Villa in Denmark]

I'd argue that in the 2 instances you mention, there were strikers who were sufficiently adept at putting the ball in the back of the net to give themselves a chance if the defensive side of things could be remotely organised and enough players with a degree of pace and mobility that you needed someone a bit quicker than Michelangelo's David to mark your centre forwards out of the game. In addition they didn't have to walk into a dressing room that it appears was split down the middle and spend is first 4 weeks having to act like a cross between a  nursery nurse and a sergeant major to get most people pulling in the same direction.

You say bomb squad 3 was assembled too quickly, but who other than Gabby and N'Zogbia is there?

N'Zogbia was given a few chances to prove he was more useful than a spoon and failed, whilst Gabby seems to be sulking in self imposed exile. Either that or he's got a Richard Dunne type hip or hamstring or whatever he's hurt.

The one thing that's been desperately missing all season has been a decent centre forward who can actually move about a bit, score a few and for Ayew to play off.  You're right that we were lucky to get the winner against Palace the way we did, but before you criticise Garde too much on the not winning games thing, look at what he's got to do that scoring goals thing that you need to win games.
There are poor players all over the squad, but you could probably put together a reasonable first XI based on recent performances with the exception of goalkeeper (assuming that there's a good reason why Bunn has had the career he's had) and centre forward.  The two positions where even mediocrity will kill you as the inadequacies are almost invariably ruthlessly punished when exposed.

[exigo]

...But our only league win was due to Hennessy literally throwing in our winner

And if referees had given clearcut penalties against Leicester and West Brom, we'd have three wins under Garde. That's how luck plays out.

[Dave]

I struggle to think of too many "decent managers" who walked into such a perfect disaster as Garde did.

Sherwood took over Lambert's rabble, remember the aftermath of that Hull game

I'm not sure if I'm missing some subtle irony here.

[leylandalbion]

It is clear that the current team are playing in a more structured and methodical way. Like they are being coached to do so.  Previous incumbents were either gung-ho or doing whims or playing not to lose.  If the guy is still here in August and has a decent run in *maybe a point a a game  I'm up for the future

[ozzjim]

If he can get up to a point a game average from the time he was appointed, without having had a chance to buy or work with them in pre season, on the back of what, 8 straight defeats, it will be a decent job. He has what, 9 in 12 games so far? So couple of wins would take him over that. Basically if we get above 32-33 points i don't think after 4 in 11 to start, many could argue that he has not done well. Only get 20, and questions should be asked.

[Ads]

I struggle to think of too many "decent managers" who walked into such a perfect disaster as Garde did.

Pulis took over a woeful Warnock inspired Palace side and kept them up comfortably

Sherwood took over Lambert's rabble, remember the aftermath of that Hull game

The OP mentioned that managers are supposed to find a way.

Remi's way was to quickly assemble a Bomb squad 3 instead of trying to get a final lift from them

That said, we look much better at the back now despite Amavi's injury and dropping Richards and Guzan.

Ayew, Veretout and lately Gueye have improved a lot.

But our only league win was due to Hennessy literally throwing in our winner

We'd just dipped into the bottom three under Sherwood and had Christian Benteke playing for us. Equally, Palace's caretaker boss had taken more points in his four games that we had all season prior to Garde turning up.

I think the only thing remotely similar was when Ferdinand Schorner was made commander in chief of the Wehrmacht. On the 4th April 1945.