Did Remi influence our summer spending?

[edgysatsuma89]

I think the board have scuppered Timmy's plans. His plan was to be really shit and be bottom of the league by the turn of the year. Then in the second half of the season to be amazing and win everything. You thought we were shit? ... Well we're not. Genius. I'm pretty annoyed at the board for stopping this master plan.

[not3bad]

Can we have a poll?

1. Ridiculous
2. Not ridiculous
3. Back, and to the left
4. Creepy janitor

Surely Remi would be a mild mannered janitor?

[Steve R]

Can we have a poll?

1. Ridiculous
2. Not ridiculous
3. Back, and to the left
4. Creepy janitor

Television has never been the same since they dropped The Golden Shot, they should bring it back.

But not with Bob Monkhouse as compare obv.

[conman]

yeah i think Remi was working for French TV in the summer , and was asked by our purchasing comittee if he could reccomend any French players.
When he did they used the moneyball method to see if they were worth purchasing ,,,,and the ones that were ,, the AVFC purchasing committee then purchased them
I also think that when the season started  Randy and the board in general hoped Tim Sherwood could work magic with these players ,and there were no plans to change the manager
, but Tim wasnt happy about it so he picked strange starting 11's , strange formations and tactis and  used strange subs which resulted in us falling to bottom of the league and Tim getting the sack. ,,Kevin Mcdonald done the same for one match so he should also get the sack.
   I also think that it was pure coincidence that on a Sunday Lunchtime when Tim Sherwood got the sack it was  only a matter of 2 or 3 hours later that the national media were reporting that Aston Villa want Remi Garde to replace Tim Sherwood

[Ian.]

I think the board have scuppered Timmy's plans. His plan was to be really shit and be bottom of the league by the turn of the year. Then in the second half of the season to be amazing and win everything. You thought we were shit? ... Well we're not. Genius. I'm pretty annoyed at the board for stopping this master plan.

Tim Sherwood was so tuning, the sly old devil, how did we not spot the masterplan?

[Ger Regan]

   I also think that it was pure coincidence that on a Sunday Lunchtime when Tim Sherwood got the sack it was  only a matter of 2 or 3 hours later that the national media were reporting that Aston Villa want Remi Garde to replace Tim Sherwood

I have no doubt that they contacted Remi in advance of sacking sherwood. Mainly because they did the exact same when sacking lambert / appointing sherwood, but even more brazenly.

[Billy Walker]

Conspiracy theory alert:

I always looked upon Sherwood as a short-term impact appointment and it wouldn't surprise me if the Boardroom quietly viewed him in the same way.  Sherwood wouldn't have agreed to join us if he wasn't given a long-term contract, however, so my hunch is the club went along with what Sherwood wanted but threw in quite a few clauses to legally cover themselves when the inevitable parting of the ways took place. 

Now, if the club was thinking in this way, it could be possible that they consistently had their eyes on a target for the longer term position of manager.  Randy is said to be on good terms with Houllier so maybe this factor (along with the insights of the ex-Arsenal people we now have) led all roads to lead to Garde.  Garde has said, himself, that he made a promise to his former chairman in Lyon that he would not accept any jobs within a certain time frame which could explain why we did not appoint him before the Summer when we gave Tim the job. All very messy, of course, but needs must.  As for the summer signings, if all this was going on behind the scenes, I would say Garde (through a channel like, say, Houllier) just might have had some influence on the thinking of the "Committee"...

The question needs to be raised, though: Is Randy capable of such Machiavellianism? On the evidence of all previous managerial appointments and business decisions I would highly doubt it.   We do have a new structure behind the scenes, though, where Tom Fox is now pretty much running the club for Randy.  Is it possible Fox could have overseen as complicated an  operation as this?  Maybe.  It's clearly a very different and less honorable approach to what we have seen on the watch of Randy alone but Fox just might be a very different animal to the owner when it comes to matters of business and driving a bargain.   I'm with Eddie on this one, I think there is more to it all than immediately meets the eye.

[PeterWithesShin]

As a conspiracy it falls down on a couple of things. What if Sherwood was keeping us bobbing about 10th-12th place? And that Remi Garde was just waiting for us to be so shit that he could step in. As much as we all love the Villa I doubt Garde has spent the last 3/4/5 months thinking "the only job I want is the Villa job". What if he had received an offer a couple of months ago of more money, from a club in a much stronger position than us etc?

As has been said before, I think there has been a clear shift in thinking at the club, so we've recruited certain players and when it came to appointing a new manager we had a few names that would fit into that thinking and Garde was one of them. And may well have been clear at the top of the list, but I doubt there's many clubs that don't have a list of managers as a contingency plan if the current manager leaves.

[Billy Walker]

Yep, it does fall down on that scenario but maybe under those circumstances, the board would have found another reason to get rid.  Another area where it falls down is that Garde was in talks with Newcastle in January - although Garde has said he couldn't have joined Newcastle anyway because of his promise to Lyon.  Who knows?  You look at clubs like Swansea seemingly looking to get rid of Monk and it is clear nothing is straightforward.

[Jimbo]

I reckon Garde's intervention went even further than player acquisition. Now, we all know his decision to snub Newcastle was based a lack of satisfactory art galleries in the north east, and I doubt it's a coincidence that the Barber Institute of Fine Art and Birmingham Museum's Trust have recently acquired work by the Anglo-German figurative painter Frank Auerbach, who once holidayed in France. *winks, taps nose*

[Sexual Ealing]

I reckon Garde's intervention went even further than player acquisition. Now, we all know his decision to snub Newcastle was based a lack of satisfactory art galleries in the north east, and I doubt it's a coincidence that the Barber Institute of Fine Art and Birmingham Museum's Trust have recently acquired work by the Anglo-German figurative painter Frank Auerbach, who once holidayed in France. *winks, taps nose*

You're so gullible. Everyone ITK Ks that the art gallery thing in Newcastle is a red herring. Actually it was about a lack of quality tailoring. Which Randy obviously knew. One leaked photo of Charlie N'Zog in his Sunday best and bang: we got our man to Brum.

[Brend'Watkins]

I reckon Garde's intervention went even further than player acquisition. Now, we all know his decision to snub Newcastle was based a lack of satisfactory art galleries in the north east, and I doubt it's a coincidence that the Barber Institute of Fine Art and Birmingham Museum's Trust have recently acquired work by the Anglo-German figurative painter Frank Auerbach, who once holidayed in France. *winks, taps nose*

Then there's also the food...very important for a gastronomic connoisseur which I'm sure Remi is.  The abundance of high level office space might have had some bearing on it to. 

[mr underhill]

plus it's a job with oodles of scope for Jean Paul Sartre type existential angst if/when things go tits up

[Jimbo]

I reckon Garde's intervention went even further than player acquisition. Now, we all know his decision to snub Newcastle was based a lack of satisfactory art galleries in the north east, and I doubt it's a coincidence that the Barber Institute of Fine Art and Birmingham Museum's Trust have recently acquired work by the Anglo-German figurative painter Frank Auerbach, who once holidayed in France. *winks, taps nose*

Then there's also the food...very important for a gastronomic connoisseur which I'm sure Remi is.  The abundance of high level office space might have had some bearing on it to. 

It's all falling into place. A devotee of Le Corbusier's purist branch of modernism, Garde felt Madin's work to be lumpen, brash and somewhat uncouth, which is why Birmingham is hastily ridding itself of its Brutalist architecture.

[LeeB]

I reckon Garde's intervention went even further than player acquisition. Now, we all know his decision to snub Newcastle was based a lack of satisfactory art galleries in the north east, and I doubt it's a coincidence that the Barber Institute of Fine Art and Birmingham Museum's Trust have recently acquired work by the Anglo-German figurative painter Frank Auerbach, who once holidayed in France. *winks, taps nose*

I've never heard of this foreign painting, it must be unproven and not worthy a Barber gallery. Why couldn't have they given the spot to a British painting like Going to Work by Lowry?