avfc1982am

Not my favourite player by any stretch but thought he did well last night. Looked much more assured in the system played last night than in recent weeks.

Enjoyed watching him in the left mid position last night. Thought he offered really good width and shouldn't have been subbed tbh. We suffered after that becoming narrow again and allowing Southampton to press us and close the spaces easier. Poor decision as I thought the formation wasn't the issue.   

Not sure how legit all of that is. From what I gather the reference to Garde and the coaches is under the caption at the top but not within the main article? Would have thought more emphasis would have been on that particular question. Not saying it isn't a direct quote but very unsure about it.

I wouldn't have thought Lyon could do an awful lot should the coaches decide that they want to go to pastures new. Compensation and timing would be the more likely hold up imo. I wouldn't be surprised if Garde joined and utilised Parkes and McDonald over the next couple of weeks until wrangling's between clubs over compensation are finalised and his assistants can link up.  

It's not a pantomime yet! No one knows if we haven't already approached Moyes, Rogers or whoever, It's all speculation at the moment. Both may have turned us down for all anyone knows.

For the record Garde doesn't have a modest reputation in France. Looking at reports his reputation is of a quality tactician who has a habit(however early into his career) of getting the best out of youth and stabilising a team. Exactly what we need imo. Whether that person is French, Italian, German or British etc is completely irrelevant at this point in time. British managers haven't exactly lit up VP with their brand of football in recent times.  

Don't do it to yourself. Poyet ain't getting the Villa job after the blunderland fiasco!

Also as a Villa fan you will never get off the claret and blue carousel.

ESPN article..

• On Sunday, former Lyon manager Remi Garde was looking forward to paying a visit to Old Trafford, where he would commentate on Manchester United vs. Manchester City for French television

Over the last 16 months, Garde hasn't missed much of the action in the Premier League, partly due to the work commitment he took up after leaving Lyon, but also because it is his favourite league by some way and the one in which he has always dreamed to coach.

As it transpired, Garde never made it to Manchester and the French public didn't hear his voice commentating on the Manchester derby. The reason? Well, he is now the odds-on favourite to land the Aston Villa manager's job so you can put two and two together!

The aftermath of Tim Sherwood's sacking, which was announced hours before the Manchester derby, led to a change in Garde's plans. Instead of taking a position on the TV gantry, he began talks with the Villa hierarchy.

It is no surprise that Garde, 49, tops the wish list of club owner Randy Lerner and chief executive Tom Fox. Around Europe, Garde is seen as a bright and promising manager and, last season, was offered the chance to replace Alan Pardew at Newcastle. He turned the offer down. Garde was also approached by Sunderland recently, while German clubs also made enquiries over the summer.

With Lyon, Garde finished fourth, third and fifth in Ligue 1 between 2011 and 2014. He also won the French Cup in 2012, as well as the French Community Shield in the same year and then, two years later, took the team to the Europa League quarterfinal against Juventus.

Garde achieved all of this on a tight budget, as he had to compensate for the previously lavish spending by some of his managerial predecessors to balance the books. With no say, he saw Jeremy Toulalan, Miralem Pjanic, Hugo Lloris, Cris, Kim Kallstrom, Dejan Lovren and Lisandro Lopez leave.

In return for losing his best and most dependable players, Garde turned to the club's academy and gave Nabil Fekir, Clinton Njie, Jordan Ferri and Rachid Ghezzal their first professional contracts. He also launched Alexandre Lacazette's career.

Lyon played good football under Garde and club chairman Jean-Michel Aulas rated his manager so highly that he almost begged him to stay. Such was the esteem in which Garde was held that Bernard Lacombe, the club's former striker and now officially Aulas' advisor (but actually more like the club's sporting director) had a nickname for him: "Remi Gardiola".

Apart from losing on penalties to Apoel Nicosia in the 2011-12 Champions League last 16 and a League Cup final loss against PSG in 2014, Garde's time at Lyon was a success. He was one of the club's favourite children, a prodigy who had been club captain at 22 before one day returning as manager.

But after three years in charge, following many years as, among other job, academy director and first-team coach, he could not continue. He was physically and mentally drained. The pressure took its toll and the expectation, combined with the lack of resources, made for a challenging time at the club. In 2014 he decided not to renew his contract and take a sabbatical.

Lyon's 2014-15 campaign, which saw them finish second in Ligue 1 under Hubert Fournier, came from a solid foundation as Garde's legacy lived on. "Lyon benefits now from the quality of his work. It was a job where he was a lot under pressure because in Lyon the demands are very high, but he did very well" said Arsene Wenger last summer.

Garde and Wenger go back a long way. In 1996, alongside Patrick Vieira, Garde was Wenger's first signing at Arsenal and stayed three seasons at the club. Like Wenger, the midfielder had previously played for Strasbourg.

The two men had endless talks about tactics, managing and the evolution of the game through the years. They have always remained in contact and Wenger would no doubt be delighted to see one of his disciples getting the Villa job. For Garde, Wenger is more than a mentor. He is the perfection, the path to follow, the guide.

Garde has no Premier League experience as a manager but nor did Wenger. As a modern-day comparison, Slaven Bilic is proving at West Ham that it is not an issue. If a manager is good enough, he will succeed.

The problem is that they are still part of the technical staff at Lyon, who don't want to let them go, especially after each of them signed a new deal with a pay rise last summer. Could Garde accept the Villa job alone? It is hard to say. He is desperate to come back to management and sees this as a great opportunity.

His last game in England as Lyon manager was in the Europa League Round of 32 against Tottenham on Valentine's Day 2013. Aston Villa's next league game? Away to Tottenham.

Sorry, I meant to say hater!

Plus it's not a given that someone will come I and do a better job than Sherwood. Keep us up for instance or take us to an FA Cup final. Sherwood may well have fell on his arse but so have those before him and if we display any of the ineptness we have shown over the last 4 years or so we could easily end up with just about anyone and not necessarily improve.

Stefan your sounding a little bitter now. You've made comments like this on a few occasions now. let it go.

I'm personally sick of underwhelming british managers now and feel a new direction is needed with regards to managerial appointments. neither moyes or rogers would fill me with excitement tbh.

I think Garde is ideal if we can persuade him to come. Proven top level european experience and may be the one to mould the players brought in. 

There is something really special about this lad. Considering he is the one player out of all our new signings who was wrote off by the vast majority after a few bit part games, he is the one who looks the most accomplished and assured on the ball currently. I think he has shown great character since arriving and has now started to look like he shouldn't be left out the side.

Out of all our players I am genuinely chuffed he got his goal yesterday more than anyone else. I'm really liking what I'm seeing from him at the moment and after the last few weeks is starting to look worth the 10 or so mil he cost. Definitely the the better of the Ayew's imo.   

He has got to go straight away. Without even going into his line up today or leaving Gil on the bench, bringing Troare on in the 85 min, I'm just worn out with this crap.

We should've won that game today no excuses.

Thought he was fantastic today. Didn't stop working his socks off and got his reward with his first goal. Our best player today by a mile imo.

They both need to play then. Fragmented game time isn't going to help them get match sharpness. I'm hoping at least Ayew gets a start tomorrow as I am sure playing against his bro he will want to shine.

I think it is a little to early to judge him as with Ayew. He played the AM role for Nantes last season so playing him in a more of a holding role isn't necessarily where he will shine most. I think it is no surprise his best moments for Villa have so far been in advanced positions.

Just seen it and totally agree! Can make up my mind on which I like the most though, the home or away and even the 3rd is superb.

I have the 1981-82 home original Le Coq Sportif. It's a beautiful piece of artwork with the felt Sportif emblems on the arms.   

Bring back Le Coq Sportif!

My apologies for the late(literally) response to your post but hey, sometimes life just takes over.

My original post was in response to you using the term 'Bully' based on comments made by someone that did not state that in any way.  You see what has happened here with yourself is that you have heard/seen a few comments regarding somebody's behaviour in possibly the heat of the moment, in a completely different environment and position to the one they currently occupy, and then built a picture of that persons character in order to justify your comments or the fact that he isn't capable of dealing with the players in a professional manner and therefore is a poor manager.

Also questioning the guy's passion because he isn't screaming at people or the ref over the Veretout incident or because he isn't like Fergie, what's that about? How do you know he didn't lay into the ref in the tunnel or after the game? Or have a quiet word with Wilkins in private after the game last Saturday?

You see the thing is here, in this situation, you have no idea how Tim Sherwood is behaving in his role as manager of Aston Villa with regards to his relationships with the players, his coaching methods or indeed his instructions in order to get them playing as a cohesive unit. Only those involved do and until someone comes out and says Sherwood is bully and doesn't have a clue then your own methods of interpretation as to his character are flawed. Unless you personally know him of course? let me just throw this in the mix. Jack Grealish the darling of the Villa, who was it he ran to and jumped on when he scored his first goal for his boyhood club?

Now you may be right in that Sherwood isn't good enough to manage the Villa which up to now I agree with as his decision making on formations, line up and subs have been strange, hence the results. But here's the thing, most people are coming out in the media are in defence of him, all ex players. If that is the case it appears he is pretty well liked by most and maybe not the confrontational bully you see him as. Sure he can talk out his arse at times but find a manager that doesn't. Fergie certainly did.

Now regarding the comments Lambert which are not pointing the finger may I add.... Well it appears there was a case related to bullying all under his watch yet he lasted 3 years, near on with certain people never questioning his managerial methods or character. Funny  that.

TRO, personally I am no fan of any manager until they as the players prove they are good enough to represent my club - simple. I am as capable as ranting as well as the next man and possibly worse at times however my actions in general are for bloody good reasons mate. At least most of the time.

So someone who is passionate, has a rant once in a while when things are bad and tells players the truth is now a bully? 

We are talking about a male dominated, performance related environment are we not? Not trying to be nasty or anything like that but have you spent much time in your life playing football then or in that type of environment? Whereby if your crap at your job or make stupid mistakes you get slated or have the piss taken out of you by your peers? Trying to now turn Sherwood into some sort of bully after a few comments, none of which depict him as a bully at all is just wrong!

I can understand people wanting rid of Sherwood based on results and certain decisions etc(as I do), but some of the nonsense being posted trying to assassinate his character whilst jumping on the bandwagon is just desperate and not required in this instance. Results will remove him from his job soon enough should things continue much longer.

If only Sherwood was a mumbling Scottish manager with no experience of managing a club the size of Villa he would get 2-3 years to turn shit around, even if crap.

I didn't see this post previously, but how stupid it is..

"Nothing is more pathetic or infuriating to me in this thread than those who have laid into the guy from left right and centre, from his skills (fair game though I disagree with a lot of it and the credentials of those who know better), to his character (based on pretty much nothing and pretty abusive in some aspects).....who then have the nerve to go on to say " I'd love to be proved wrong "........."

There is nothing wrong in admitting you maybe wrong or hope to be proved wrong regarding your behaviour to something or someone . It's normal behaviour! If everyone thought it was wrong to evaluate initial behaviour or decisions for fear of being pathetic the world would be in a much shitter state than it is. IMO there is nothing more infuriating than someone with minimal intelligence and apathy judging everyone else for hoping a person can retrieve a desperate situation for the greater good of all concerned. Regardless of how they feel. 

Personally I have given him enough stick myself the last couple of weeks due to some of his comments, but mostly because of his decision making before and during the games. I have called him a clown etc as others have, and rightly so at the time as I felt angry. Thing is though with regards to his comments, everyone is capable of acting a clown and talking shit when upset, p****d off, being defensive or even when trying to be clever(take that post above as an example ). And for myself, on reflection and looking at things from the outside, I think he does deserve a bit of leeway where his mouth is concerned to be fair. I cannot think of us ever having a manager that didn't talk shit at some point! 

Even though I am very doubtful he can turn it around in time to save his job I would absolutely love to be proven wrong and take good points from the next few games, stabilise and then start to kick on. I just hope we have a go at chelsea tomorrow though and try to take the game to them first and foremost. Fingers crossed and UTV! 

My apologies if so however I thought they were made during the post final interview. You can say people didn't agree which is fair enough however I know a fair few that did agree. Even Delph commented on it after the final. Plus the comments were regarding the players finding a winning mentality. Something everyone can at least agree that they lacked and still do.