The Rémi Garde thread

[HanoiVillan]

EDIT. 

Edited November 7, 2015 by HanoiVillan

[HanoiVillan]

This is the best thing I've heard yet. Paul Merson thinks we should have gone a different way.

“I would go and get Nigel Pearson tomorrow morning,” Merson said. “I think Tim [Sherwood] was unlucky, but now he’s not there I would go and get Nigel Pearson.

“He’s proven, the job he’s done at Leicester City was phenomenal.

“You bring in Remi Garde, a foreign manager who has never worked in the Premier League, and he might take six months to get used to it. By then, it could be all over.”

Why the **** didn't we hire Nigel Pearson?! You couldn't make it up.

I'm sorry but 98% of ex footballers (Gary Neville and some others are in those 2%) are complete and utter idiots.

We think this opinion is ridiculous today, because of course we're being optimistic this week. But for all any of us knows he could be absolutely right. 

is he Bollox he's As right as all the people on here who have been adamant for he last five seasons convinced we are down and out after 10 odd games. Give me a foreign manager with new ideas and who knows more than the 'English' hustle X do bustle crap I've seen for the last God knows how many years. 

It might work. It might not. You certainly don't know that it's going to work, so I don't really see how you're in a position to say 'is he bollox'. 

Will that prove that Nigel Pearson was the better option? 

No, but I didn't say it would . . . 

[dont_do_it_doug.]

This is the best thing I've heard yet. Paul Merson thinks we should have gone a different way.

“I would go and get Nigel Pearson tomorrow morning,” Merson said. “I think Tim [Sherwood] was unlucky, but now he’s not there I would go and get Nigel Pearson.

“He’s proven, the job he’s done at Leicester City was phenomenal.

“You bring in Remi Garde, a foreign manager who has never worked in the Premier League, and he might take six months to get used to it. By then, it could be all over.”

Why the **** didn't we hire Nigel Pearson?! You couldn't make it up.

I'm sorry but 98% of ex footballers (Gary Neville and some others are in those 2%) are complete and utter idiots.

We think this opinion is ridiculous today, because of course we're being optimistic this week. But for all any of us knows he could be absolutely right. 

is he Bollox he's As right as all the people on here who have been adamant for he last five seasons convinced we are down and out after 10 odd games. Give me a foreign manager with new ideas and who knows more than the 'English' hustle X do bustle crap I've seen for the last God knows how many years. 

It might work. It might not. You certainly don't know that it's going to work, so I don't really see how you're in a position to say 'is he bollox'. 

Will that prove that Nigel Pearson was the better option? 

No, but I didn't say it would . . . 

That is what the poster was referring to no? Unless I've misunderstood, but it seems clear enough. 

[robby b]

Aston de la Villa is now the team which has had the most French managers in the Premier League era: two. 

And there have only been six in total.

 

Edited November 7, 2015 by robby b

[HanoiVillan]

This is the best thing I've heard yet. Paul Merson thinks we should have gone a different way.

“I would go and get Nigel Pearson tomorrow morning,” Merson said. “I think Tim [Sherwood] was unlucky, but now he’s not there I would go and get Nigel Pearson.

“He’s proven, the job he’s done at Leicester City was phenomenal.

“You bring in Remi Garde, a foreign manager who has never worked in the Premier League, and he might take six months to get used to it. By then, it could be all over.”

Why the **** didn't we hire Nigel Pearson?! You couldn't make it up.

I'm sorry but 98% of ex footballers (Gary Neville and some others are in those 2%) are complete and utter idiots.

We think this opinion is ridiculous today, because of course we're being optimistic this week. But for all any of us knows he could be absolutely right. 

is he Bollox he's As right as all the people on here who have been adamant for he last five seasons convinced we are down and out after 10 odd games. Give me a foreign manager with new ideas and who knows more than the 'English' hustle X do bustle crap I've seen for the last God knows how many years. 

It might work. It might not. You certainly don't know that it's going to work, so I don't really see how you're in a position to say 'is he bollox'. 

Will that prove that Nigel Pearson was the better option? 

No, but I didn't say it would . . . 

That is what the poster was referring to no? Unless I've misunderstood, but it seems clear enough. 

****LONG POST ALERT****

I don't think you've misunderstood bose or nazvfc, but I think you have misunderstood me, which is my fault for not explaining myself well enough. For the last few days I've been wanting to post on our new manager, and the arguments around him, but have lacked the time. So this post will attempt to rectify that. 

Bose's post above ridiculed Paul Merson ('a complete and utter idiot') for saying that Nigel Pearson would be a better choice. Clearly lots of other posters feel the same way. But my point is that while Merson may be completely wrong, he might also be right as well, and therefore it's a bit harsh to be criticising him in those terms for giving an opinion that's perfectly reasonable. Here are a number of arguments I've seen on this forum:

Pro-Garde: He's a coach with a continental style. He's French and one of our biggest problems is getting young French players, purchased expensively, to play well, so he seems well-positioned to do that. We have a young side and he's worked well with young players under a shrinking wage budget before. Lyon's fans were sad to see him go. He has Premier League experience, and Arsene Wenger rates him and likes him. 

Anti-Garde: His 'Premier League experience' was more than a decade and a half ago. Not all of his league finishes with Lyon were that impressive, and Lyon had much better players than we do. Despite their better players, and their strong attack, his teams in France were noted for conceding too many goals, including a number of hapless defensive ****-ups. The Premier League is very different to Ligue 1 and Villa are a very different side in much more difficult circumstances. He knew Lyon inside out before he became manager, but here he doesn't know the club at all and needs to hit the ground running. We don't have time for him to 'get settled in'. 

Pro-Pearson: He has Premier League experience, including a miraculous escape from what seemed certain relegation for his team last season. If it hadn't been for off-the-field problems he'd still be the manager there today. It could be argued that he constructed the platform Ranieri is building from, an argument strengthened by the fact that Ranieri changed as little as possible in the summer after joining the club and they are now joint-top of the league tonight. If we did go down, he's experienced in the Championship and got his last club promoted as overwhelming champions two seasons ago. 

Anti-Pearson: He's a loudmouth and a bully, a man whose off-the-field antics were distracting at crucial times last season, and who seemed to specialise in alienating everyone, including people who mattered like his own bosses. For most of last season, his team were abject and glued to the bottom of the table. They were so bad even we beat them twice. 

The thing about all of these arguments is that they are all reasonable. I don't think any of those comments is ridiculous. So if Paul Merson focuses on one of those arguments, it isn't ridiculous, and he isn't obviously talking 'bollox'. He could be right, he could be wrong. To a certain extent, time will tell if Garde is the right choice, but of course it will never be completely certain no matter what because we can only see how Garde does. It is certainly at least possible that Pearson would have done a better job - it's not like there are no arguments for his appointment. 

One further annoyance is that I feel, by acknowledging that Garde isn't without his risks, some posters, myself among them, might be seen as being against Garde in some way. But in fact, I think the opposite is true. Because I don't think he's a superhero, or a white knight on a shining steed, I don't expect him to come in and solve all of our problems. Nor do I anticipate blaming him overly for failing to do so. In fact, I'm 'pro-Garde' in as much as I'm prepared to give him the time he needs to get this team sorted, and that includes a season in the Championship if he doesn't pull off a miracle this season. I don't believe that this squad is full of latent talent just waiting to be discovered - I think it's full of players who aren't good enough for the division they're playing in and that it has no spine. Of course, I'd be delighted to be proven wrong, but that's how I see it. 

By contrast, I think a lot of Villa fans are setting Garde up for failure. On the one hand, I see people over-praising him, which is understandable because of course people want to be positive when a new manager is installed. On the other hand, though, I see a lot of people saying, well, there's 27 games to go, we're only 6 points off safety, if he doesn't get us safe that's a failure. I think a lot of these fans are going to end up turning on Garde if he can't turn around a very bad collection of players. 

TL/DR: Merson isn't a fan, he's a pundit. He doesn't have to boost our new manager if he doesn't believe it was the right appointment. His position may be wrong, but it has some logic behind it, and it doesn't make him an idiot. And a more useful way to support our new manager is by not getting disproportionately excited at his arrival, but by acknowledging the extent of our shitty situation and then remembering to bear that in mind in the future if it doesn't all work out like we hope. 

[VillanousOne]

Best thing that Garde can do is not build the spine of his team around the likes of Gabby and Westwood. He should also rethink what Richardson, Lescott and actually offer.

Even if we are stuck with Guzan and Hutton for now as there aren't any better options.

Much as it is simplistic to pin our failures on the old guard, Tim seemed to pin so much hope on the likes of Gabby, Westwood and even Grealish and came unstuck because of it.

I get the need for leaders and experience, but we need the manager to be brave and lead, not the players. If Garde can control the dressing room and wrestle back the status quo from the guys who don't seem to have a clue what they are doing, we have a chance. And I know this is speculation, I don't genuinely know who or who isn't disruptive or rubbish from a sphere or influence point of view, all I know is Sherwood was given a new deck of cards that he refused to play with. 

 

 

[dont_do_it_doug.]

HanoiVillan - a very good post. It is certainly at least possible that Merson is right in that Pearson might have been the better choice. I find it highly unlikely he would ever be a good fit for this football club, I for one could never being myself to support a sanctimonious nasty bully of a man. I'd have possibly cut my season ticket up.

But Garde failing won't prove that one way or another. That was my point. Merson is still an idiot and I don't think for one second he put the kind of thought into it that you did, no chance. His opinion was born out of ignorance.

[weedman]

Premier league experience is very useful if you have a load of experienced premier league players to work with, because you will understand them better and how to get them playing at their best. Our team is far more European, and it's primarily the European players we need to start playing to their best. Ayew, Amavi, Traore, Veretout, Sanchez, Okore, Bacuna, even Richards is used to a European style and Westwood is that sort of player too. A Remi Garde will be able to utilise those players and work with them better than a fat Sam or Pulis would IMO, whether that's enough to keep us up is up in the air at this stage - but it's by no means an impossible job, Leicester were further adrift than we are and they had half as many games and survived comfortably last season. There's a long way to go and a lot of points to play for yet

[Dodgyknees]

If anything, I can enjoy pre and post match conferences again :)

[Villarocker]

Brilliant post from HanoiVillan above! 

Personally, although believing that, on paper, Villa's fight to stay in the Premier League is not irretrievable, I sense that Garde will fail to keep us up. I say this because I think the position he's starting from is a cruel one. Cruel because we're rock bottom and a couple of wins from safety with Man City, Everton, Southampton and Arsenal to play in his first five games. Even if we beat Watford in between and nicked a point elsewhere, we'd still be in the bottom three with 8 points from 16 games. 

However, I've had enough of all the chopping and changing now. We need someone to create an identity and organise the squad. Garde is a young manager and, unlike his last couple of predecessors, I think he has a calmness about him that would stand us in good stead for the future. Being a young manager means he can also mature with the young squad that we have now. 

As long as he's not a complete disaster, I would stick with Garde now and let him work on building something, even if we do go down this season. Give him the chance to bring us back and kick on from there. 

[jasoncb]

This is the best thing I've heard yet. Paul Merson thinks we should have gone a different way.

“I would go and get Nigel Pearson tomorrow morning,” Merson said. “I think Tim [Sherwood] was unlucky, but now he’s not there I would go and get Nigel Pearson.

“He’s proven, the job he’s done at Leicester City was phenomenal.

“You bring in Remi Garde, a foreign manager who has never worked in the Premier League, and he might take six months to get used to it. By then, it could be all over.”

Why the **** didn't we hire Nigel Pearson?! You couldn't make it up.

I'm sorry but 98% of ex footballers (Gary Neville and some others are in those 2%) are complete and utter idiots.

We think this opinion is ridiculous today, because of course we're being optimistic this week. But for all any of us knows he could be absolutely right. 

is he Bollox he's As right as all the people on here who have been adamant for he last five seasons convinced we are down and out after 10 odd games. Give me a foreign manager with new ideas and who knows more than the 'English' hustle X do bustle crap I've seen for the last God knows how many years. 

It might work. It might not. You certainly don't know that it's going to work, so I don't really see how you're in a position to say 'is he bollox'. 

Will that prove that Nigel Pearson was the better option? 

Stopped listening to Merson a long time ago, he was against the Sherwood sacking because we sacked a young yet clueless manager which must of reminded him of someone.

[HanoiVillan]

Brilliant post from HanoiVillan above! 

Personally, although believing that, on paper, Villa's fight to stay in the Premier League is not irretrievable, I sense that Garde will fail to keep us up. I say this because I think the position he's starting from is a cruel one. Cruel because we're rock bottom and a couple of wins from safety with Man City, Everton, Southampton and Arsenal to play in his first five games. Even if we beat Watford in between and nicked a point elsewhere, we'd still be in the bottom three with 8 points from 16 games. 

However, I've had enough of all the chopping and changing now. We need someone to create an identity and organise the squad. Garde is a young manager and, unlike his last couple of predecessors, I think he has a calmness about him that would stand us in good stead for the future. Being a young manager means he can also mature with the young squad that we have now. 

As long as he's not a complete disaster, I would stick with Garde now and let him work on building something, even if we do go down this season. Give him the chance to bring us back and kick on from there. 

Yes, this is exactly how I feel, especially the last two paragraphs. As I've said before, since O'Neill left we've averaged sacking a manager nearly once a calendar year. That's clearly unsustainable. At some point, we need to pick a guy, trust him to do a job given the time and space, and let him at it. I agree that Garde seems like a good person to give that role to. He's calm, he's knowledgeable.

We've tried chopping and changing. It hasn't worked. Let's try something else. 

[LondonLax]

Brilliant post from HanoiVillan above! 

Personally, although believing that, on paper, Villa's fight to stay in the Premier League is not irretrievable, I sense that Garde will fail to keep us up. I say this because I think the position he's starting from is a cruel one. Cruel because we're rock bottom and a couple of wins from safety with Man City, Everton, Southampton and Arsenal to play in his first five games. Even if we beat Watford in between and nicked a point elsewhere, we'd still be in the bottom three with 8 points from 16 games. 

However, I've had enough of all the chopping and changing now. We need someone to create an identity and organise the squad. Garde is a young manager and, unlike his last couple of predecessors, I think he has a calmness about him that would stand us in good stead for the future. Being a young manager means he can also mature with the young squad that we have now. 

As long as he's not a complete disaster, I would stick with Garde now and let him work on building something, even if we do go down this season. Give him the chance to bring us back and kick on from there. 

Yes, this is exactly how I feel, especially the last two paragraphs. As I've said before, since O'Neill left we've averaged sacking a manager nearly once a calendar year. That's clearly unsustainable. At some point, we need to pick a guy, trust him to do a job given the time and space, and let him at it. I agree that Garde seems like a good person to give that role to. He's calm, he's knowledgeable.

We've tried chopping and changing. It hasn't worked. Let's try something else. 

The club only changes manager when they realise the current manager is not up to the task. Most people believe we gave Lambert and O'Neil too long rather than changing managers too quickly. 

 

If Guard does well he won't be sacked, I think he will have a pretty low bar to clear as well. 

[V01]

**** sake, we didn't even give Garde a chance.

[PongRiddims]

Remi out

[AstonMartyn88]

Will be interesting to see what kind of side he picks today. But I hope it doesn't include Agbonlahor and Richardson

[alreadyexists]

I am looking forward to the start of the Remi Era, and his first team pick later today. I was a bit baffled by KMac's side against Tottenham, and I hope Remi has seen enough of the team to know that wasn't the best side, but it has only been a few days. 

I like him already in terms of his calmness and his approach to the interviews I've seen. He sounds like he knows what he's talking about, and even if he doesn't as long as he sounds like he does that's better than the previous manager!

I'm not really expecting anything but a loss today, but that small hope that we might put up a good fight, or even get some points, is making things seem better already. 

I think supporting a football team is as much about hope as anything else, and if the last manager got to a stage that was hopeless then I suppose I now feel hopeful that things could change for the better.

 

 

 

[sexbelowsound]

So excited to see his first team sheet.

I'm going to be let down aren't I. 

[CarewsEyebrowDesigner]

in before 4-5-1 with Gabby up top on his own and Gil dropped from the match-day squad.

[dounavilla]

I hope your right.