The Rémi Garde thread

[dont_do_it_doug.]

So excited to see his first team sheet.

I'm going to be let down aren't I. 

Haha, I've been thinking this exact same thing this morning. Start Gana, Gil and Ayew and there's not much else he can do wrong in my eyes, I'm reasonably flexible on everyone else. Amavi would be nice though too please.

[CarewsEyebrowDesigner]

guzan

hutton richards lescott richardson

bacuna gana sanchez westwood n'zogbia

gabby

[sexbelowsound]

If I see Gestede up top on his own and nobody to cross to him i'm calling it now. REMI OUT!

[sexbelowsound]

So excited to see his first team sheet.

I'm going to be let down aren't I. 

 

 

Haha, I've been thinking this exact same thing this morning. Start Gana, Gil and Ayew and there's not much else he can do wrong in my eyes, I'm reasonably flexible on everyone else. Amavi would be nice though too please.

I want to see the French Invasion. **** it. I'll take CNZ back in to round it out.

[Jon]

So excited to see his first team sheet.

I'm going to be let down aren't I. 

 

 

Haha, I've been thinking this exact same thing this morning. Start Gana, Gil and Ayew and there's not much else he can do wrong in my eyes, I'm reasonably flexible on everyone else. Amavi would be nice though too please.

Yep.  Amavi at lb,  and lescott out for Clark or jores too,  and I'll be impressed. 

[Dr_Pangloss]

After Clark's performance on Monday I'm hardly keen for him to be in the first team. It's a hard one, Lescott has been disgraceful, but Clark's defending was unforgivable. 

[dont_do_it_doug.]

So excited to see his first team sheet.I'm going to be let down aren't I. 

 

 

Haha, I've been thinking this exact same thing this morning. Start Gana, Gil and Ayew and there's not much else he can do wrong in my eyes, I'm reasonably flexible on everyone else. Amavi would be nice though too please.

I want to see the French Invasion. **** it. I'll take CNZ back in to round it out.

I will like this only if I receive prior confirmation that you are joking.

[Rob182]

If I see Gestede up top on his own and nobody to cross to him i'm calling it now. REMI OUT!

I don't think you will see that, but you might see Gestede start and a load of Villa fans moaning about it before we even kick off and show how we're planning to play.

[sexbelowsound]

So excited to see his first team sheet.I'm going to be let down aren't I. 

 

 

 

Haha, I've been thinking this exact same thing this morning. Start Gana, Gil and Ayew and there's not much else he can do wrong in my eyes, I'm reasonably flexible on everyone else. Amavi would be nice though too please.

 

I want to see the French Invasion. **** it. I'll take CNZ back in to round it out.

 

 

I will like this only if I receive prior confirmation that you are joking.

I am joking. 

Also, I still don't get any notifications when you reply to a post. I get a bloody million when antrim quotes things i've never said in conversations I haven't been apart of though!

Edited November 8, 2015 by sexbelowsound

[sexbelowsound]

If I see Gestede up top on his own and nobody to cross to him i'm calling it now. REMI OUT!

 

I don't think you will see that, but you might see Gestede start and a load of Villa fans moaning about it before we even kick off and show how we're planning to play.

Tbh, I was messing about. 

[HanoiVillan]

After Clark's performance on Monday I'm hardly keen for him to be in the first team. It's a hard one, Lescott has been disgraceful, but Clark's defending was unforgivable. 

Maybe we should try Crespo? It's a bleak situation, isn't it?

[avfc1982am]

I'm really not expecting drastic changes to the team straight away and would expect him to gradually let players play themselves out of the team. I think he will want them all(players) to believe they are part of his plans in order to get them onside. Coming in and just ousting the most the british players is not probably the wisest thing to do straight away, although I am sure most of us would love it, it would probably split the camp even further than it may already have been.

I would love him to get Gana, Ayew, Amavi, Gil(should of put his name first), and Traore in the starting line up from the off but just can't see it happening.

[TrentVilla]

So excited to see his first team sheet.

I'm going to be let down aren't I. 

No

[sexbelowsound]

So excited to see his first team sheet.

I'm going to be let down aren't I. 

No

YAY!

[jonno_2004]

In two minds as to whether to watch the game today, pretty much came to the conclusion I wasn't going to put myself through the continuous torture until Sherwood was sacked.

Although rather childish, the decision as to whether I pop into Covent Garden to watch Spectre will almost purely be based on the teamsheet 

[mjmooney]

I don't know whether I can stand to watch it, either.

[TRO]

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. 

Very good post.......My sentiments entirely.

[TRO]

It is most unlikely that we can creatively out play city, so don't be too surprised when we see the line up that may be taken in to consideration.

.....but they will be wary of the new manager bounce, we need to max that out.

it wasn't prettiest for Stoke but they got the win by working their nut off and closing down and was well organised.

its not his team YET, so we must give him some space.

he must be given the reception of a lifetime, even if some of us fancied someone else

[HanoiVillan]

Totally agree TRO. 

[TRO]

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. 

Ditto