Summer 2022 Transfer Thread

[Gerrin]

True. He still could have made more of a fist of it. I'm not sure even a great manager could have kept us up, but Remi wasn't a great manager.

He's a terrible manager, his subsequent managerial career has only gone on to prove that further. We weren't even close to having a chance of staying up with him in charge.


Garde arrived at Villa Park in 2015 as a replacement for Tim Sherwood, and came with pedigree. In his previous job with Lyon, he steered the Ligue 1 club to victory in both the Coupe de France and Trophee des Champions.

However, it didn’t work out for him in the Premier League as his strict regime and lack of interaction with the team meant he lasted just five months. Hired in the November, Garde was axed in March with Villa still rock-bottom of the table. The club was later relegated.

And according to Agbonlahor, the coach was so unbearable that ‘even the French players couldn’t stand him’.

“Remi Garde was the worst manager I ever played under,” said the former winger. “He is up there at the top on his own.

“And it’s not just me, if you asked any player in the whole squad they’d say exactly the same.

Remi Garde’s reign at Aston Villa was not filled with joy – he only won three of his 23 games in charge of the club
“When he came in he was arrogant in a bad way, where even in training he would be watching on the side with his arms folded, shaking his head, sulking, throwing his arms up.

“The older players in the squad would be thinking, ‘come over and tell the players what they’re not doing right’, but he just held it inside. He didn’t say anything.

“He never got involved in the sessions, either. Even on game days he’d just sit in the dugout and not ever come out and say if something was going wrong. He’d just be shaking his head thinking, ‘they’re all rubbish’.

“He wanted it to be like an army base. You weren’t allowed to laugh or smile!

“I remember one day Jack told me: ‘Remi Garde has just told me off for smiling’.

“I was like… ‘y’what?!’

“Jack walked down the corridor and he said to him: ‘Why are you laughing so much? Why are you so happy?’

“How can you tell someone not to smile at work? You want players to be happy when they’re playing football.

“And he was serious, he wasn’t joking. It was incredible!”

Did Garde never smile, then?

“No,” Agbonlahor added.

“Eventually it got to the stage where he was waiting to be sacked. He was waiting for his pay-off. He didn’t want to resign and lose his money, he was waiting for the pay-off.

“And you’d think maybe the French players would have liked him, but they couldn’t stand him either, or his assistant.

“He was wrong fit from the very beginning.”

[PaulWinch again]

To be fair he might have been a poor manager - but I wouldn’t hold much stock in what Gabby says. His attitude, and that of a good portion of that squad, was absolutely toxic.

[London Villan]

"He’d just be shaking his head thinking, ‘they’re all rubbish"

"watching on the side with his arms folded, shaking his head, sulking, throwing his arms up."

Sounds like he was thinking the same as the fans in the stands...

[LeeB]

"He’d just be shaking his head thinking, ‘they’re all rubbish"

"watching on the side with his arms folded, shaking his head, sulking, throwing his arms up."

Sounds like he was thinking the same as the fans in the stands...

I'm not giving Gabby any credit but what he says rings true. He was well paid to manage the situation not stand on the side tutting, we were fucked but he was fucking useless.

[chrisw1]

To be fair he might have been a poor manager - but I wouldn’t hold much stock in what Gabby says. His attitude, and that of a good portion of that squad, was absolutely toxic.

The whole club was toxic, but he didn't help himself.  And it was absolutely clear he was just waiting for his pay off.

[Legion]

Remi Garde took over one of the most toxic dressing rooms in Villa’s history
He had no chance from the start

This.

Agreed. On a hiding to nothing from the start.

[Legion]

Dr Venglos anyone?

Right person, wrong time.

[LeeB]

Dr Venglos anyone?

Right person, wrong time.

Right person, wrong chairman.

[London Villan]

I'm not even sure he was the right person... another terrible decision - waiting months for Houllier, appointing TSM, then TSM2, then Tactics and Garde to finish the list of the worst run of Villa managers in history...

[Chris Smith]

Remi Garde took over one of the most toxic dressing rooms in Villa’s history
He had no chance from the start

This.

Agreed. On a hiding to nothing from the start.

True but he’s done nothing since to suggest that he was up to managing in the PL.

[Lastfootstamper]

True. He still could have made more of a fist of it. I'm not sure even a great manager could have kept us up, but Remi wasn't a great manager.

He's a terrible manager, his subsequent managerial career has only gone on to prove that further.

There's very few ex-Villa managers you couldn't say that about. We do seem to break a lot.

[Beard82]

True. He still could have made more of a fist of it. I'm not sure even a great manager could have kept us up, but Remi wasn't a great manager.

He's a terrible manager, his subsequent managerial career has only gone on to prove that further.

There's very few ex-Villa managers you couldn't say that about. We do seem to break a lot.

Can only think of SGT - and we still got him back to make sure he finished his career on a low.

[ventnorVillain]

The Villa job is a managers' graveyard full stop. Almost no one in our history has left to have an illustrious career elsewhere. I will happily be proven wrong, but I think the last one was Joe Mercer back in the 1960s and even he left us after suffering  a nervous breakdown. He did a great job at Man. City, but even now there are many people who will point to Malcolm Allison's coaching ability at the club as the main reason for their success.

[LeeB]

I'm not even sure he was the right person... another terrible decision - waiting months for Houllier, appointing TSM, then TSM2, then Tactics and Garde to finish the list of the worst run of Villa managers in history...

A list:

McLeish
Lambert
Sherwood
Garde
Di Matteo
Bruce

I've left out pauliewalnuts best pal Eric Black as he was only a caretaker.

The list is bad enough in it's own right, but it's scary to think the best manager out of that lot is Bruce.

[algy]

The Villa job is a managers' graveyard full stop. Almost no one in our history has left to have an illustrious career elsewhere. I will happily be proven wrong, but I think the last one was Joe Mercer back in the 1960s and even he left us after suffering  a nervous breakdown. He did a great job at Man. City, but even now there are many people who will point to Malcolm Allison's coaching ability at the club as the main reason for their success.

My theory with this is simply that Villa are in a very small group of clubs that are effectively impossible to 'move up' from.  A manager who's a success at Villa doesn't need to move up, because being a successful Villa manager necessarily means that you'd be consistently in the top 2 or 3 positions in the league and winning trophies.  Anything like finishing e.g. 5th season-on-season is not considered a success - see MON for details.

So the only way you make a success of Villa is to win things, and by winning things then any other move would be a move down.  Or you don't make a success of Villa, in which case no "big" club is going to give you a job because you've already tried (and failed) at the best opportunity you're ever going to get.  You've been given the reigns of the largest of all sleeping giants - a club with complete dominance (in terms of support) over one of the largest urban areas in the country, and for many miles in any direction past that - and failed.