Aston Villa’s third permanent manager of the year made no pretence that he will be the saviour of the Premier League’s bottom club. “I’m not a dreamer or a magic man,” said Rémi Garde as he was unveiled as Tim Sherwood’s replacement at Villa Park on Thursday. “But I have strong ideas.” They will need to take root swiftly for Randy Lerner’s latest managerial gamble to secure Villa’s top flight status.
It was the Villa owner’s love and long-term vision for the club that sold the job to the former Lyon coach, according to Garde, despite Lerner’s desire to sell up. The American billionaire has turned to a coach without Premier League managerial experience, and who has been out of the game for over a year due to personal reasons, to save a team that last won a league point on 29 August and has merely four in total with almost a third of the season gone. “I feel the club is in a hole,” said Sherwood shortly before he was sacked last month. A dreamer is the last thing Villa need in the circumstances.
“In football, things can change,” said Garde, who has signed a three-and-a-half-year contract and begins his reign at home to the leaders Manchester City on Sunday. “If I didn’t think I could change things I would have said ‘No, this job is not for me’, but I’ve got the hope that we can do it. I don’t know what happened before, I was not inside and I can’t judge. I can only focus on what will happen from now on.
“I haven’t the certainty we will stay in the Premier League because the situation we are in is difficult but I have strong belief we will do it.
“I’m not a dreamer or a magic man, I have strong ideas. Maybe that was why I stopped at Lyon – because you need strong energy for what I want to do – but now I think there are things I want to change. That is not saying what went on before was wrong. There is not only one way to win games but I have my ideas and a strategy that I want to implement.”
Garde’s friendship with Arsène Wenger, who managed the former midfielder at Arsenal between 1996-99, had been cited as a key factor in the 49-year-old’s decision to follow his compatriot’s advice and take the Villa job. While admitting Wenger and the ex-Villa manager Gérard Houllier are trusted confidants, Garde insists his return to England had no outside influence.
“I had made my decision 98% before I read what Arsène said,” he said. “You can’t make this kind of decision because someone said I should. I have big respect for Arsène Wenger but I’m not crazy enough to say ‘OK, let’s go’ because Arsène said so. He is not sat here next to me with this job.”
Garde confirmed he rejected a previous offer to manage in the Premier League – from Newcastle United in January – having given Lyon his word he needed an extended sabbatical from the game. “That time I was not ready to start again after leaving Lyon,” he said. “I wanted to stay honest to the chairman.” The Frenchman also claimed he was “not desperate” to return to the game nor depressed at being out of it, but had a feeling for Villa following talks with Lerner and the club’s chief executive, Tom Fox.
He explained: “I had a very good feeling from speaking with the owner, with the way he wanted to fix this bad situation. I think the feeling and the way people share ideas about the future is important in a club. If not, it could be difficult. I love how they want to make Villa for the future, so I agreed.”
But that does not tally with Lerner’s attempts to sell the club he purchased in 2006. “You have to ask the owner about that,” Garde replied.
“I can’t tell you the private conversation I had but he never appeared to me to be wanting to sell the club. He loves the club and I was very impressed with how he spoke about Villa. He gave me the belief. To be honest, I was surprised to see how much he loved the club. He made me want to work with him. I can’t speak in the name of Randy Lerner, I have only just met him, but he did not seem to be a man who doesn’t love the club and doesn’t care – it was the opposite.”
The new Villa manager insisted he had no qualms about working with a transfer committee, a source of clear frustration for Sherwood. Garde said: “It is something we are used to in France. What’s important is that I will have the final say. I can’t watch all the games. The organisation is a support, not something I will fight against. We will have discussions and I will say what I want.”
Garde’s assistant manager, Reginald Ray, who had occupied the same position at Bastia, and his former fitness coach at Lyon, Robert Duverne, have joined the coach at Villa Park. Hopes of a swift reunion with his Lyon assistants Gérald Baticle and Bruno Génésio have been thwarted for the time being by the French club’s owner, Jean-Michel Aulas.
