Aston Villa are expected to call time on Remi Garde's troubled and brief reign as manager in the next few days as they begin the task of preparing for life in the Championship. Garde has cut a forlorn figure for weeks and it was anticipated he would depart in the summer but a new-look Villa board is ready to accelerate its plans and sack the Frenchman after accepting there is nothing to be gained by going through the motions until the end of the season.
Garde has won only two of his 20 Premier League games since replacing Tim Sherwood at the start of November and feels badly let down by the club’s failure to back him in the January transfer window, when Villa failed to make a single signing.
From that moment on Garde felt that it was a matter of time before he would be out of a job and it is believed that he conveyed that message to Tom Fox, who resigned from his post as chief executive officer on Thursday, only 48 hours after Hendrik Almstadt departed as sporting director, as part of major changes at the Premier League’s bottom club.
Steve Hollis, Villa’s new chairman, chose his words carefully when asked about Garde’s future at Bodymoor Heath, the club’s training ground, on Friday and was not prepared to give any guarantees that the former Lyon manager would be given the job of trying to win promotion from the Championship next season.
Working closely with David Bernstein and Mervyn King, two recent additions to the Villa board, Hollis is conducting a thorough investigation into all aspects of the way the club have been operating. It has not taken them long, however, to realise that Garde looks and sounds like a broken man.
It is understood that Garde’s relationship with Randy Lerner, the Villa owner, has regressed to the point that the two barely communicate and things do not seem much better with some of the players. Garde strayed into dangerous territory when he publicly questioned his players’ commitment last month, even if there was substance to his comments.
Although the possibility of turning to Steve Bruce has been discussed, Villa will not make a permanent appointment until the summer, with Kevin MacDonald and Eric Black the most likely candidates for a caretaker role.
Nigel Pearson, the former Leicester City manager, is the leading contender for the post and is likely to be interested in the position.
Bruce has a track record of winning promotion from the Championship but his previous employment at Birmingham City, Villa’s bitter rivals, means that the board would run the risk of antagonising an already angry fanbase.
Pearson, on the other hand, is available and demonstrated at Leicester that he can rebuild a former Premier League club that had badly lost its way.
(Guardian service)
