Rémi Garde has been named as the new manager of Aston Villa, reports The Guardian.
The Frenchman replaces Tim Sherwood at Villa Park, who was sacked just over a week ago after eight months in charge with the club in 19th place in the Premier League after six consecutive defeats.
Garde, who was a part of the Arsenal squad that won the League and Cup double in 1998, has put pen-to-paper on a three-and-a-half year deal with the Midlands outfit and will take charge of his first game when league leaders Manchester City visit Villa Park on Sunday.
The 49-year-old was in charge of Lyon between 2011 and 2014, guiding the club to the Coupe de France in 2012, and had a reputation in France of developing young players during his three-year stint in charge of the Les Gones. Despite his lack of experience in dealing with a relegation scrap, the Villa hierarchy are hoping Garde’s record of getting the best of his players will pay dividends and edge the club away from the Premier League trap door.
“It’s an unbelievable honour to be the manager of such an illustrious football club,” said the former French international who was capped six times by the Les Bleus between 1990 and 1992, “I’ve had extremely positive meetings with both the owner, Randy Lerner, and chief executive Tom Fox. They have ambitious plans for the club and I’m excited they’ve turned to me to help realise them. Obviously we have a difficult task in front of us but I’m looking forward to the challenge with the support of everyone who loves Aston Villa.”
Garde is understood to have left Lyon in 2014 for “personal and family reasons” and had been working for the French media during his stint away from management. He was said to be close to taking over at Newcastle United earlier this year after Alan Pardew had left for Crystal Palace, but the Magpies decided to wait until the end of the season for Steve McClaren.
The new Villa boss had wanted to bring Bruno Genesio and Gerald Baticle, his trusted lieutenants at Lyon, to the Midlands but the Ligue 1 side are digging in their heels so Bastia assistant Reginald Ray is looking likely to be named as Garde’s assistant.
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