Tuesday 16 February 2016 17:29, UK
Former Aston Villa striker Tony Cascarino thinks that turmoil off the pitch has exacerbated the problems on the field this season.
Villa are rooted to the foot of the table, eight points off safety, after Sunday's 6-0 defeat at the hands of Liverpool, their 16th loss of an increasingly bleak campaign.
Remi Garde, who took over from Tim Sherwood in October, described the weekend result as 'humiliating' but the club's problems do not all lie at the door of the beleaguered Frenchman, according to Cascarino.
He told Sky Sports News HQ: "It's actually probably worse off the pitch than it is on it. Now some Villa fans will ask how can that be after a 6-0 home defeat by Liverpool.
"There are lots of issues and things that need to be dealt with at Villa. The uncertainty comes from the owner, down to the manager - will he be there next season? Is he a manager or a coach? I think that's uncertain.
"Recruitment has clearly failed. Ten players were brought in last summer and very few have worked. I find it very difficult to believe that you have to pick players up for a relegation battle. Do you need to motivate players for that? You have got a problem if you do, because the players should be doing it for themselves.
"They have got some big decisions to make. Randy Lerner has put a lot of his own money into it and continues to do so. It's an incredible club that I was lucky enough to play for but their recruitment has been awful.
"I don't believe they have got the right person involved that can liaise between the manager and the chief executive and the chairman, a role that all the very best clubs have.
"When you say manager, you have a manager who brings all his own staff in, five members, and has a budget but Villa don't know whether they want a manager or a coach.
"They've gone for the European model, where you just have the coach who looks after the players, trains them every day and decides the team for Saturday; with the manager one, you have an expensive outlay if it goes wrong as you have to get rid of the manager and his five staff. I can understand why they don't want to go down that road.
"But Villa are in No Man's Land. I don't know if they know if they want a coach or a manager. They don't know what league they are going to be in - well, they do probably now, but up until recently they were very unsure."
