Sunday 8 November 2015 16:09, UK
There are doubts over his appointment but Remi Garde could be the right man for Aston Villa, writes Patrick Davison.
They say Remi Garde is the wrong man for Aston Villa. It's not a universally held view, but does seem to be a commonly held one among both supporters and pundits.
However, having spent a large part of this week researching his career, watching clips of him play and ultimately, meeting and interviewing him - all for a feature to run ahead of the Super Sunday game against Manchester City, it's been hard not to be impressed.
Firstly, he's been incredibly easy to deal with. On Wednesday he allowed cameras to film part of training and had his players warm-up close to them - not right over the far side of the pitch, making filming difficult, as managers often do.
Then, despite it being his third day in a row of pretty heavy media commitments, he turned up to our interview in a suit having gone back to his hotel to change after training.
He was then interesting and engaging as he answered questions for the best part of half-an-hour.
Great for us, although I suppose the pressure's not on... yet.
Luckily for Villa fans there are reasons, other than the fact that he seems friendly and likes to look smart for interviews, for believing he might just dig the Premier League's bottom club out of trouble.
For a start, although apparently a quiet man, he seems to have more than a little bit of inner steel.
"Between 18 and 20, I didn't play football at all," says Garde, who came through the Lyon academy and went on to win six caps for France.
"I tore both cruciate ligaments and the doctor told me I would have to finish. I never accepted that. It was a bad experience but it made me stronger."
A defensive-minded midfielder, good in possession, Garde defied medical opinion to enjoy a distinguished playing career in France with Lyon and Strasbourg.
Then there was his time at Arsenal. Garde was recruited by Arsene Wenger at the start of his revolution. He actually signed the same day as Patrick Vieira and even began playing for the club before Wenger, who was seeing out his contract with Grampus Eight in Japan, even arrived.
He went on to play just 43 times in three seasons.
But at a time when an influx of foreign players and a barrage of new ideas about diet and training were raining down on a British core that included the likes of Tony Adams, Paul Merson and Ray Parlour, Garde was the glue that held things together.
He was Wenger's eyes and ears, his representative in the dressing room, his unofficial coach.
"My first job was to play, but Arsene Wenger knows my character. Patrick and I were close, but my English was better than his," he says through a broad grin.
"I was happy to put a link between the French and the British players.
"It's not easy though, even if you know some words or sentences, because the words you hear in the dressing room are very different!"
Injuries eventually caught up with Garde and he retired in 1999 - a year after becoming a Premier League champion.
He returned to Lyon and stayed for more than a decade. Back at the club he supported as a boy he filled any number of roles - assistant to Gerard Houllier, academy director and the man part-responsible for the emergence of Anthony Martial among them.
When the time came to take charge of the team, he carried Wenger's advice with him.
"The most important thing I learned from Arsene is the belief you must have in your football. You must have conviction."
His Lyon team did. He got a club that had fallen on hard times winning again, while under financial pressure to sell the likes of Hugo Lloris, Dejan Lovren, Bafetimbi Gomis and Martial.
He did it playing stylish football. The same football he believes can now get Aston Villa out of trouble.
"To be safe in the Premier League, there is not only one way. The owner and the chief executive know what I did in Lyon and they decided the situation at Villa would fit the way I want my team to play."
I know these player better than the previous manager probably because I know them from France. I just want to make them more confident.
If they are to escape trouble, he'll need to get the best from the French-speaking players the club signed for a combined cost of more than £40m in the summer.
"I don't want to make a judgement on what happened before," says the manager who signed his three-and-a-half year deal with Villa on Monday.
"I know these player better than the previous manager probably because I know them from France. I just want to make them more confident - unfortunately we don't have much time."
Villa don't have much time. But the new man in charge sounds calm. He sounds assured. He sounds like he might be the right man.
