Aston Villa's plight 'shocking and embarrassing', says Jamie Redknapp
Sunday 20 March 2016 07:55, UK
Aston Villa's Premier League season has been "shocking and embarrassing", but relegation may give the club the restart it needs, says Jamie Redknapp.
Villa's 1-0 defeat at Swansea on Saturday Night Football was their 21st in 31 games this season, while Remi Garde has won just two Premier League games since taking over in November.
They sit 12 points from safety with seven games remaining, and having finished in the bottom six of the Premier League for the past four seasons, Redknapp says relegation has been coming.
"They've won three games this year," Redknapp told Sky Sports. "This is Aston Villa we're talking about, European Cup winners. They shouldn't be in this position, but it is symptomatic of all their problems. They have been shocking this season, embarrassing.
"They've let the fans down. This is a marvelous club. For them not to be in the Premier League next year is criminal, but sometimes you need a wake-up call, sometimes you need something to happen, and this could be it.
"Next year they'll regroup, probably start the season as favourites, and this is a good big opportunity for the likes of Jack Grealish and Andre Green and other young players to get this club back where they should be.
"But this isn't just today, this is all season, they really have been so poor. This has been happening the last three or four years. There's no real surprise, and they've somehow got to change that flow.
"They were not strong enough defensively, apart from Gueye in midfield they've been really poor, and they've not scored enough goals."
Villa gave Garde his first management job in English football after sacking Tim Sherwood in the autumn, but the Frenchman has failed to lift the Midlands club off the bottom of the Premier League.
Redknapp was surprised Villa went for a manager with limited experience in charge of sides struggling at the bottom of the table, but believes the club would still be an attractive outfit for several top bosses in the future.
"The manager is the most important thing now," Redknapp said. "I don't know what they'll do in the summer. When they appointed Remi Garde it was a strange appointment.
"There are managers that keep teams up as a specialised job. The likes of Sam Allardyce, Tony Pulis, people like that have done it year in, year out.
"Remi Garde will probably be better next year because he has an understanding of being at the top.
"But I tell you something, there will be plenty of people that want to manage Aston Villa. Plenty of people. It's a really good opportunity for someone to bring them up.
"I also hope Jack Grealish is watching this and thinking: 'I'm going to show them the player I can be', because he has the ability to rip that league up.
"Some of the current players have the parachutes out, they've been out of the plane for a long time."
Speaking on Saturday Night Football, Sky Sports pundit Thierry Henry echoed Redknapp's words, and says Federico Fernandes' winning goal for Swansea, which came from unconvincing goalkeeping from Brad Guzan and other lax defending, summed up their season.
Henry also believes Villa will find it tough finding a way back to the Premier League if they are relegated, and must be careful with their player recruitment in the summer.
"For me, this sums up the season, three mistakes in one set piece. It is not a due when you go down to the Championship that you are going to come back up straight away.
"We've seen teams go down and said: 'They'll be back', the likes of Leeds, Nottingham Forest. Villa is a great club, but sometimes you get what you deserve, and they deserve to go down.
"They'll have to make sure Villa get guys that know the Championship, know how to get a team up."
