After hints that there’s been a “disagreement” between Remi Garde and Gabby Agbonlahor, it now seems the manager has taken a tough approach with Charles N’zogbia.
I have to say this is music to my ears, as it’s been long suggested that there’s something not right in the dressing room and it’s about time it was sorted out once and for all.
I believe the biggest cause of any unrest has been Mr Aston Villa himself, Gabby.
Wasn’t he supposed to have fallen out with Gerard Houllier and if I remember correctly either McLeish or Lambert too at one stage?
And now the current manager?
If that’s all true, then it seems pretty obvious where the problem is, doesn’t it? and it isn’t the managers.
Now, I might be able to live with all this if the team and particularly Gabby himself were performing well and we were riding high in the table.
But the fact is we’re bottom of the league and can’t afford to have players disagreeing with what they’re being told.
The trouble is, it only takes one bad apple to totally undermine a manager, where the rest of the players/people under him think they’re ok to have a bitch and a moan.
And there are only three possible resolutions in a situation like this, in my opinion.
1) the manager goes
2) the player/employee goes
3) they sort it out to the manager’s satisfaction.
Quite simply Garde isn’t going to be leaving.
I very much suspect that him going over to speak to Randy Lerner wasn’t just about transfer policy/money and I’ll bet it also involved a summary of what he’s seen of the players.
All quite obvious really, I suppose.
But the point is it’s enough to make me change my mind about when I recently said I didn’t see Gabby leaving in the winter window.
I now expect that the club will do it’s best to offload him; maybe even to the point where we subsidise his wages.
N’Zog will either be loaned out or paid off.
And any other surly types, who aren’t willing to fight for the cause will be gone too.
Good riddance and about time, I say.
I’d rather play the kids, than more experienced players who don’t tow the line.
Remi Garde has just gone up a notch in my estimation of him.
He has a lot of dead wood to get rid of and players that need kicking out of 2nd gear. Only time will tell if Garde will be a success at Villa, but its hard to disagree with most of what he has done in the short term.
The massive issue we face is the fact that players wont come in Jan for 2 reasons. FIrstly we look almost certain to go down and secondly we wont be able to commit to long term deals or normal contract offers.
It’s what I’ve said yesterday, the dressing room has a lot to answer too, I suspect and its only my opinion Abonglahor could be amongst it, old head, youngsters from another country and his lack of enthusiasm, let’s get to the bottom of it. He’s been a loyal Villa player in his day and I thank him for it, but its time to go. We have got to get that (I won’t to play for Villa back) and quickly.
I’m sure Gabby would be the leader, Bill.
As for N’zog, how he can’t put any effort in is a total disgrace.
The millions he’s earned for doing jack shit is a scandal.
I agree about Gabby, he’s been good over the years, as one of our own and often played out of position, but time to move on to somewhere he might be re-invigorated.
Yes, that’s a good point Benno.
Which is something that’s beginning to persuade me to actually start playing the kids.
It’s not normally something I’d be in favour of given our position, as it can be soul-destroying at an early age, to be constantly losing.
But as you suggest, we’re going down anyway, as things stand.
If the kids are told to just go out and play without fear, I could live with them being thrown in.
But it would need to be made a clear policy, as the fans would crucify Garde and the kids for not being good enough.
Which is something I can’t see the hierarchy doing for one minute, as it’s a total admission of defeat.
It stands to reason that any player moving on or in and about the leagues, wouldn’t have that same desire as a up and coming i want the big time youngster, yes I agree the fans today want immediate winning side and demand the club to buy rather than build from the young lions, all will be revealed soon on what the club’s up to,
I hope Remi Garde’s report to Lerner was not confined to the players, but to all the coaching staff, scouting staff and football policy-making.
Fox gave the game away when he said Sherwood “had the final say” about the incoming players. The final say is not what the manager needs: what he needs is the initial say.
Sherwood commented pre-season about never having seen some of the new players play. That just should not happen. It is OK for scouts to propose a player the manager has never heard of, in fact it is necessary, but the manager should look them over in play before the matter is taken any further.
Sherwood also had the final say about some of the players on the books eg “I don’t think he is good enough and I am not going to play him”. But he was not listened to – they went out and got a new manager instead. Hopefully Remi has said about Gabby and Nzog, “They are still not good enough and I don’t intend to play them either”.
Good for Garde.
Must admit that I like the way he phrases things e.g. about Zog ‘I’m not saying Charles is a bad person…’ meaning I dare say that he’s really a complete total waste of space.
I have no hope of continuing our membership of the PL but I must admit that Garde is beginning to interest me.
I like garde but we needed him at the start of the season
Probably true OohAh but the simple fact is the players aren’t good enough. If Shereood had the final say and he hadn’t seen some of the players then he should have vetoed the transfers and saved Lerner a pile of dosh – would have made zero difference to the outcome!