The worst Aston Villa manager of all time: Remi Garde and his torturous five month spell at Villa Park
It took just 147 days for Aston Villa to part company with Remi Garde back in 2016.
The French manager arrived at Villa Park having managed just one team – Lyon – during his coaching career, and he has managed just one since with clubs evidently put off by his truly horrific stint in the Premier League.
After suffering a poor start to the season, which saw the west midlands side pick up just four points from their opening 11 games of the season, Garde was brought in as a firefighter and a manager who would help promote youthful players such as Jack Grealish into the first-team.
He did quite the opposite though, managing to alienate the club’s best talents, including Grealish, and trying to stick with the tried and tested formula of experience.
However, Garde would go on to suffer five months of unrelenting misery before leaving by mutual consent in March 2016.
He left the club with the lowest win percentage of any manager in the club’s history – a mere 10% – winning just two of his 20 league games, drawing six and losing the remaining 12.
What is almost most amusing was his positive opening impression, which saw the Frenchman lead his side towards a goalless draw against Manchester City – which consequently drew praise from all corners of the club.
But from there on in, things just went from bad to worse.
Heavy defeats became a staple of Garde’s era at the club, with many of the scores resembling a cricket match instead of a game of football.
A 4-0 loss to Everton, a 3-1 defeat to Sunderland, a 6-0 thumping at the hands of Liverpool and a 4-0 drubbing to Manchester City are just a few of the dismal performances Villa fans had to witness while the Frenchman was at the helm.
Garde would go on to lose six straight games in a row between February and March, with an aggregate score of 18-2 ensuring he was given the boot soon afterwards.
It is worth pointing out that the squad Garde had inherited wasn’t exactly brimming with quality, but experienced pros such as Gabriel Agbonlahor, Scott Sinclair, Alan Hutton and Micah Richards should have been enough to put up a better fight than they did.
Richards has since opened up on the events that transpired under Garde’s management, with the ex-Villa captain labelling him the “worst manager I have ever come across” and stating he “brought absolutely nothing” to the club.
Overall it really was a tale of doom and gloom for Garde, and for that, he must be classed as the worst Aston Villa manager of all time.