Villa blog: New era, new Villa?
A new era begins, but how will the season go for Aston Villa? Matt Turvey says that the way forward involves less panic and more patience...writes Villa blogger Matt Turvey
So, with Manchester City the opposition this weekend, a new era dawns at Villa Park. Remi Garde, formerly of Lyon, has taken up the reins and will be hoping to revive the fortunes of a club that is at the foot of the Premier League table.
Sunday will be top versus bottom, with many having little to no expectation of anything but a loss. Perhaps Garde - a man lauded by Arsene Wenger and former Aston Villa manager Gerard Houllier - will be able to get the club back on track following a poor start, but the remainder of the season will have its ups and downs, just as every club does, and one game alone won't define whether the new manager will be a success or a failure.
On one hand, Villa are notorious for performing better when the expectations are low, as though this is a team that has previously been unable to be motivated for key games, or that they are crushed under the weight of expectation.
After all, Villa's illustrious history evokes memories of Rotterdam, of successes that many hold on to as defining the club's status in the game. However, times have moved on and whilst Villa have ended up progressively falling further and further behind, the views haven't fallen as fast.
In fact, some suggest that the mere appointment of Garde will be enough to take the club towards the mid-table place that many predicted before the season started, although it is that disconnect that has caused many issue - not only for the club as a whole, but for players too.
Jack Grealish is a prime example of such a situation. Like many academy prospects before him, hopes and dreams have been pinned on a youngster expected to deliver in order to make things happen then, when that player ends up not being able to perform miracles, they are cast aside and treated like just another failure.
In truth, players like Grealish should not be playing 90 minutes of football a week, just as Tim Sherwood should never have been on the shortlist for manager, never mind getting the job as he did earlier this year.
That Grealish has played as much as he has this season - and that Sherwood did get the job - shows just how desperate a situation the club are in, pinning their hopes and dreams on individuals who, all things being equal, should only be playing bit part roles, not full positions.
Sherwood, for example, would have been an ideal candidate for a youth development role as he operated in at Tottenham Hotspur, but he ended up wilting in the limelight. Grealish should be having the opportunity to develop in a progressive manner - spending 30 minutes or so in the second half on the pitch with a chance to shine with less pressure, but Villa are a desperate club in a desperate situation.
Hopefully Garde will be able to make a difference with a different attitude and ethos, although the players will largely remain the same apart from potential purchases in January. Whether motivation and strategy will be able to drag Villa out of its current hole - or at least as far up the table as to be out of the bottom three come May - is not to be known.
The manager will need time, and the board will need to back him. If too high expectations are placed on Villa's new French manager, everybody loses. Villa will be doing their best to avoid slipping out of the Premier League, but the board must develop a plan to go forward.
If not, Villa may well find the entire club becoming an expansion of the academy situation - expectations high and bordering on desperate will crush any attempt at development as the panic and disarray of a crowd screaming for the ball to go forward undermines any attempt at building a positive passing culture that Garde is likely to want to create.
In short, Villa need an identity. If they can find one and are given the appropriate backing by the fans and the board, they will survive. If not, then the club will find the hotseat in the Villa Park dugout a revolving door as the club fail to build anything without a vision of how to progress, or the knowledge to support such a strategy.
Monsieur Garde - it's over to you.
You can follow Matt Turvey's regular opinions at his own site, Aston Villa Life at http://www.astonvillalife.com, via the site's Twitter account @astonvillalife, or via his own Twitter account @mturvey_star.
