The sands of time are falling from my finger and my thumb, and I’m still waiting for the miracle to come.
From Lyon to the Lions..
After Villa produced yet another dire performance at White Hart Lane on Monday night, it definitely looked appropriate that Villa’s guilty men had brought in a French manager in an attempt to cure Villa’s collection of cheese-eating surrender monkeys of what ever it is which ails them. It seemed pretty obvious who had been at the cheese and the surrender was announced early, as Spurs found themselves luxuriating in the comfort-zone after only one hundred and forty seconds. Villa huffed and puffed for the whole of the first half, conceded on half-time, rallied when the substitutes arrived, even scored, but then conceded two minutes into added-time to neatly bookend their generally inept performance.
The only consolation was that if Rémi Garde had wanted a clear picture of Villa’s failings and shortcomings, he couldn’t have had a better demonstration, and even if he probably didn’t use the word Merde in his assessment, many Villa fans did. Those same fans were also hoping that Monsieur Garde had phoned up K-Mac and told him to pick a team designed to demonstrate the size of the his task. If he did, he definitely succeeded. If he didn’t, what was K-Mac thinking?
Having Gabby mocked on TV for his eight first-half touches and terrible performance, just rubbed salt into the Villa wounds, and even if some reactions were disproportionate, no Villa fan can be blamed for feeling let down by someone who enjoys a special status of being a local lad, representing a club he is supposed to love. Even someone like me who has defended Gabby through thick and thin, can’t avoid the conclusion that he’s let his standards slip.
What sort of standards we can expect Villa to reach under the leadership of Rémi Garde we will have to wait and see, but despite all our best hopes that he will implement some kind of Wenger revolution, it would be crazy to get too carried away. It seems unlikely that miracles come any easier to him than to any other manager. Being recommended by Wenger is no more a guarantee of success than a Scotsman being recommended by Ferguson. His CV is no more impressive than any manager Villa have employed in recent years and winning the French Cup and the French Charity Shield, hardly seems significant for a club like Lyon who won seven league championships in a row from 2002.
So he’ll definitely need the best of luck with the Villa project and substantial backing if he is to turn things around. We can only hope that the systemic problems which have dogged Villa for the past five years, are within his power to cure. After five previous managers, who are generally considered to have failed by a lot of people, and one of whom, the job nearly finished off entirely, we can only hope it is sixth-time lucky for Villa. No one can be under any delusions as to the size of the task but here we sit once again with fingers crossed, lucky pants on, and with the prayer-wheel spinning. Survival in the Premiership would be no mean feat and at this point it is the most anyone could reasonably ask for.
So bon courage Monsieur Garde and welcome to Villa.
With Man City coming to town this Sunday, we’ll definitely need a big dose of courage and possibly some calming pharmaceuticals to face the best team in the Premier League, in a game there seems little chance of getting anything from. But at least the old farts will be able to look back to October 1984 and remember that very special day when some French magic lit up Villa Park, in the form of Didier Six, who helped Villa dismantle a very expensive Man United side 3-0, with the sort of classy display which earned him a standing-ovation from every Villan. Villa might need a similar miracle to get much on Sunday but should City still be tired and distracted from their midweek trip to Sevilla and they have one of their off-days, Villa might just get something and turn the tide.
The sands of time are falling from my finger and my thumb, and I’m still waiting for the miracle to come.
Keep the faith!
