Aston Villa manager Remi Garde to be handed funds for Premier League escape attempt

Villa are without a league victory since the opening day and have taken two points from possible 15 since Garde’s arrival

Rémi Garde has held talks with Villa owner Randy Lerner this week (Getty Images)

Rémi Garde will be given funds to strengthen his struggling Aston Villa side when the transfer window opens next month – and will have the final say on any deals done.

Garde flew to New York this week for a meeting with the club’s owner, Randy Lerner, and chief executive, Tom Fox, and the latter confirmed that the Villa manager would have Lerner’s backing to bring in the reinforcements he decides are needed to boost their chances of Premier League survival.

Bottom-placed Villa are without a league victory since the opening day, and have taken just two points from a possible 15 since Garde’s arrival. He replaced Tim Sherwood, who was reported to have been frustrated that he did not have control over the club’s signings.

Lerner tried unsuccessfully to sell Villa last summer, but Fox said: “If Rémi decides he needs something he has the chairman’s ear and the chairman’s support absolutely.

“Rémi has to determine what he wants his squad to look like and who he has got that is with the squad that can play with the style of play he wants. That is purely his decision. If Rémi Garde believes there are things he wants to do with incomings or outgoings, that will be something he can recommend and will certainly have the ability to do.”

Despite Villa’s struggles, Garde remains positive about the quality of the players in his squad, according to Fox, who also stressed that the Frenchman, as manager, was the deciding voice on all transfers at the club. At the time of Sherwood’s dismissal, there were suggestions in the press that the former manager had not chosen some of the 13 players signed by Villa last summer.

Yet Fox said: “Rémi Garde has complete and final say over players who are brought in and that situation hasn’t changed between the last manager and this current one.

“What is most important to me is whether the manager comes in and feels he has got a squad that can deliver the results we need and the manager is pleased with the business that we did over the summer.”