Garde contemplates Villa signing Ashley Cole

The Daily Telegraph are reporting this morning that Garde is looking to sign Ashley Cole from Roma in January as the emergency solution to the club’s current perilous state.

Remi Garde is loving the challenge the Aston Villa job is giving him in his first managerial role in England.

Cole is now out of favour at Roma and has not played for the Italian club, who he joined last July following a glittering spell at Chelsea, since last season. We know there is no easy game, even in the cup.

Aston Villa now have the worst defence in the Premier League and a new face in their back line would surely be welcome, but the Villa boss wants to ensure he can count one someone who is at 100%. Of course, it’s tough because we need to win and we have struggled to win games.

The 22-year-old made just 12 appearances in Ligue 1 for Bordeaux last season due to injury and being rotated in the first-team. I feel we will need to improve the team to get more of a chance [of avoiding relegation].

“Garde’s predecessor Tim Sherwood had urged Grealish to “‘knuckle down” when he was at the Villa Park helm, and his form this year has waned as the club have slumped to the division’s basement. “We have other games to try to win, and I am only focused on that”.

However, the manager is likely to be without captain Micah Richards, who has not trained this week after picking up a knee injury in the 2-3 defeat by Watford on Saturday, although forward Rudy Gestede and defender Leandro Bacuna are fit again.