“I don’t know exactly how bad it is”, said Garde.
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The Villans are without a win in their last 15 games in all competitions and are rooted to the foot of the Premier League standings.
Many fans will be making the good point that all of this is only possible should Garde’s men beat Wycombe in the replay at Villa Park, with Micah Richards’ goal at the weekend not enough to send them through.
“I warned the players at half-time that we had to keep the level otherwise they would find a way back in, so I don’t know why we didn’t manage to keep that up”.
Tom Fox, the chief executive, and sporting director Hendrik Almstadt are flying out to meet Lerner in NY and will attempt to convince the Villa owner that significant funds are required this month.
“This is something I asked from them a fortnight ago or something like that”, the Frenchman said. “This situation [at Villa] has been created for a long time and there are decisions that have to be made to change things”.
Garde is believed to want to sell up to a dozen players, including record scorer Gabby Agbonlahor, winger Charles N’Zogbia, as well as Joleon Lescott and a number of other players only brought in last summer.
Their form has improved of late and they are now only seven points off the play-offs.
AEK Athens have been linked with a move for the player Villa paid £9.5m to Wigan to sign in 2011.
“Attracting players in the situation we’re in is not an easy task either”.
‘They also care about the project that we present to them. I’m not waiting for a parcel coming in the post with confidence. You will kill us if you boycott the replay.
“When I arrived he was not totally fit, I don’t know exactly what happened between August and the beginning of November”.
Garde should have a clearer picture in the next few days following the crisis summit in the States – a meeting he engineered.
“So for them to have the respect to do that for my boys, I’d just say thank you”.
“I understand the Chelsea manager has been a little bit upset hearing me speak about one of his players, so this week I won’t make any more comments about it”, Garde said.
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The goal shook a response from the League Two side and they piled pressure on the Premier League side, but failed to break them open before the interval. Jack Grealish missed the Wycombe stalemate through illness while Richards picked up a knock in that fixture.
