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Remi Garde is expected to be announced as Aston Villa's new manager, with the former Lyon boss poised to step into the role vacated when Tim Sherwood was sacked on Oct. 25. Garde's current employer, French broadcaster Canal+, said on Sunday that he would take on the Villa role. "Remi Garde is going to coach Aston Villa,'' said the Canal Football Club programme on its Twitter feed. It added that former striker Reginald Ray, who previously coached at US Boulogne and Bastia, will be one of his assistants Since leaving Lyon last year, Garde has worked as a match analyst on French television, but the 49-year-old former Arsenal player appears ready for a return to dugout duty. According to reports, Garde could be in the White Hart Lane stands on Monday evening for Villa's Premier League clash with Tottenham. Villa sit bottom of the Premier League and four points from safety ahead of the trip to north London, and caretaker boss Kevin MacDonald admits the team must show Champions League form to survive. MacDonald, Villa's regular under-21 coach, is due to remain in charge against Tottenham and he knows the strugglers need to perform to a European standard. He said: "We almost have to play top-four standard of football points-wise to get us out of the trouble we're in. "We're in trouble. We're not that naive to think we're not. But we think, as a whole group within the club, that we have better players than where we are at the moment. "If everything turns around, which hopefully it will, and we finish mid-table then I would like to think people would be eating their words. This is what players have to understand. They have to have that desire to ram words down people's throats. "I don't mean that horribly. But that's football -- professional sport. Their pride is hurting -- make no mistake about that. I imagine Jordan Ayew's brother [Swansea's Andre Ayew] is giving him a bit of stick. Whether people call it banter or not, people don't like it. I know I don't like it. "I live towards Leicester so most of my friends are Leicester supporters and, of course, they are giving me a lot of stick at the moment.''
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