Having won just two of his 20 English Premier League football matches in charge, Aston Villa have sacked manager Remi Garde just five months after taking over as manager.
The Frenchman replaced Tim Sherwood after a poor start to the campaign with Villa having lost their last six league matches and appearing almost certain to slip out of English football's top flight for the first time since spending a season in the second tier in 1987-88.
Outgoing Aston Villa manager Remi Garde Photo: Photosport
"Manager Remi Garde has today left Aston Villa Football Club by mutual consent," the club said in a statement.
"The club would like to place on record its sincere thanks to Remi for all his efforts during a difficult period and wish him well in the future."
The former European champions are owned by American businessman Randy Lerner and managed only 16 points from 31 matches and are 12 points behind fourth-from-bottom Norwich City with only seven games remaining.
Former Olympique Lyon manager Garde, once a midfielder with Arsenal, signed a three-and-a-half year contract in November and managed a 0-0 draw with Manchester City in his first match in charge of the Midlands club.
But that was one of the few positives as a mediocre squad slipped further and further into trouble.
His only league wins came against Crystal Palace and Norwich while in February Villa lost 6-0 at home to Liverpool.
Villa said first-team coach Eric Black would take over as acting manager until the club finds a full-time replacement.
Garde's departure follows the recent exits of chief executive Tom Fox and sporting director Hendrik Almstadt.
The Frenchman replaced Tim Sherwood after a poor start to the campaign with Villa having lost their last six league matches and appearing almost certain to slip out of English football's top flight for the first time since spending a season in the second tier in 1987-88.
"Manager Remi Garde has today left Aston Villa Football Club by mutual consent," the club said in a statement.
"The club would like to place on record its sincere thanks to Remi for all his efforts during a difficult period and wish him well in the future."
The former European champions are owned by American businessman Randy Lerner and managed only 16 points from 31 matches and are 12 points behind fourth-from-bottom Norwich City with only seven games remaining.
Former Olympique Lyon manager Garde, once a midfielder with Arsenal, signed a three-and-a-half year contract in November and managed a 0-0 draw with Manchester City in his first match in charge of the Midlands club.
But that was one of the few positives as a mediocre squad slipped further and further into trouble.
His only league wins came against Crystal Palace and Norwich while in February Villa lost 6-0 at home to Liverpool.
Villa said first-team coach Eric Black would take over as acting manager until the club finds a full-time replacement.
Garde's departure follows the recent exits of chief executive Tom Fox and sporting director Hendrik Almstadt.
Meanwhile in international friendlies the England have lost 2-1 to the Netherlands, world champions Germany trounced Italy 4-1 and France beat Russia 4-2.
And war-torn Syria has booked a spot in the final stage of 2018 Football World Cup qualifying despite suffering a 5-0 loss to already qualified Japan in their final group match.
The Syrians finished second in the pool behind Japan and were assured of one of the four best runners-up spots.
-Reuters
