Aston Villa to back manager Remi Garde in January transfer window

Aston Villa manager Remi Garde has been told he will be given any backing he needs in the transfer window.

The 49-year-old Frenchman last month replaced Tim Sherwood at Villa, who are six points adrift at the bottom of the Premier League table after 16 matches.

"If he decides he needs something he has the chairman's ear and his support," said chief executive Tom Fox.

"Remi has only been here five games. My job is to assist him when he decides there is something he might need."

Villa signed 13 players in the summer, with Sherwood, Fox, sporting director Hendrik Almstadt and director of scouting Paddy Riley all involved in the recruitment.

The club have gone 15 league games without a win, the worst run in their history.

Fox, who flew with Garde to meet owner Randy Lerner in America this week, told BSports WM: "People who are critical of the process I don't think quite understand how football clubs buy and sell players.

"We didn't do anything this summer that any other club in the world doesn't do.

"We identified the needs our manager thought he had - we challenged some of those, which led to great discussion - and we tried to create a list of acceptable options, in the event your first choice wasn't available you had other people you could target.

"There was never a sense there was a group of people who were trying to make decisions that weren't supported fully by the coaching staff."