Seven things you might not know about prospective Aston Villa boss Remi Garde

Here, Press Association Sport lists some facts about the 49-year-old Frenchman.

:: Remi Garde was born in L'Arbresle, which was also the birthplace of French composer Claude Terrasse.

:: Garde started his career at Lyon and played for the club for six years, helping them to promotion to Ligue 1 in 1989, before joining Strasbourg in 1993.

:: He won six caps for France between 1990 and 1992, making his debut in a friendly against Kuwait. He was part of France's Euro 92 squad under Michel Platini. They qualified with a 100 per cent record but then crashed out at the group stage, with Garde not playing a single minute at the finals in Sweden.

:: Garde joined Arsenal on the same day as Patrick Vieira in 1996 and went on to make 45 appearances for the Gunners but never scored before he retired in 1999.

:: He won the Premier League with Arsenal in 1998 but was left out of their FA Cup final-winning squad against Newcastle. He only made one appearance in the Gunners' successful cup run - in the quarter-final replay against West Ham. It finished 1-1 after extra-time and Arsenal won 4-3 on penalties, with Garde missing for the Gunners in the shoot-out.

:: As assistant to Paul Le Guen, Garde helped Lyon to back-to-back titles in 2003-04 and 2004-05 before becoming Gerard Houllier's right-hand man and then manager himself in 2011.

:: Lyon finished fourth, third and fifth under Garde in Ligue 1 but did win the Coupe de France in 2012 before the manager left in 2014. "The reasons are personal and family. I feel the need to take a break," he said at the time.