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Former Aston Villa manager Tim Sherwood has to shoulder some of the blame for the club's current predicament, that's the view of Joey Barton.

Speaking to BBC 5 Live, Barton said: “I don’t think Tim Sherwood is completely blameless.

“He has to take responsibility and I think he will.

"He is big and strong enough to do that.

"He had got to have a say in the players they brought in.

"Everybody knew it was Russian roulette really.”

Barton hit the headlines a few weeks back when he lashed out at the Villa board on the same show.

He said: “I feel sorry for Villa fans because it's a great football institution in this country.

"I heard a quote that came from [Aston Villa owner] Randy Lerner or a Randy Lerner source where he said 'well, even if we go down we're still Aston Villa'.

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"That's the kind of mindset that's going on at that football club.

"Well Leeds United thought that. Sheffield Wednesday thought that. There's a lot of big clubs that have thought that.

"If Villa go down I don't see them coming back up.

“They have a good academy, but I use this word, taking it into context, if you have muppets running your football club - you are in trouble.

“Paddy Reilly is a guy who can give you advice and numbers, he shouldn’t be heading up your recruitment policy, he is not able to do that, he should be a part of things.

“Remi Garde won’t get the players in January that they would have in the summer, to do so they will have to over pay.

“The scary thing is it is the fans who will suffer, the diehard fans who go week-in-week-out.

“They have someone running the football club who clearly isn’t qualified to do so.

“Garde has run a big club before, isn’t a bad manager, you could give Jose Mourinho the job and he would struggle - it’s a mess.

"Villa face a long time in the wilderness."