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Aston Villa's Tom Fox has phoned Arsene Wenger for the lowdown on managerial favourite Remi Garde, according to a French football expert.

Garde has jumped to the top of Villa's wanted list following the sacking of Tim Sherwood and with the club bottom of the Premier League table.

French football journalist Julien Laurens, who works for Le Parisien, RTL, BT Sport and ESPN, says talks between Villa are Garde are 'progressing well'.

Speaking on BT Sport he said the 49-year-old former Lyon manager would be a good fit for the claret and blues.

"He finished his job with Lyon in 2014, he was there from 2011," said Laurens.

"They were three very good seasons. They finished fourth, third and fifth.

"He took them to the Europa League quarter finals, took them to the last 16 of the Champions League as well, won the French Cup.

"For me he ticks all the right boxes, he's got great ideas, good tactical knowledge.

"He's very good with youth. That was the time at Lyon they had no money at all to spend, he had to sell his best players every summer to get the money in and he basically played with a lot of kids from the academy.

"I think he would be very good with that, very good with experienced players.

"He speaks perfect English from his time at Arsenal. I think Tom Fox, the CEO at Aston Villa, used to be at Arsenal, picked up the phone to call Arsene Wenger and know what Arsene thinks of Garde and Arsene really likes Remi Garde as a manager."

Garde, who played for Arsenal as a defensive midfielder, shot up the list of bookies favourites following Villa's decision to sack Sherwood.

Lauren later tweeted: "Latest on Garde and Villa: talks progressing well. He wants the job. They want him to come too. Still some way to go but looks good to me."

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