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Remi Garde and Tom Fox have confirmed the Aston Villa boss will remain in charge if the club is relegated to the Championship.

Villa go into the New Year propping up the Premier League table after picking up just eight points from 19 matches.

Garde is contracted to Villa until 2019 and the boss himself and the chief executive insist he will stay come what may this summer.

Asked if he will remain in charge if the club go down and if the club want him to, Garde replied: “Yes. Both answers are yes.”

Garde then answered “No, I’m not” to a further question over whether he was going anywhere in the event of relegation and “yes” when quizzed about if he was happy at the club.

The 49-year-old Frenchman was Villa’s third manager of the 2015 calendar year after Paul Lambert and Tim Sherwood and is the sixth of the Randy Lerner era, which also includes Martin O’Neill, Gerard Houllier and Alex McLeish.

Villa want some continuity in the dugout and Fox reflected that view when he was asked if Garde is here for the long-term, replying: “We are building something special and Remi Garde is a massive part of what we are trying to build.”

Garde takes Villa to Sunderland today targeting his first win after four draws and four defeats.

He insists it will take time to transform a club whose problems on and off the field pre-date his November arrival.

Garde admits his first two months in the job have been a period of discovery at Bodymoor Heath and Villa Park.

“In every football club there are some difficulties and problems,” he said.

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“Of course I thought we would have won earlier but I knew when you come to club that has played 11 and lost nine you don’t expect to find everything going well.

“If they are (going well) you do not get the call to come in. I knew it would be difficult.

“You cannot have all the same view until you are in and when you are in you discover some things that you didn’t expect.

“But now I am full of confidence for what we can achieve in this club.

“Of course the short-term is not brilliant but nothing has changed in my mind.”