New manager Remi Garde has told his players the Aston Villa dressing room must be a strictly English-speaking environment. Garde says French will be banned because he wants his new charges to speak a common language for the sake of unity.

As with all squads in the league, Villa are a multi-national group of players, and Frenchman Garde says there will be no favoritism.

SEE MOREGarde relishes ‘difficult task’ of keeping Villa up.

He said on AVTV:

“I won’t care more about the French players than I will with the English or the Spanish or the African one.

“The team is a whole team; we need to be all together.

“They have to learn English quickly because I don’t want anybody speaking French in the dressing room for example because it’s very important we understand each other.

“But as well it’s also important the English player speaks slowly sometimes at the beginning. Everybody has to make efforts to be a big team, because when you have such qualities in the dressing room normally we should do better.

“It’s a huge task but everybody has to be concerned about that.”

Former Lyon boss Garde, 49, became the sixth permanent French manager in Barclays Premier League history on Monday when he signed a three-and-a-half-year deal to replace Tim Sherwood. But his first job was to watch from the stands as his new side slumped to a 3-1 defeat at Tottenham, leaving them with only four points from 11 matches. He said:

“The team is unfortunate at the moment, I think. Hopefully we can pull together and improve the level …

“The situation at the moment is very difficult for everybody.

“I am just arriving. I have some ideas, of course, because I have watched a lot of the games they have played since the start of the season.

“I just want to work hard – and the players to have more confidence in themselves, in their teammates, in the team, in the club because I think when you start losing you are getting low in confidence.

“You cannot play winning games if you are low on confidence.

“But I think the current level of the table doesn’t reflect the level of the team.”

The loss to Tottenham was Villa’s seventh straight loss in the Premier League. But Garde is optimistic ahead of his challenge and spoke of his pride and determination to turn things around.

“It feels very good – I am very proud to be the new Aston Villa manager,” said Garde, whose team will face Premier League leaders Manchester City in his first match in charge.

“I am here to do my best – to give a lot to this big football club.

“When you come into a football club there is always pressure, difficulties, problems to solve – but this is what you have to cope with.

“I know it’s a huge and historic football club that needs at the moment to improve. I hope to do that.”