"He was there for two years and did a great job. He was first in the academy, that’s why he knew these players very well. Lyon benefits now from the quality of his work.
"It was a job where he was a lot under pressure because in Lyon the demands are very high, but he did very well."
There is no doubt from those comments that Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger rates the man heavily linked with Aston Villa quite highly.
Remi Garde - bar complications related to acquiring his preferred coaching staff - is the frontrunner to replace Tim Sherwood at Villa Park, months after his name was also bandied about for the Newcastle vacancy.
If the Frenchman and one-time Arsenal midfielder is the person who eventually gets the job, the task is enormous and immediate given that a beleaguered Aston Villa are rock bottom of the Premier League, without a win since the opening day and eight defeats from the last nine.
But there are some reasons why he might appeal to Villa at present.
Wenger's aforementioned take on Garde's work with youth players has some relevance for the Birmingham club.
The 49-year-old may not have been able to deliver previous levels of success (he won the 2012 French Cup) during his time in charge of Lyon between 2011 and 2014, for reasons including the rise of Paris Saint-Germain and a degree of belt tightening, but the Ligue 1 side are benefiting from some of the fruits of his labour.
Lyon are in the Champions League this season, on the back of a near title-run last season when they pushed PSG close, and that was built on a core of academy produced young talent like striker Alexandere Lacazette, defender Samuel Umtiti and attacking midfielder Nabil Fekir.
All of those players were given their Lyon first team debuts or were played more regular football by Garde, although some argue that it is his Lyon successor Hubert Fournier who is the one who really brought the best out of that talent.
Villa also have a significant number of young French or formerly France-based players like the three Jordans (Veretout, Amavi and Ayew) and other promising talent to unlock like Jack Grealish, Adama Traore and Carles Gil.
Long-term, Garde could well bring out the best in these talents and also bring through the best from a decent Villa academy.
But the challenge this season is of a short-term nature, given the club's predicament and the fact that they need to turn things around quickly and build momentum heading into the final 28 matches of the new campaign.
In terms of the consistency of his Lyon side across three seasons, fourth, third and fifth in 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-14 respectively is solid, although his time there was his first senior job in management and was not exactly the experience of a relegation dogfight.
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