Former Tottenham Hotspur forward Garth Crooks believes Aston Villa’s only chance of survival hinges on their ability to convince Charlie Austin to join the club in January.

The Villans slumped to their 13th defeat of their season earlier today when they lost 2-0 to Norwich City at Carrow Road and they stay rooted to the bottom of the Premier League with just eight points on the board.




Remi Garde was brought in midway through the season to replace Tim Sherwood, but the Frenchman has so far failed to inspire his Villa side to mount any kind of resistance to their poor run of form this term.

Crooks admits that Villa have a mountain to climb if they want to save their Premier League status this season and believes Garde should do everything in his power to convince Queens Park Rangers forward Austin to join them in January.
 


He believes the QPR striker has the goals in him to take Aston Villa out of the drop zone in the second half of the season.

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Crooks said on the BBC's Final Score programme: “It [the loss at Norwich] leaves them on eight points, rock bottom of the table and to come back from this is going to be a very, very difficult ask.

“If [I was Remi Garde and] I could convince Charlie Austin to come to Villa Park and say 'come and make a name for yourself and get us out of this. If you can score 12 goals in the second half of the season you give us a chance'.

“It's do-able. He can score those goals.

"But whether Remi Garde can convince him to go and play for Aston Villa is the big question.”

Austin scored 18 Premier League goals for the relegated QPR last season and has continued to find the back of the net regularly in the Championship this term.