The Official Dean Smith Thread | Page 442 | Vital Football

The Official Dean Smith Thread

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sirdennis said:
Yup. I have said before that at some point Deano will hit his glass ceiling.

I don't think that time is near just yet.
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He may yet surprise us all and bust through the ceiling. If he surrounds himself with the right people, isn't afraid to change the coaching set-up when required and continues to be supported by the owners, then he could yet surprise us all.

I think we've all been preconditioned to accept a lack of success over the years (even failure) and we are all unsure of what we should be expecting. Our PL era position, I'm guessing, would be top 8 or so, our more recent average would be circling relegation (or relegation), so we are all grasping at where we are now and how good we can be. Competing with the oil barons may be pie in the sky and just not achievable but we must be competing with Leicester, Everton and even Spurs and Arsenal this season. Sorry to all who think this is aiming too high (or even too low) but I believe it is realistic at this stage.
 
Xchurch Villa said:
I also struggle to believe that NSWE were unhappy with 11th last season. I would think a target was set pre season and would certainly imagine that 11th would be considered acceptable (even if we were disappointed with the post Christmas fade).
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Several people when we were doing well last season were saying that how good it was and we'd been thinking of around 11th; snake2 was one. In the end 11th it was, but we were a bit unlucky with injuries to snake2 and Barkley. So reckon around 11th was what NSWE were thinking of, even if like the rest of us they were disappointed at the fade.

This season? Given the changes I think top half would satisfy them, plus the promise of getting into Europe the following season. I can see a bumpy first half to the season but a good second half.
 
McParlandTheGreat said:
Several people when we were doing well last season were saying that how good it was and we'd been thinking of around 11th; snake2 was one. In the end 11th it was, but we were a bit unlucky with injuries to snake2 and Barkley. So reckon around 11th was what NSWE were thinking of, even if like the rest of us they were disappointed at the fade.

This season? Given the changes I think top half would satisfy them, plus the promise of getting into Europe the following season. I can see a bumpy first half to the season but a good second half.
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I feel the same regarding a possible mirror image of sorts of last season. Such a crap start (preparation + injuries) + adjustment to not being a one man team means it's inevitable we're not going to have a storming start.

Be nice if we can gradually progress throughout the season and finish strongly and comfortably within the top half.

If he can do that then I think next season will be a bit of a crunch time for Smith.
 
If Smith doesn't start getting results from the resources hes been given, he will be gone, simple as that. There is no time for sentiment in elite football with hundreds of millions of pounds on the line.
 
Pivotal season for Deano. Top half of the table and I think he’ll be fine, lower half and he’ll certainly be under pressure. Personally think he’ll still be here this time next year. Doubters have been proved wrong since he walked through the door, he’s improved our league position year on year and many of the players he’s worked with at the club have improved. He’s done a more than decent job thus far. Still think it’s difficult to predict if he‘ll be the man to take us where the owners want us to eventually be…but 3 years in, he’s making a pretty good fist of it although the hardest part of his reign at AVFC, arguably still awaits.
 
yep and all those results amounted to a bottom half finish last year.
I suspect he'll need to improve on that points or position wise to keep the job although it's a much tougher ask given the lack of investment.
Not easy to make up the ground on those who finished above us when they've all outspent us again.
 
BringbakMON said:
yep and all those results amounted to a bottom half finish last year.
I suspect he'll need to improve on that points or position wise to keep the job although it's a much tougher ask given the lack of investment.
Not easy to make up the ground on those who finished above us when they've all outspent us again.
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I take it you want Smith gone so you can get MON back.
 
Just a gut feeling and sense from the summers events. Don’t want it, don’t think it will necessarily be quick but I think we are at the beginning of the end of the Smith era.
 
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McParlandTheGreat said:
Puzzled. What events were those, which would impact on Smith staying?
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Him leaving
ROK leaving
Terry leaving
The plan of the last couple of years being ripped up because our whole ethos was around ‘him’.
I don‘t believe they thought SJ was leaving and i don’t believe the explanation from Purlsow about the ‘three players’. Buendia was bought to help SJ. Ings , well bit cynical in my humble announced when he was. Was it a rushed thing ?, not really in the plan until ‘he’ dropped us in it.
Injuries going into the season and players joining late .
Disrupted pre season friendly schedule.
And ok, not quite summer but international call up farce and another coming up

We have had to start again really buying and integrating key players in key positions and it remains to be seen whether it will work despite the thinking that we are ‘stronger’. Stronger for what ?. Mid table stronger or top 8 stronger?. Mid table wasn’t in the plan at the end of last season. 100% it wasn’t . Now it seems to be the satisfactory outcome for some. Is it for the owners ?

Smith has a huge job on to bring this all together now all with a hugely tough league and schedule to play and part of my gut feeling is also that managers have a life cycle , a shelf life at a club . Into his 4 season with us now he is well over the average premier league manager tenure . There are possibly more than a few pointers .

As said , don’t want it, want him to succeed, love the guy, done wonders , will always think fondly but all good things come to an end. No time scale from me either as to when but I just have a feeling , no more , no less, that the last few weeks or so will catch up and we will look back and think this was when it all started to come to a close for Smith.

Its football in 2021 .Would anyone really be surprised about what could happen despite what Deano has done for us ?
 
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I agree Melon nobody had planned this summer around 2 coaches and the star player walking out just before the season, if you're going to leave you leave at the end of the previous season or at least announce you'll be leaving when your current contract expires its just common decency in any job unless of course, you want to feck the management over. Then you just suddenly say here's my resignation letter I'm off Friday.
It's not as if Terry or ROK had another job to got to they just upped and left , which they'd have been allowed to do should a new job have come along anyway.

Dean has had a real kick in the nads and it's set him back two years, he'll do well to survive this especially as the expectations around the new players have been hyped up by many.
Bailey being a case in hand, he beats a player by his own corner flag against Chelsea and the comments on here wow he's going to be a great player for us .
Bailey is not Grealish . Ings is not Harry Kane and Buendia is not Messi. Other middle of the road teams have players just as good and in many cases proven better .

If we accept 12th place Dean will be ok but if Purslow is looking at the top 8 , he's probably on thin ice.
We need to take points from the next batch of games otherwise it's going to be a long season
 
The 5 year plan also doesn't suddenly become a 4 year plan because we got a year ahead of ourselves and progress isn't a straight line. I'd also suggest that the longer the right managers are given the more successful they tend to be.

We're only just getting lads out of the academy playing "our" way. We're still getting 2019 transfer window signings growing into the team. This will be the first season Deano has had anything you could realistically call a squad to use in the PL. I think it would be unfair, but more importantly deeply stupid, to not give him the bare minimum of the whole of this season barring some absolute disaster.
 
Villan57 said:
I agree Melon nobody had planned this summer around 2 coaches and the star player walking out just before the season, if you're going to leave you leave at the end of the previous season or at least announce you'll be leaving when your current contract expires its just common decency in any job unless of course, you want to feck the management over. Then you just suddenly say here's my resignation letter I'm off Friday.
It's not as if Terry or ROK had another job to got to they just upped and left , which they'd have been allowed to do should a new job have come along anyway.

Dean has had a real kick in the nads and it's set him back two years, he'll do well to survive this especially as the expectations around the new players have been hyped up by many.
Bailey being a case in hand, he beats a player by his own corner flag against Chelsea and the comments on here wow he's going to be a great player for us .
Bailey is not Grealish . Ings is not Harry Kane and Buendia is not Messi. Other middle of the road teams have players just as good and in many cases proven better .

If we accept 12th place Dean will be ok but if Purslow is looking at the top 8 , he's probably on thin ice.
We need to take points from the next batch of games otherwise it's going to be a long season
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Just in regards to the first paragraph, I think the coaches departed in the right manner. Terry could have waited until a job offer did come along, but it’s likely that would have been mid-season and that would have been even worse. I also think it was mentioned o’kelly would have left earlier but stayed an extra month or two to cover Terry’s departure and because Dean missed some of pre season due to covid.

Agree though it’s been a turbulent summer because of the departures, plus the captain leaving, and then also throw into the mix a condensed preseason due to internationals and then covid disruption too. Standing still will be a good season this year in my mind.
 
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