The Official Dean Smith Thread | Page 219 | Vital Football

The Official Dean Smith Thread

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Thomas Holte said:
Our new owners and CEO have already made 2 managerial appointments at Villa Park when they retained Bruce and then appointed Dean Smith.

As soon as they bought the club, they should have released Bruce and then employed a top independent managerial appointment that would have sent out a message we mean business. Keeping Bruce on at the beginning of a brand new venture was never going to say that.

Retaining Bruce and then appointing Smith was in my opinion, two big mistakes and playing devil's advocate here - What's to say they will get the 3rd massive decision right?

It's a shame because they kept us from going bankrupt under Phony Tony and have pumped millions into AVFC with no successful return to date.

I hope this doesn't discourage either of them (I don't think it will) as I have a lot of time for Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens however at the moment, I have reservations over Christian Purslow?
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Given the mess the club was in, I think they thought Bruce was worth keeping for the moment while they sorted out the urgent stuff. They acted quickly enough when things started going pear-shaped. DS was appointed to get us promoted, which he did, earlier than they expected. I've got no problem with either decision.

Go back to last January and we weren't doing badly at all. W2 D1 L1 in the PL, knocked Leicester out of the cup. We were on the up. Except that we weren't. Difficult for the owners to foresee that. Surviving in the PL then making the next step, possibly under a different manager, seemed reasonable.
 
McParlandTheGreat said:
Click bait. Newcastle have a big head start on us which helps; even so, I don't think they'll be able to just throw money around. Our owners having sorted out one massive debt didn't want to create another.
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If I'm right and FFP has been cancelled for this summer and the major FFP rebalance will be next summer, Newkie are in no greater position that us in reality - they are still capped at spending. There only advantage is a few extra million in turnover and an existing squad that can at least compete at this level - whereas we needed to rebuild ours.

In some ways Ashley actually cocked up when it came to Joelinton etc and those fees as it ruined his frugal spending in previous years, so they are technically already in debt as well now and new owners don't wipe that out.
 
I've lost the plot since lock down.

Re FFP though, it might be why Smith is being beared with as surely they must have known it was a risky summer of transfers, but we should be okay even on relegation (pre lock down changes and complications). So maybe they are still operating along the lines of we'll swallow relegation if needed, Smith has a squad with 12 months under their belts, he gets a shot at bringing us back up.

It's what plenty of us thought originally, but even us Smith friendly bunch are worried by how much he's retreated from his own style as per the Sheff U thread.
 
mike_field said:
I've lost the plot since lock down.

Re FFP though, it might be why Smith is being beared with as surely they must have known it was a risky summer of transfers, but we should be okay even on relegation (pre lock down changes and complications). So maybe they are still operating along the lines of we'll swallow relegation if needed, Smith has a squad with 12 months under their belts, he gets a shot at bringing us back up.

It's what plenty of us thought originally, but even us Smith friendly bunch are worried by how much he's retreated from his own style as per the Sheff U thread.
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I don't think they thought we'd be anywhere near relegation mate, they completely misjudged how much bigger faster and stronger the players in the PL have become. We had people recruiting that have no experience of the PL including Dean Smith (see what I did there)
 
Villan57 said:
Is it just me but I have to keep checking which thread I'm in here this is the Dean Smith thread
One thing is for sure he won't be getting the cabbage anytime soon
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maybe the Sky sound effects lads will start getting more realistic - 'sacked in the morning', 'don't know what you're doing', Booooooooooo etc

could go full on and have a cgi cabbage run on - might make it better to watch tbh
 
BringbakMON said:
maybe the Sky sound effects lads will start getting more realistic - 'sacked in the morning', 'don't know what you're doing', Booooooooooo etc

could go full on and have a cgi cabbage run on - might make it better to watch tbh
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I really he hope he keeps us up but I think we'll find they have gone tonight. they couldn't raise a fight against Chelsea even at 2-1 down
 
Villan57 said:
I don't think they thought we'd be anywhere near relegation mate, they completely misjudged how much bigger faster and stronger the players in the PL have become. We had people recruiting that have no experience of the PL including Dean Smith (see what I did there)
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Think you're right 57 - talk of being surprised by our style of play v top 6 etc. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but I don't think we are far off where we need to be. Stupid mistakes have cost us so far, invaluable points that would have moved us out of the bottom 3. I'm not worried about playing championship football next season, but it does put us further behind the top half of the premier league and hence more difficult to compete and stay in the division if and when we make it back to the PL.

I think some pragmatism at the start of the season and recognition of the size of the task wouldn't have gone a miss. We've had some good games this season (and some utter dross), we've not got a tonking (great word lol) on the score sheet at least, many times this season but naivety has cost us. I'm not for changing Smith atm and that is purely because I don't know who else we could attract. I don't want a merry-go-round manager and I'm not sure Poch, AVB and the like will sign on the dotted line. As always, we will never agree on who should be appointed anyway - it's not like there's a standout candidate who is desperate to take the reigns.
 
Villan57 said:
I don't think they thought we'd be anywhere near relegation mate, they completely misjudged how much bigger faster and stronger the players in the PL have become. We had people recruiting that have no experience of the PL including Dean Smith (see what I did there)
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lol - I'm not sure they could've been that dumb but maybe I'm being a touch naive. I know everyone spoke up 'finishing high' but I certainly didn't believe it.
 
mike_field said:
lol - I'm not sure they could've been that dumb but maybe I'm being a touch naive. I know everyone spoke up 'finishing high' but I certainly didn't believe it.
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It was put to Purslow on Sky before the season and they kept pressing him and he cracked and said as near as 6th as possible. TBF Sheffield Utd have been up there with lesser players, I don't see their players linked to top teams
 
That's what I'm referencing, my watch was he was trying to be really upbeat but wasn't actually sincere. Whilst he should've taken the pressure on, it really sounded like he was just saying what he thought fans wanted to hear regardless of how plausible it actually was.
 
crimsondonkey said:
Nope, he's going to take us down with a whimper by the looks of things.
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I do hope you are wrong Crimson. There's a lot of negativity on here and it's almost as if you are willing it to happen just so you can wear the tee shirt lol.

I admit it's a huge task to stay up, but while it's still possible there's always room for hope. A new manager won't change anything at this stage so I don't see the point in calling for Deans head now. That argument is a fair call after the season is over.
 
It might not be the blood and thunder some want, but that wasn't a whimper performance. Newcastle had a small spell on top and capitalised because they are lucky fuckers.

We turned it back in our favour - that answers the spirit question for me.

The chances we missed also answers the confidence and belief one though unfortunately.
 
Ok tin hat. That performance with substitutes etc etc wasn’t too bad was it. Ok we had the one defensive howler - Mings to blame. I actually thought we would win that with those electric last 10 mins or so.
So do we have a plan, are we going to finish above shyte like West Ham and Bournmouth - over to Smith and his management team and squad - nothing is going to change
 
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