The Official Dean Smith Thread | Page 527 | Vital Football

The Official Dean Smith Thread

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Pangloss said:
I'm personally deeply saddened by this. IMO he worked minor miracles here. He inherited a dreadful mess left by Steve Bruce and took us from bottom half of the Championship to Premier League in his first season. He then kept us up with a poor squad and last season took us to a solid finish of 11th, again with a squad that was hardly replete with quality.

Wonderful memories include the play off semi and final, the wins against Birmingham home and away, the demolition job of Liverpool at home, hell the United win at Old Trafford just a few weeks ago, all wonderful performances and memories.

He achieved great things here, people talk about it was all about Grealish but to my mind Smith made Grealish a much, much better player than he ever looked under other managers.

I'm disappointed in the players it has to be said, I think they've buried him, Smith didn't instruct them to not do the basics. I think we dropped the ball in the summer with transfers, the players bought for Smith we not right and certainly not ready made. He was also unfortunate to experience injury and fitness problems of the like I've never seen at the club.

That said, he was not perfect. I think his persistence with 3-5-2 was a big mistake, he just couldn't find solutions to the big problems which emerged this season. I do believe the widely speculated 'Smith ceiling' was hit this season in and among the complexity presented by all the above issues.

The owners now have a lot to do to nail the replacement, if the approach is anything like transfers in the summer then I'm not going to expect too much...

Anyway, Smith, for me, one of us and a legitimate Villa legend, I genuinely wish him all the best going forward, this is one of the saddest days I've experienced supporting the club in quite a long time.
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One for the front page I think.
 
From the timing of the announcement, this has been on the cards for a bit. The media was saying that the owners would get together this coming week and review things. It seems that had mainly been done. It's even possible that a win at Southampton wouldn't have saved him, although I think a good win would have.

There's a clue in Purslow's statement, where he talks about the results for this year not being good enough, rather than this season. There may have been doubts in the summer.
 
Still no mention on SSN after 45 minutes. We are not headline news anymore and shows just how much we have fallen as a club. I remember when Ron Saunders resigned and it was the headline on News At Ten.
 
McParlandTheGreat said:
From the timing of the announcement, this has been on the cards for a bit. The media was saying that the owners would get together this coming week and review things. It seems that had mainly been done. It's even possible that a win at Southampton wouldn't have saved him, although I think a good win would have.

There's a clue in Purslow's statement, where he talks about the results for this year not being good enough, rather than this season. There may have been doubts in the summer.
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Which is why I said in the summer that they were keeping money back for a possible new manager.
 
Not surprised they’ve decided to make the decision and if they wanted him gone,I’m glad they’ve been decisive and done it now at the start of the break. Been following the Villa home and away for as long as I can remember and managers come and go and life moves on but Dean Smith will get a hero’s welcome whenever he returns to Villa Park and rightly so. Can’t argue with the decision but feel gutted for the bloke. Haven’t really felt like this since Sir Brian left and BFR before him tbh. Forget the twat now at Man City who some think was the only reason we got promoted, forget his tactical weaknesses and the poor run which ultimately sealed his fate..He brought the positive vibe back to us, reconnected that link between the fans and the coaches and the players. He united us again, and took us back to where we should always be. Will never forget the joy of Langoe junior as we celebrated on that May day at Wembley after 6/7 years of absolute torture….for that moment alone,which will stay with me forever, I’ll always be grateful and he can leave maybe with a heavy heart but certainly with his head held very high. He’s put the building blocks in place…over to Purslow and co to make the right appointment and ensure all that hard work isn’t wasted.
 
Inevitable in the end. Nice guy but maybe got too close to one or two players. Too many defeats this year. Not enough clarity of thought. Too many players havent turned up for him this season either.
Purslow should resign for the claims that we replaced JG with 3 players. That was always smoke and mirrors.
 
Express & Star also reporting that Shakespeare has been booted too.

I think all of the backroom staff could and should go, the only exception I'd make is to keep the goalkeeping coach Cutler.
 
Melon Donkey said:
It's a sad all round. A sacked manager means the club is in trouble on the pitch.

Nothing to celebrate whatsoever so you can shove your balloons and celebration emoji's up your arse quite frankly @Divine_islet .
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Anything else? It's no skin off my nose. Made my day today this positive news. Anyways, new manager, new start. Who ever we bring in has my full support.
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sirdennis said:
Top quality article from Mat Kendrick.

It was about half nine-ish on a Tuesday night when an unrecognised number flashed up on my phone.

Normally, I don't answer those calls in case it's a cold caller trying to flog me something.

For some reason, this time I did and I'm glad I did as it was actually a really warm caller selling me a dream.

"Hi, is that Mat? It's Dean Smith."

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/dean-smith-sacked-aston-villa-22095352
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Bit nauseating for me. He's just another football manager and not any better than Steve Bruce who had all sorts thrown at him. Although it was very slick from Smith chatting up the local Journos and getting them onside like that. Emotions are running high for some but I'm glad he's been fired.
 
McParlandTheGreat said:
From the timing of the announcement, this has been on the cards for a bit. The media was saying that the owners would get together this coming week and review things. It seems that had mainly been done. It's even possible that a win at Southampton wouldn't have saved him, although I think a good win would have.

There's a clue in Purslow's statement, where he talks about the results for this year not being good enough, rather than this season. There may have been doubts in the summer.
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@Silhillvilla etc will be happy knowing that even Purslow agreed that the 2021 form was mainly taken in consideration to decide that Dean was not the person to take us forward.
 
Bikini Inspector said:
Bit nauseating for me. He's just another football manager and not any better than Steve Bruce who had all sorts thrown at him. Although it was very slick from Smith chatting up the local Journos and getting them onside like that. Emotions are running high for some but I'm glad he's been fired.
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He did a much better job for us than Steve Bruce. Dean Smith and Steve Bruce do not belong in the same sentence when it comes to Aston Villa.
 
Pangloss said:
I'm personally deeply saddened by this. IMO he worked minor miracles here. He inherited a dreadful mess left by Steve Bruce and took us from bottom half of the Championship to Premier League in his first season. He then kept us up with a poor squad and last season took us to a solid finish of 11th, again with a squad that was hardly replete with quality.

Wonderful memories include the play off semi and final, the wins against Birmingham home and away, the demolition job of Liverpool at home, hell the United win at Old Trafford just a few weeks ago, all wonderful performances and memories.

He achieved great things here, people talk about it was all about Grealish but to my mind Smith made Grealish a much, much better player than he ever looked under other managers.

I'm disappointed in the players it has to be said, I think they've buried him, Smith didn't instruct them to not do the basics. I think we dropped the ball in the summer with transfers, the players bought for Smith we not right and certainly not ready made. He was also unfortunate to experience injury and fitness problems of the like I've never seen at the club.

That said, he was not perfect. I think his persistence with 3-5-2 was a big mistake, he just couldn't find solutions to the big problems which emerged this season. I do believe the widely speculated 'Smith ceiling' was hit this season in and among the complexity presented by all the above issues.

The owners now have a lot to do to nail the replacement, if the approach is anything like transfers in the summer then I'm not going to expect too much...

Anyway, Smith, for me, one of us and a legitimate Villa legend, I genuinely wish him all the best going forward, this is one of the saddest days I've experienced supporting the club in quite a long time.
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I don't think there is anymore to add. You summed up perfectly.

Been a long time since I was upset at a manager leaving. I am today

It was the right decision but............ Thank you for the memories Deano. Lived the dream when we won at Wembley.

The pictures of you and Jack with the cup will stay in my heart forever
 
Bikini Inspector said:
Bit nauseating for me. He's just another football manager and not any better than Steve Bruce who had all sorts thrown at him. Although it was very slick from Smith chatting up the local Journos and getting them onside like that. Emotions are running high for some but I'm glad he's been fired.
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No complaints he’s been sacked and once the dust has settled I’m sure being the decent bloke he is, he’ll recognise that ultimately results in 2021 were his undoing. But I find your dismissive post pretty pathetic tbh.
 
Pangloss said:
I'm personally deeply saddened by this. IMO he worked minor miracles here. He inherited a dreadful mess left by Steve Bruce and took us from bottom half of the Championship to Premier League in his first season. He then kept us up with a poor squad and last season took us to a solid finish of 11th, again with a squad that was hardly replete with quality.
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This is a great post and sums things up well. Definitely not without his failings (but tbh if he didn't have these he wouldn't have been our manager).

He brought the pride back to the club and I think some of his methods were great, but you can't go losing games for long swathes of the season without expecting some sort of comeback.

I too like many others am really sad about this.
 
I like Dean Smith, he's a decent bloke and he's Villa to the core like all of us. Some fantastic highs along the way as manager of the club he loves - 10 straight wins followed by promotion via the play off final. Hammering Liverpool 7:2 under the floodlights and it could have been double figures, a League Cup Final, the double over Arsenal, a win at Man Utd, and taking the club forward every season. But this season has been indifferent and 2021 hasn't been that good as a whole (as Purslow said in the club statement). The media have been touting his sacking for a while now and it seems the board have agreed and bowed to the media pressure. Five defeats in a row, conceding 13 goals in the process from a defence that last season was one of the best in the division, players pointing fingers at each other on the pitch, has Deano lost the dressing room? I get where the board are coming from, we cannot wait til January to do something if we are in a relegation fight, a new man will have very little time to get things turned around and going down, especially in the wake of the vast sums of money paid out to take us towards European football in the last 3 years, is not an option and would be a financial disaster and undo everything achieved so far. Many, myself included, found it hard to reconcile with Dean's insistance on 4 3 3 for much of his tenure. It could be argued he was limited by what was on the staff rosta, and it almost cost us our Premier League status in our first season back. Did our great start to last season raise the bar too high for our players and our expectations for greater things. If the board have high hopes for Europe in the next 2 seasons then the next incumbent HAS to be a big name manager with a proven track record who will bring leadership and tactics to gel the squad and find a way to make us a team not only well worth watching with exciting football but very hard to beat. As to who, I haven't a clue but I hope the board have someone already lined up who will galvanise the whole club and get us believing again.

Thank you Dean for returning the Villa back to the top flight.
 
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