The Official Dean Smith Thread

[one match ban]

Smith will be here as long as he doing a good job And like all manager if he cannot do that he will out. Fans don't have to love the manager he is just the guy who send out the best 11 player to win the game and send the fans home happy if he can do that enough he stays .in the job if not he is out the door and on to the next one.But football is like that there is always some one else out there to replace you with

 

[gator]

Amazes me that people talk about changing the manager like it's some sort of guarantee that things will improve.
Things may actually get worse.

Got to get it right this summer ?.
Correct.
And the next summer ...and the next summer ...and the next summer....
Regardless of parachute payments etc every summer there is a decision to make .

Hmmm...sometimes it's very difficult not to judge that some have an agenda against Smith whatever he does or the circumstances.

Which is why stability is going to be even more of an issue if we miss out on promotion.For me it's far safer bet trying to carry momentum on than starting all over again with someone else who will need the first three months to settle in and work out his best team.

 

[Melon Donkey]

Smith will be here as long as he doing a good job And like all manager if he cannot do that he will out. Fans don't have to love the manager he is just the guy who send out the best 11 player to win the game and send the fans home happy if he can do that enough he stays .in the job if not he is out the door and on to the next one.But football is like that there is always some one else out there to replace you with

Yes.

I'm under no illusion that over time if things are not going well then Smith will go . I'm under no illusion that in modern football managers come and go quickly.

But Smith has to have some time, and to put the guy under this much pressure so soon after he has started as has happened when he has not had a chance to get the players in he wants or had a fully fit squad of key players available .

Some the comments during the poor run surprised me . I thought there was more patience from villa fans . Especially with a guy who is one of us. Fans that have scoffed at other clubs for discarding managers so quickly. But then if you didn't want him in the first place then.....

And now. Even after Smith has got through (hopefully) a difficult time, has us scoring goals for fun, keeping clean sheets, smashing promotion rivals, winning away at the sty, still some are talking about considering removing him in the summer .

You pay your money, you take your choice but I can't get my head around that thinking.

 

[OVB]

I was exited when he got the job and still am exited. The bloke is a breath of fresh air to anything we have had in the recent past. He has no agenda other than to do his very best for the club he loves and some of the football I have seen this season since he arrived has been the best since Sir Brian or BFR. With some the poor bloke can not win, at first we were the only team not to get a 'new manager bounce' after losing at Norwich and QPR (a game in which I though we were excellent in) Boooooooo

Then is all went rather quiet as we dismantled Derby then Boro and started scoring goals for fun, yes we conceded too many but I think the point made at the time as only having one centre half fit and him playing for Hull speaks for itself, yes Mr Bruce I am looking at you. Then after the 'hand of Rod' our talisman limps off after being kicked since the start of the year and we lose our link up player that makes it tick and are unfortunate that the man who could have stepped in and give us a bit of spark also was injured (Lansbury) leaving us with a lot of similar players in the middle. He experiments with the different line ups in midfield with these players whilst the the defence is still crap, one not fit and not suited to play the ball out from the back and we start to lose a couple, four to be exact in the league. Please note he was not in charge at the start of the season when we only had one available creative midfield player, five right backs, no centre halfs and God knows how many wingers, Booooooooooooooooo

So, he goes to market and addresses the weaknesses he sees, first on the goalkeeper and then on some centre halfs also bringing back a keeper and a centre half who were on loan who never should have been. Two months later we are raving as having the best defensive unit in the division Boooooooooooooooooooooooo

He also bring in Carroll to add a bit of creativity lacking in midfield that we missed and then Jack gets back to full fitness and we look like a Rolls Royce of a team Boooooooooooooooooooooo



Get rid of him?????, extend his bloody contract more like

 

[sirdennis]

Yes.

I'm under no illusion that over time if things are not going well then Smith will go . I'm under no illusion that in modern football managers come and go quickly.

But Smith has to have some time, and to put the guy under this much pressure so soon after he has started as has happened when he has not had a chance to get the players in he wants or had a fully fit squad of key players available .

Some the comments during the poor run surprised me . I thought there was more patience from villa fans . Especially with a guy who is one of us. Fans that have scoffed at other clubs for discarding managers so quickly. But then if you didn't want him in the first place then.....

And now. Even after Smith has got through (hopefully) a difficult time, has us scoring goals for fun, keeping clean sheets, smashing promotion rivals, winning away at the sty, still some are talking about considering removing him in the summer .

You pay your money, you take your choice but I can't get my head around that thinking.

Just so I am clear in my mind MD , you think we should assess the situation in the summer.

 

[Melon Donkey]

Just so I am clear in my mind MD , you think we should assess the situation in the summer.

 

[Villan57]

Let us be clear here Dean is going nowhere and neither is Jack, now can we concentrate on the important issue of getting into the playoffs and beyond.
I'm back buzzing again like I was back in December where I couldn't wait for the next game. Which is rare for me I'm a cynical bar steward by nature.
I'm surely not alone in feeling like this am I? UTV

 

[sirdennis]

Let us be clear here Dean is going nowhere and neither is Jack, now can we concentrate on the important issue of getting into the playoffs and beyond.
I'm back buzzing again like I was back in December where I couldn't wait for the next game. Which is rare for me I'm a cynical bar steward by nature.
I'm surely not alone in feeling like this am I? UTV

No you aren't.

 

[Melon Donkey]

Let us be clear here Dean is going nowhere and neither is Jack, now can we concentrate on the important issue of getting into the playoffs and beyond.
I'm back buzzing again like I was back in December where I couldn't wait for the next game. Which is rare for me I'm a cynical bar steward by nature.
I'm surely not alone in feeling like this am I? UTV

Know what you mean .

I can't wait until Saturday.

 

[OVB]

Let us be clear here Dean is going nowhere and neither is Jack, now can we concentrate on the important issue of getting into the playoffs and beyond.
I'm back buzzing again like I was back in December where I couldn't wait for the next game. Which is rare for me I'm a cynical bar steward by nature.
I'm surely not alone in feeling like this am I? UTV

The only difference being now we have a defence as mean as anything. Great innit

 

[Wurzel]

Careful appraisal of what Wurzel? Whether Smith is capable of being head coach with little budget presumably? Asking the question suggests you have plenty of doubts and your 'enough is enough' thread highlighted that. I'd argue that point of view is indeed controversial.....even moreso after the recent run. We do indeed need to get it right this summer....and changing the manager would be a good example of getting it wrong in my opinion.

I think we should appraise all aspects of the club come the end of the season, whatever division we are in. No agenda just think for the past god knows how many years we have hurled ourselves headlong down the rabbit hole without taking a breather and evaluating where we are. Does that mean I have doubts about DS, none more than I would with any manager after the past few years. Not sure I understand the blind devotion idea myself.

 

["Merd"]

Just to summarise all of the above:

Some are still unsure of progress and wish to take stock in the summer.
Some are reivigorated by current form and wish that Smith gets more time.

All of us want what's best for Aston Villa and have the courage to back their convictions.......seems totally normal for a football forum and nothing like those muppets in the Commons who only have their own self interests at heart.

 

[McParlandTheGreat]

I think we should appraise all aspects of the club come the end of the season, whatever division we are in. No agenda just think for the past god knows how many years we have hurled ourselves headlong down the rabbit hole without taking a breather and evaluating where we are. Does that mean I have doubts about DS, none more than I would with any manager after the past few years. Not sure I understand the blind devotion idea myself.

It's not blind devotion. It's common sense. Managers, and players, need support. If they get that support and it becomes clear that we're not going where we need to, then withdraw the support by all means. But withholding support without waiting to see what the manager can do, which can take some time, is shooting ourselves in the foot.

Managers, the whole club, normally do get assessed at the end of the season. It's daft not to. But that's not the issue here.

 

[OVB]

Just to summarise all of the above:

Some are still unsure of progress and wish to take stock in the summer.
Some are reivigorated by current form and wish that Smith gets more time.

All of us want what's best for Aston Villa and have the courage to back their convictions.......seems totally normal for a football forum and nothing like those muppets in the Commons who only have their own self interests at heart.

The point being he has not had any time to put his mark in the club, as stated some have had an agenda since he got the job and it sickens me to the core

 

[CDX_EIRE]

Its football, we have one person on this forum who never rated Grealish and it goes for nearly all clubs. It only seems to be the fanatical clubs like United and Liverpool who have a percentage of fans who cannot think for themselves.

As someone who firmly backs Deano this summer and beyond I can even admit that the 9 to 10 game period without a win is alarming and honestly deserves more scrutiny than the 7 or 8 games where we purred and the current run.

With that said it is incredibly limiting and difficult to defend your opinion when you only judge him on one period of time rather than his entire stint to date.

One thing for sure, if you cannot admit Dean did make some difference and is a step in a completely different direction than our last 5 or 6 managers then I'd question your motives and your own opinion.

 

[Wurzel]

I've often praised DS, so that is an accusation that cannot be levelled at me. As for not supporting him who said I wasn't, although I doubt he gives two shots about my opinion. I'm thinking about the bigger picture, not just continuing the cycle of the last god knows how many years. I agree that you learn more about people when they are going on a bad run, and it is extremely encouraging that DS and the team have gone on a fantastic unbeaten run, and with a good wind and a bit more luck we will get in the playoffs.

 

[ASPINALL]

He has turned things around pretty dramatically since that first half against Stoke.

The crowd are certainly with him, and responding to the teams efforts.

 

[Villan57]

Some of the football we played in the first half hour against Blackburn was Man cityesque or Arsenal when Wenger had them playing. Brilliant to watch but a tad frustrating when it's not getting the goals.

Play like that every game and nobody in this league including Leeds and Norwich will get near us

 

[DeanoVilla]

Has he gone yet?

 

[McParlandTheGreat]

Some of the football we played in the first half hour against Blackburn was Man cityesque or Arsenal when Wenger had them playing. Brilliant to watch but a tad frustrating when it's not getting the goals.

Play like that every game and nobody in this league including Leeds and Norwich will get near us

And we're doing it with players who aren't Man City or Arsenal standard. Just think if we could up the quality in the squad a tad.

It also means that if we don't go up then we should cracking time next season, even if we lose a few players (so long as we get replacements which I think we could).