I lost my shite with him after the Chelsea defeat as we were totally battered and the scoreline flattered us, we played much better against Liverpool and Man United. which to me was obvious, then I started to believe we can do this and we just about got there, Said before the last 10 games kicked off we need to grind out 9 draws and a win, turned out we only needed 10 draws. People flapping about every game being a must-win when in fact they were must not lose games.
There are however people who never wanted him as he wasn't a "name", well I don't think Lord Ron was exactly a name neither was Brian Little or JG except to us.
DS has that Villa element to him and he gets "it" he knows what we know he feels like we feel and I'm sure he like anyone of us would do the job FOC. He's not here for the money, he's not using us as a stepping stone unless he ever gets the England call and if that ever came it would be because he's done well at Villa as GT did .
I've looked at the PL supposedly the best league in the world, taking away Klopp Gladioli and Mourinho, I think our man is as good as any of them, to be honest, I can't even name half of them and they are the best 20 managers in the world or should be if it's the best league
Think there are also people like me who realised there was a big challenge ahead and backed him from the start of the season (because there wasn't a good enough reason not to), but as the season drew to its close had come around to thinking we needed something better.
December was the first critical point. A lot of games, many difficult ones, but also a few we really had to win or at least get something out of. It required game management; try for something out of the difficult ones but make sure we won the easier ones.
A draw at MU was a fine start. Then we lost it. Of the remainder, lost 5 won 1 (Norwich, just), including poor losses to Southampton (H), Watford (A). Ended in the bottom three. Big questions.
January was fine; losses to MC and in the FA cup didn't count. February, March, disaster. Maybe we were too focused on Wembley. But 4 very poor league losses. And after the new 2 week break we came back, not refreshed and raring to go, but still half asleep. I have to blame management. Getting a team out primed to deliver is essential. More recently we turn off after drinks breaks; same thing.
I'm glad that at the end we stayed up; I thought 36 points would be OK and we could do it, in fact 35 was. But let's not delude ourselves; considering where we were 10 points from 10 matches is relegation form. We survived only because others failed, again and again.
We now have a team with a more solid defence. But for goals we rely on moments of flair from Jack, Trez, Connor. I can't see how to improve the team when the team doesn't have a shape good enough for going forwards.
Maybe Dean has a plan and with new players we can start playing like a decent PL team. But I can't see it. Too many questions unanswered.