The Fear
A Wise Man (once sat next to him)
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.
One for the front page I think.