thejoker

If we’re as well run as we’re led to believe then I think there will be contingency plans in place.

The problem is that we (Smith) don’t have Grealish to rely on any more. Therefore his poor record without Grealish becomes more relevant. Remember how poor we were in The Championship when Grealish was injured? I think it was something like 2 wins in 12. Grealish returned, we won 10 in a row and gained promotion. Grealish carried us, no doubt. I agree that Smith deserves massive credit for improving Grealish.

There are 2 facts to consider with Dean Smith. 1. We have improved considerably in the three years since he was appointed (mid table Championship team to mid table Premier League team). 2. His record without Grealish is poor at best (even in the Championship). Both points are true, and I think it’s really difficult to judge what to do. I look at Brentford since Smith left, and Thomas Frank has unquestionably taken them onto another level - are they better than us after we’ve spent £300m in the past 3 years? Smith no longer has Grealish to rely on, so I think his record without Grealish becomes more relevant. I read earlier that our record this calendar year is 8 wins in 28 league games. Most of those matches were without Grealish. Worrying. I’m sure that our form towards the end of last season hasn’t been forgotten by the board. I personally think he’s taken us as far as he can (the Wolves match sounded major alarm bells), but I’ve got no idea who could take us into the top 8 and maybe further.

I think we have to thank Smith for his 3 years, but he’s not taking us any further. I really don’t have a clue who could replace him, but that’s not my job fortunately.

We’ve regressed so much since last season. No real playing style still. Everything looks panicked.

We can’t recall him outside of the transfer window.

I’ve had a look through and I can’t find it. It might have been a series of tweets rather than an article, but I think it was from one of the local journalists.

I’ll see if I can find it.

I read an article a while ago saying that the owners were concerned and disappointed with our drop off last season, but they understood some of the reasons (Grealish’s injury being the main one), so I suspect that there may be one or two concerns with Smith prior to this season. I don’t think our start has done much to ease the concerns. I think the next 3 matches before the next international break are vital for Smith.

I’ve always been on the fence re:Smith, but that was just awful management today. We were cruising at 2-0, why make subs just for the sake of it? I can maybe understand Dougie because of the travelling, but no need to replace Buendia or Cash. I really want Smith to be our guy for the next 5 years but he is repeatedly shown up. I just don’t think he is consistent enough to get us top 6 in the long term. I can imagine Wes is fuming tonight.

It’s just a non starter on so many levels. Why would he move to a team on the down, from a team on the up? Spurs would never pay the kind of money we’d be looking for. We paid £33m when he was a Championship player. He’s now an England international. We’d be looking to double our money at least…plus the owners wouldn’t want to sell another big name so soon after Grealish IMO, especially to a potential rival.

I think he said he’s happy with our squad. Didn’t rule out more signings. Smith said we would have signed Buendia even if Grealish stayed, so we must have at least £40m left to spend if we want to.

More a case of him wanting to go from what I can gather.

That’s disappointing then, maybe we expect Bogarde or one of the other youngsters to be ready in 12 months, so this is just plugging the gap.

I really hope that there is an option to buy this time…

I get the impression that he’s not planning a long stay at Villa. But thats ok, if he rips the league up and leaves in 2 years then we’ll probably more than double our money and re-invest again.

Yeah, let’s move on…I wouldn’t want to pay £40m for Cantwell if we got £200m for Grealish.

I’m fairly sure we announced Buendia a few weeks before he officially signed…

Great news. A last throw of the dice to convince Grealish to stay - or his replacement? I’d love 1 more season please Jack. Watkins Grealish - Buendia - Bailey

I’ll be gutted to see him go, but if he does leave, then we need to do what Spurs did when they sold Bale - sign 3/4 top quality players to improve the squad. It has happened to other teams and they have gone from strength to strength - Leicester being the obvious example. Jack Grealish is not Aston Villa, if he leaves, we move on.

If we can get anywhere near £15m for AEG then I’d take it. Scored plenty of important goals for us, but bar the odd game, his general contributions in open play aren’t up to much. He’ll probably only be on the bench this season anyway and we have Philogene-Bidace that could take his squad place.

Not sure what ‘more than live’ means, but quite interesting from Alan Nixon.

A bit less disappointing…

Collymore was with Jack's Dad at the semi-final...