praisedmambo

He can pay a lot of money or do one then.

This—I couldn't see Bruce beating Boro/Derby. He was long gone anyway. I guess we all see things as we want to see them, but Bruce and Smith had basically the same team from the signing of Abraham to the injury to Grealish. The performances and results in that period were night and day.

You kind of ignored what I was saying though.

Surely you must have some room in your thinking to accept that Brentford have a lower ceiling than Villa. If he's incapable of finishing higher at new clubs who have higher ceilings than his old clubs with lower ceilings, why weren't Brentford consistently finishing midtable in League 1 like Walsall?

We're all old enough to know the january window is full of limited opportunities. You think he wouldn't have had a complete overhaul if it was possible? Nobody achieves that in January.

Bruce also had a functioning Jedinak and — who was a year younger, same for Whelan and Hutton and a GK who was actually good. He also did worse with the same team as Smith earlier this season—when both managers had a Grealish. (Smith - Grealish) = (Bruce + Grealish) more or less. Abraham is better than Grabban but statswise they're not far apart— TA 20 goals 1 assist. LG 15 goals 3 assists.

But you said he made too many changes when he arrived—but we were good and looked good when he arrived for a long while. So he therefore didn't make too many changes. Then we got those injuries—it's true he hasn't been able to adapt to their absence. He hasn't got much to work with though. I can't believe he hasn't been able to magic up some decent players out of thin air.

Bit of both surely—Wagner and Jovanovic are both jobless as of now for example.

While we were in an excellent run of form too and chasing down the playoffs. Also after giving him a five year contract. Jack keeps posting about being injured too. The need for a conspiracy theory and to point the finger is staggering at times. Looking at Twitter reveals a bleak view of the human psyche and, for me, hints at reasons behind a lot of the crap that goes on and has gone on in this world. We're all doomed. Until Jack gets back.

Presumably we'd have a summer transfer window in order to replace him, which would make finding that correct formula a lot easier. They made a huge difference—you can tell by watching what they did in the games. How many goals and opportunities came about from Jack doing something on another level to everyone else on the pitch in the buildup? Before Mings arrived those two players reduced the rough average age of our team by about 8 years too. We're an old, laboured team without them and we're a hell of a lot better balanced with them.

So you're saying there are only bargains that won't get you anywhere and £40 million players and nothing inbetweeen? The resources at VIlla are on another level to Brentford—therefore there is every reason to expect we would surpass their level considerably.

I think there's more to the poor start under Houllier. We had lost Milner and had a CM midfield of Hogg and Bannan for plenty of games. I found it frustrating at the time how some fans quickly fell into pretty vitriolic criticism of him and who knows how that affected his health. I think we as a fanbase and probably most other fanbases love to find a scapegoat. Same with Lambert for me—totally screwed over by Lerner he did well keeping us up yet we fans demanded a head on a spike, just like now. We have no divine right to win football games and we were badly run in the Prem and we've been even more terribly run in the Championship by Xia. The madness has to end. Smith has proven he is capable of performances far beyond what we're seeing now. Let him rebuild—he's mentioned bringing the age down of the squad. At the very worst, if he got us to Brentford levels of performance with a young team (I've said before the ceiling with Villa is obvs much higher) then we'd have an actual sustainable base to build from. We wouldn't be hemorrhaging money on shit players and therefore we'd be able to invest our superior resources where it can make a difference. Looks like that'll begin next season.

Was his Brentford team better than this current Villa team? What's the difference? Oh, that he had time there and the opportunity to make loads of signings. The ceiling is twenty times higher with Villa than Brentford. He gets time. We obviously need an overhaul of the squad no matter who the manager is. We need a real long-term vision—we've been hamstrung by short-term thinking and the current debacle is more about that than anything else imo.

Oh look, Hutton is on a run again. Oh look, he's run into people again and fallen over.

6 with Hutton.

He does about five or six really embarrassing things a game now. Worst player ever to wear the armband? I'm not clearly not a fan.

For the sake of the internet please just give it a rest and let someone else have a conversation. It's great to have an opinion, but why repeat it every hour for hundreds of hours. Everyone got it the first time. There's no having a debate either because you have all the answers.

You'd expect this to happen. I guess the only reason it may not is if, worried about his injury record, they were trying to ease him into things.

Logic doesn't work like that. You have to choose a position and selectively interpret everything possible and manipulate it to suit what you're saying.

We weren't the only people interested in Smith. I'm not sure you like to think too hard about it but many clubs change manager mid season and move to get the one they want. Are you saying Southampton should have stuck with Adkins over Pochettino? Or United should have stuck with Mourinho? Or any of the thousands of examples of it working out long term or short term by changing manager. Truth is you're twisting anything you can to fit the argument that we shouldn't have Smith. It's hilarious you predict Bruce would have turned it around with as much fervour as you say Grealish and Axel won't make a difference. As in, you predict Bruce would have turned it around but you also predict that Smith won't. You have no idea at all if either is right but you are sure as anything sticking to your imaginary guns. I've rarely read anyone so blindly prejudiced tbh. You are either a genuine soothsayer or full of hot air.

You must make a killing in the bookies with your powers of prediction.

I hear what you're saying. I expect we'd still look pants though. I guess I look at it more that we are critically deficient in too many important positions and I think Smith has to more or less stick to his philosophy. It's as true to say sticking to your philosophy is important in the bigger picture.

Why not?

3—we had Grealish and Tuanzebe. Smith's team with Grealish vs. Bruce's team with Grealish are incomparable. We were making the most of him under Smith, attacking very well, but with Bruce we were all bad (except ironically the Brentford game). When people moan about what Smith has to work with, you and we all know that people are talking about the deficient squad as exposed when we lost Grealish and then Tuanzebe. 4—I think this is reading into things a bit. Forest was the 28th December. The next game we beat Boro 3-0, the next we should have beaten West Brom but were cheated out of a win. We lost Grealish too. I think more than anything losing Grealish has forced him to change things—Hourihane was caught out for goals against a couple of teams that turned wins into draws. 2—Depends. We did just play one of the best teams in the league and let in three. The two games before we let in one against two of the worst teams in the league. 1—We have many shit players. Too soon to judge anyway, which was your point at the beginning.

You're just sad we got an equaliser. Truth is you'll always find something to justify your early hassling of the new manager. 'People who have managed smaller clubs always fail'—Gregory didn't do too bad. He did have investment though and bought too many old players. Never mind how Lambert was shafted by Lerner. I expect you'd double down even if our form picks up. If Grealish does make a difference coming back, I can already see it: 'A manager shouldn't rely on one player. Smith is lucky to have a £25million player.' I've said it before, the point isn't that Dean Smith needs to be seen as untouchable, but that it's way too soon to judge him. With what he inherited nobody knows either way whether he's the right man, and nobody is going to know until about Octoberish this year.