Wezbid

There's nothing same old, same old about it. That's just a lazy stereotype/phrase thrown around with little context. He's British, yes, but does he set teams up like Bruce, Moyes, Allardyce, Simon Grayson, Dean Keates, Steve Evans, Michael Appleby etc etc? Nationality has nothing to do with anything. British managers can play attacking football. I would have been more than happy with a foreign manager who got us playing attacking football but with the likes of Henry and Faria, in reality, you have no clue what you'd be getting as they haven't taken the reigns themselves. Smith is known for possession based, attacking football, that is a known. If we have to believe he has little control then he's been forced to play attacking football, he does what we should be doing with the attacking players we have. The fact he's a Villa fan is a bonus. He'll have heard all the whinging about the dire, defensive football played from family members I suspect, as well as him just having an interest as an opposition coach, never mind a keen fan. If the guy was foreign and was called Diego Sanchez doing the job he's done with Brentford then some people would be noshing him off. The concern about him being a smaller part of a bigger thing is somewhat fair but he's still doing the job he's employed to do and we don't know just how much input he actually does have over things. I'm sure he still has an eye for a player but most importantly he can see his squad of players and work out how to play to the strengths our players have rather than restrict them. If, as people want to demean him say, the others do the recruitment, set the ethos etc then they still employed him to coach them all, work out who/what works best game to game to compete. He's walking into a squad with so much attacking threat it's mad. If he can get the likes of McGinn, Grealish and Hourihane on the ball, creating an piling forward rather than everyone piling back behind the ball as soon as we don't have it then that's an instant boost. I've never seen 10 men behind the ball and still see so much space afforded to the opposition. Every appointment has its risks, pluses and minuses. The big name ones seemed more based on excitement rather than anything of any real solid ground. I would have been happy to go for a gamble on the likes of Henry, Faria but it's just that, a gamble. Smith is a gamble too but there's utter logic and sensibility behind it but it's not a boring appointment either because of his link to the club but more importantly, his enthusiasm for delivering attacking football. Aston Villa in the Championship should be controlling the football and taking it to the opposition, not counter attacking. I'm more than happy with this appointment. Terry as a coach is also huge for any player who thinks he's Billy big Balls. They'll get taken down a peg. That said, I don't think Smith would allow any of them to think they're bigger than the club since he knows the club inside out.

"Get stuck in like I got stuck in with Jordan, Ooo errr, top of the league".

Less of the spoilers, pal!

Because we haven't appointed a manager instantly and they aren't media/attention whores. Disgraceful.

Sanchez Flores isn't intimidated by big names and is quite hands on too.

I'd be more than happy with Sanchez Flores, good manager, quality beard, no compo, good enough to carry on in the Prem, ex-right back. Do it.

There's nothing professional or unprofessional about it. It's just a funny picture. Not everything has to be scrutinised with a fine tooth comb.

They're both words removed, Clinton just as much, maybe even more, Trump just doesn't really try and mask it. Hope we're not getting this guy, he seems a bit past it. I don't believe anything these twitter things say. If it happens, fair enough but some places say 100 things and then when 1 actually happens come across like the font of knowledge.

However, speaking at his news conference subsequent to that interview, Rodgers said "you can't rule me out because I have never been asked." That's not the same as ruling himself out. Sneaky.

Probably because the odds drop and Sky Sports say he's one of the favourites, even if they know jack shit, it makes people feel like they're missing out on winning cash so bet on him, then they'll throw another name about and shorten the odds on them. Simple, effective, disgraceful abuse of power.

He got us scraping wins with a squad that costs more than many Championship clubs combined. Any half decent manager should have been able to improve our points total under Di Matteo. We had a poor start under RDM but we weren't getting thrashed, we were losing leads late on. The way some people in the media are going on about Bruce you'd swear he performed a miracle. With the money he's had to spend on fees and wages Villa should have been going head to head with Wolves last season or at least cementing 2nd place whilst improving the quality of football in the process. This season the football has remained dire and stand-offish whilst also not scraping the wins any longer. I suspect plenty of managers could have got us to this point whilst being paid a fraction of what we were paying Bruce.

I knew it was Bobo all along.

I think it might have been the North Korean FA head of recruitment, Kim Chi. The previous manager managed to escape to South Korea so they have a vacancy to fill.

I heard it was deconstructed and made into copious amounts of cabbage leaf butties, wrapped in sandwich bags and thus breezing past security forces. Upon entering the ground, the perpetrator/s took to their seats and discreetly and painstakingly started to reassemble the now famous vegetable, with the aid of toothpicks and watching a video backwards that they had recorded whilst originally taking apart the layered, green sphere to construct the sandwiches. I hear Guy Ritchie is interested in adapting the story into a screenplay for a future Ocean's film. We shall see.

Why not have both?

Did you know that when you say the word "poop", your mouth does the same motion as your bum hole? The same is true for the phrase, "explosive diarrhoea".

You can shout critical and damming comments without going down the abusive and nasty path. There's an important difference.

It's okay looking the business against other youngsters but you can only survive on that sort of rep for so long before you have to prove it against proper pros. It's the same old thing of thinking you've made it when you've done nothing in reality. It's all about the progression once you look a cut above against those of similar age. Ability/potential wise, I don't think there's a huge gap between players 5 leagues apart, it's all about the application/dedication and commitment. There are plenty of non-league players who are capable of the genius and quality you see in the PL most weeks but they don't apply themselves enough to deliver it consistently enough. How that can be improved with our own youth is another thing, as you could argue it's down to the ind to have that within them but you could also argue it needs to be coached into them but can you coach desire and application of an elite mentality? It's interesting. It would be nice to see a few more cement a place in the team but it's tough because managers have to have success now and will feel like they can't nurture players as they won't be around long enough to actually see the benefit (not specific to Bruce before people fly in 2 footed).

Same old, same old.

We're not.

Good header that, still pretty dire stuff overall though. I know it's boring but Bruce needs to go. There's been little to no progress after limping to the playoff final last year. There's no style of play, cohesion or real plan as evidenced by the constant changing of the team.

It says it all when people are having multiple stabs at trying to work out what the formation is and who's playing where with nobody any the wiser.

Is there any chance of him saving his career here if he's allowed to roam forward by a manager or are we calling him done regardless. He always looked class to me playing elsewhere.

He can whip in a good cross to be fair. I would give Bree a good run of games though, he's never going to improve being a bit part player. Elmo isn't awful but he's getting on and is only going in one direction.