Stuartc445

This is a sport that saw Cardiff chasing after money for Emilano Sala after the poor bloke tragically died in that plane crash. You have to remember clubs in this sport have no shame. My opinion is just stop the league try and restart it at a later date but chances are they won't be able to. Personally as a person that could be at risk from this due to having asthma I don't care how they sort it out if they choose to go with league places at time of stoppage relegating us I don't care people are dying from this illness what happens to a football club is of the least importance imo.

The Alex comment, come on please don't lose the argument this fast, after all you're not Dean Smith..... Are you??

Pretty much this. Everyone is rolling out the stats that Newcastle are poor at but are missing out on purpose I believe the only stats that matters which is results and points gained. I remember last season Golden Boy Smith being quoted as saying that the performance is more important to him than the result, well I think Smith and the Bruce haters in here need to go look at the Football Rule book and look at the chapter about how points are earned.

Player slagging of a manager that binned him off shocker Remember when Martin O'Neil left and Curtis Davies came out how nice it was that he'd gone because now he'd get a fair chance but the 1st thing Houllier did was get rid of him that was comedy gold. What isn't a shock is your comment all the players Bruce brought / managed for us and 1 says bad things about Bruce and you are all over it.

Careful with posts like this @DCJonah will accuse you of being Alex Bruce

I'm not sure he's trolling this time to be honest, the whole we finished 5th in the championship excuse is a very defeatist attitude. Because with that attitude we may as well pack up and relegated ourselves now. We finished 5th yes but with that attitude it is a waste of time bothering because we've basically given up before we've started. The other thing I have noticed recently is how everyone seems to be saying the players aren't good enough, where was these comments when we pushed Spurs close, beat Everton, nearly beat Arsenal, pushed Liverpool as close as anyone has this season, no one was saying the players weren't good enough then were they. Maybe what might be the case is that Smith has been found out, other managers now know if they start with 1 tactic but then make a change during the game Smith either won't spot it or just won't do anything about it.

I'm still on Smiths side but i do have some issues: 1) To say we had no other striker when Wesley got injured is just plain wrong we had Kodjia (who with the scraps he was given had no chance of getting anywhere near match fit) but for some reason Smith wouldn't pick even though the complaints regarding Kodjias play could easily be described to use for Wesley. For me that says Smith is stubborn and will use an excuse to not pick a player he doesn't like even though the player he keeps picking is pretty much the same. IMO had Wesley not got injured we weren't going to sign a striker (despite it being obvious we needed one even with a fit Wesley) which is why it took so long to get one. 2) The experience i'm sorry but we are now in February this for me is no longer an excuse we should be at least showing some signs we are learning for me we are not. 3) The formation change this is the thing that scares me the most in an interview after Burnley away Smith said that we had to change the formation because of McGinns injury, 433 wasn't working even when McGinn was playing so that says to me if McGinn hadn't got injured he'd still be sticking with 433 which everyone could see wasn't working.

The thing is that could also be a problem as well being emotionally attached can blind someone's judgement. It's one of the many faults Lerner had imo he came in became a fan and got carried away which clouded his judgment until it was too late and just got worse and worse trying to recover it. I'm not saying Smith will let emotions cloud his judgement he hasn't so far. But I'm just saying having a fan in charge isn't always a good thing. One of the reasons I'm happy with Sawiris and Edens is they haven't come out and claimed to be fans like Lerner and Xia did. So I have faith in that when tough decisions need to be made they will.

I'm still on Smiths side (apart from the emotional in game comments ) but the bit in bold really gets to me, what has Smith being a Villa fan got to do with it. I'm a Villa fan does that mean that I'd be a good Villa manager No of course it doesn't I'd be a disaster. It's nice he is a Villa fan but it's a complete irrelevance what team a player or manager supports.

Thing is how many times have Blues been warned, after the Enkelmann incident, league Cup quarter final, the Grealish punch and that's just the ones against us. So if its more than 42k our owners need to make a stand and show that the FA can't walk all over them.

You mean like they have with Blues. What was it 42k for Grealish getting punched. So going by that it should be less than 40k fine which I'd imagine Edens and Sawiris have down the back of their sofas. Any more that 42k they should instruct lawyers to appeal it and use the Grealish punch fine as exhibit A

I totally agree, i was using that as an example of how bizarre the section of our support that like Hogan are there has never been a player that a section of fans have backed to ridiculous lengths with little to no reason for it, they've made excuse after excuse for him. Then when you consider Conor Hourihane only has to have a bad 10 minutes and he gets absolute slammed despite all the good he's done since we signed him.

I know, I've genuinely seen Villa fans fighting each other because someone had the audacity to say in a game he'd done nothing but hide from the ball that he wasn't very good (or words to that effect )

This, 343 suits the players we have, Targett and Guilbert aren't very good at defending (especially so Targett) but both are very good going forward having 3 at the back helps us exploit that. Oh and on a side note please can we stop doing these late goals they are fun but I'm getting on a bit and my body can't cope with the crazy celebrations they bring

You are right..... Hang on i remember Bruce getting slated for playing him on the wing, remind me where Smith is playing him? Anyway back on point to get lucky wins you have to be in a position to get lucky. Which for a side competing where we are at the moment Bruce's way will get you into those positions unlike Smiths way.

I've corrected that for you.

And yet are heading to stay up more comfortably than us. For me Bruce is the extreme one side and Smith is the extreme the other. Ideally we have a manager in between because in a Premier league relegation fight you have to pick your battles which is where Smith isn't very good at. The thing is with Bruce's way in the premier league you'll get "lucky" wins under Smith you won't. Like I said we could do with a Smith Bruce hybrid manager.

Where Bruce is more intelligent than Smith is knowing his and the club he's managing level. For example Bruce would know that a team that finished 5th in the championship wouldn't be able go toe to toe with Man City trying to play them off the park, the only way a team at out level would have a hope of a win is to keep it tight and try and nick something. He wouldn't have us playing it out from the back vs Man City because he'd understand that we aren't good enough to do that. We might have still lost but only 1 or 2:0, but there could have been a small chance of a bit of luck meaning we nick a win or a draw but by playing it out from the back meant we were l constantly losing possession around our own box which meant there was 0% chance of any kind of luck.

Luckiest team ever, it's amazing what happens when you have a striker on the pitch he should have started with Vasselev. Pepe Reina absolutely love him without him it's 3:0. All this short passing around at the back and it's long ball that wins it. Would still like a Pearson type manager if I'm honest because it's his slow reaction time that's hurting us it's. Fair play we ground it out today but it doesn't happen enough imo

You're all right guys I'd hate to have someone like Pearson as our manager I'd hate Villa to be organised and hard to beat I much prefer this disgrace Smith has us playing

Really? Oh yes I do remember that being a stick used to beat Bruce with... But yet its accepted for Dean Smith to do it.. I rest my case. With your reply you have proven that Smith can do the same as Bruce but get away with it, as I said the Smith fans refuse to accept any criticism of Smith. Also give it to Grealish/Snodgrass/ Kodjia sounds better than Smiths give it to Grealish/Grealish/Grealish.

For me Smith has put fans into 2 camps 1 I call the desiples won't have a bad word said. The others support him but will question him and call it out when he isn't doing well. Smith is the manager equivalent of Scott Hogan his fans will not accept a bad word about him.

So having plan A to Z of just pass to Grealish is a sign of a good manager then. If that's the case I'll apply for the job as I could easily instruct the players to do that.

As we didn't win it stands, the desiples of Smith are starting to clutch at straws now from the looks of it