Dean Smith

[hippo]

37 minutes ago, useless said:

If Smith's job was safe no matter what then the club would have responded to last night's rumours, maybe not a direct rebuttal but something to indicate that he's not going anywhere, such as quotes from him that he's looking forward to the rest of the season or something like that. If John Percy has said his job is on the line then it's almost certainly true.

Yup - JT until the end of the season is my bet.

[TRO]

8 minutes ago, Johnnyp said:

I think the owners always knew the target in the summer was to stay in the league. I think with what they spent ( mind you spread out over 12 players ) they didn't think it would be this hard. Id be a bit worried to be honest. We have owners who, the dog on the street knows, wanted thierry henry.  A CEO who spent the summer bragging about our highly sophisticated and modern scouting network run by a sporting director who looks like he is way out of his depth. If it looks like a tom fox and paddy riley, well......

I think we need to be careful in both directions....creating to many excuses ( I think the money we spent was as much as any club could hope for even under the circumstances, Doug would never have signed that off, its what we bought is the debate) and throwing the baby out , with the bath water.

We was never this bad a few months ago, something has changed......confidence has drained......because something maybe we don't know has changed, the mood has changed and we don't know why....The fans are our only hope IMO

Right now we are all angry, with the displays, none more than me....I am ****ing livid at what I am watching......but it requires, cool heads, but definitive action.....We need to be deliberate in what we do, not flimsy and woolly.

We all know things are not right and getting worse.....first thing is stop the rot and any cost to spectacle, spectacle right now is cosmetic, we want substance, substance, substance,substance.

Never mind a huddle.............I would turn up with a shovel and give it to every player and say do you know what thats for?  " Dig us out of this ****ing mess" and "Mings row Z , i will take you there if you don't know where it is"

I say, sack him today or come out and say he is staying ..properly.....stop the speculation.....The team have to know, its on them to do or die.. not use the manager as a convenient scapegoat to play shit.

I have my doubts about Dean, but its not the time to dither, back or sack him now.... we have a 10 game fight for our lives and if he is in that dugout, he has to hear the backing from the fans, no matter how painful it is.

[Made In Aston]

I wouldn't be surprised if they were reviewing Smith's position, but Football Insider is hardly a credible source. Replacing him with Terry makes little sense. The best we can hope for is new manager bounce and that won't come from someone who is already part of a failing setup. If a change were made now then it should be a long term improvement, not a short term Pulis type fix. 

I've seen enough from DS to know that he is a limited manager...Not the worst, but certainly not the best we could realistically get. I feel that keeping him will result in missed opportunities and end up with the club treading water in the championship. Whichever league we start next session in, it should be without Smith. 

Edited March 11, 2020 by Made In Aston

[sheepyvillian]

It's easy supporting a team when it's doing well, but it's when a team is at its lowest ebb,  that  is when the support of it's fans is most important. The negativity of some is ridiculous and does not help our cause at all. Through thick and thin no matter what. 

Even the media have decided to compound our misery with their malicious conjecture. This isn't the time to roll over,our backs maybe to the wall, but we have to come out fighting and us as fans need to give them our wholehearted support, come what may.

[Elton]

51 minutes ago, MikeAVFC said:

May I ask why? The bloke is just as clueless as the rest of them. Appoint Terry and we effectively wave the white flag, pointless

Lol. How do you know that? You know he is not our manager right? He could be a poor manager, he could be a great manager. We don’t know because he is not yet a manager..

[terrytini]

51 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

Not really. So far he is close to meeting his target. Other managers in a similar position were given time. Especially when the fans hadn't turned on them.

Quite.

 Getting rid is nowhere near as clear cut an option as some think, in my view. Personally my concern is why he can’t get the players playing at their best. It’s no use keeping him if he can’t do that ( and they won’t keep him in my view if that doesn’t improve, regardless of what noises they make now).

But without being privy to all the background, I’d say it’s harder to make that judgment from here than from, for example, Purslows Seat.

Im quite sure these owners will demand success. They aren’t used to failure. But they’ve clearly put Purslow in charge, and equally clearly he won’t want failure either - he will be judging that balance like we all are, he knows we aren’t far off target, but equally he sees what we see in performances.

Only him, the owners, and possibly the Coach, know the “ Use By” date on the quality of performances, and the bottom line on points.

He may get points without much improvement, or he may get improvement without points, he may get both, he may get neither.

But they will have a bottom line, I’m certain, that he needs to meet.

[Johnnyp]

1 minute ago, Made In Aston said:

I wouldn't be surprised if they were reviewing Smith's position, but Football Insider is hardly a credible source. Replacing him with Terry makes little sense. The best we can hope for is new manager bounce and that won't come from someone who is already part of a failing setup. If a change were made now then it skittles be a long term improvement, not a short term Pulis type fix. 

I've seen enough from DS to know that he is a limited manager...Not the worst, but certainly not the best we could realistically get. I feel that keeping him will result in missed opportunities and end up with the club treading water in the championship. Whichever league we start next session in, it should be without Smith. 

John Percy is though.

[kurtsimonw]

32 minutes ago, Johnnyp said:

I think the owners always knew the target in the summer was to stay in the league. I think with what they spent ( mind you spread out over 12 players ) they didn't think it would be this hard. Id be a bit worried to be honest. We have owners who, the dog on the street knows, wanted thierry henry.  A CEO who spent the summer bragging about our highly sophisticated and modern scouting network run by a sporting director who looks like he is way out of his depth. If it looks like a tom fox and paddy riley, well......

Suso has done this role successfully at Atleti. 

Dean Smith was "successful" at Brentford, apparently. Though despite losing many of their better players, their new boss is outdoing Dean. 

The team Suso has put together is more than enough to stay in the PL IMO. 

[TRO]

9 minutes ago, terrytini said:

It has been looking that way. Who knows ? But who would be surprised to hear it ?

Those recent league results could cause rifts in relationships, blame is like a virus and gets passed around...togetherness gets tested....but we need it badly.

The only people to save us IMO.....is us, the fans.

The fans have been unbelieveable all season and if ever they were needed to bring the team together, its now....we are all angry and hurting....but the fight is on and only a seige mentality, will save us, its our only hope.

If there is one bunch of fans capable of it, its ours.....I think our home games are our only hope.

[kurtsimonw]

6 minutes ago, sheepyvillian said:

It's easy supporting a team when it's doing well, but it's when a team is at its lowest ebb,  that  is when the support of it's fans is most important. The negativity of some is ridiculous and does not help our cause at all. Through thick and thin no matter what. 

Even the media have decided to compound our misery with their malicious conjecture. This isn't the time to roll over,our backs maybe to the wall, but we have to come out fighting and us as fans need to give them our wholehearted support, come what may.

Wanting a change does not = not supporting the team. 

I think, given you can count on one hand the number of decent performances we've had this season, 29 games is a decent chunk of time. 

A Premier League spot is invaluable. We must do absolutely everything we can to hold on to it. Sometimes that means cutting someone loose 

[Johnnyp]

Just now, kurtsimonw said:

Suso has done this role successfully at Atleti. 

Dean Smith was "successful" at Brentford, apparently. Though despite losing many of their better players, their new boss is outdoing Dean. 

The team Suso has put together is more than enough to stay in the PL IMO. 

When you look at Guilbert and Trezeguet do you think these are players who are not playing for a manager or players who, regardless of who was in charge, are just not that good. They are miles off premier league players. For a start look where they came from. Club relegated in France and not even a top 5 club in Turkey.  And we are shocked they are " underperforming" These are not holding anything back. I'm sorry, this is what they have to offer. We've been shown it.

[TRO]

20 minutes ago, sheepyvillian said:

It's easy supporting a team when it's doing well, but it's when a team is at its lowest ebb,  that  is when the support of it's fans is most important. The negativity of some is ridiculous and does not help our cause at all. Through thick and thin no matter what. 

Even the media have decided to compound our misery with their malicious conjecture. This isn't the time to roll over,our backs maybe to the wall, but we have to come out fighting and us as fans need to give them our wholehearted support, come what may.

I think the negativity is inevitable in what we have been watching.

However, we have 2 choices.... 1 blame everyone & roll over and die and accept the inevitable

                                                       2 roll our sleeves up and defy the odds and fight for our lives.

I know the fans will be looking for the latter, we have 10 games to remind all the Villa park staff......its the latter we will accpet as a minimum.

I have my doubts about Dean, but now is not the time, on Saturday if he is in that dug out, backing him is the only option.....and it needs to come loud and clear.....defiance is our only chance.

Edited March 11, 2020 by TRO

[TRO]

25 minutes ago, terrytini said:

It has been looking that way. Who knows ? But who would be surprised to hear it ?

However, Terry its only my suspicion.

We need to stay up and its not too late, but we need a rallying call of defiance to unite the clan.....its still doable with the right approach.

Blues and Sheff Wed gave Leicester and Man City a game......we can do this.

[TRO]

1 hour ago, dubbs said:

How do we know he's clueless? For all we're know he's advising Dean and DS isn't taking on board anything he says? Not for one second saying this is what's happening but just a thought.

it did cross my mind too.

[Elton]

1 hour ago, dubbs said:

How do we know he's clueless? For all we're know he's advising Dean and DS isn't taking on board anything he says? Not for one second saying this is what's happening but just a thought.

Exactly this. Even if Smith is listening to Terry, JT will be reacting to the footballing philosophy that Smith wants to play, the often quoted going ‘toe to toe’ with the opposition. Terry may start with a completely different approach and I suspect he would given how a lot of his very successful Chelsea teams had a solid base.

Of course it’s difficult to change the approach totally now and also we aren’t too bad at home, as long as we don’t play in empty stadiums we still have a chance with 6 homes games even with Smith still in charge.

I do think that long term we need a manager that can build from the back. Even this current Liverpool team only started improving when they sorted their defence and keeper out. It’s not that surprising that the 2 open/expansive promoted teams are in the bottom 2 and the more solid Sheffield United already safe and more.

[useless]

If Smith does go, which I still think is unlikely at this stage, there's no way they'd give the job to Terry, he would be seen as part of the problem, only way Terry would remain is if whoever we bring in wanted Terry as his assistant. They'd want someone to save our season but only has ten or less games to do so, that challenge is not going to entrusted to be someone who's never even been a manager.

Edited March 11, 2020 by useless

[weedman]

25 minutes ago, kurtsimonw said:

Suso has done this role successfully at Atleti. 

Dean Smith was "successful" at Brentford, apparently. Though despite losing many of their better players, their new boss is outdoing Dean. 

The team Suso has put together is more than enough to stay in the PL IMO. 

This is demonstrably false. They've smashed club records in terms of transfer spending this season. In years gone by the likes of Benrahma would be playing for a different team now. They are a club who has been well run for years and built to the point of finally having a crack at promotion this season. Their manager is doing very well, but let's not pretend he's working under the same constraints as Dean did. 

There is absolutely loads to beat Dean Smith with at the moment, there's no need to attempt to discredit his entire management career 

[KingBromford]

49 minutes ago, hippo said:

Yup - JT until the end of the season is my bet.

God knows, my bet is if we somehow stay up, we will find a new manager like Brighton. However I think if we do go down, the owners will for some what reason keep him as he obviously (as the season has went on) is a championship manager. I don’t know what it is but then I feel in my gut that if we do go back up, we will then look for manager who has a better chance of us staying up. Don’t know what it is just got that idea 

Edited March 11, 2020 by KingBromford

[Liono]

John Terry

 

Terry Connor.

[Keyblade]

3 hours ago, LondonVillian said:

Complete and utter nonsense there is no way you can claim these teams are this much better than us. Slightly better maybe but this gulf in quality/points, laughable? Also Burnley's wage bill will be lower than ours. Only point I agree with is that they have had longer to gel together but again that does not excuse the considerable gap in perfomances / points. 

You're literally just making all of this up. I bet you think that we're Aston Villa and they're just lowly Burnley and Southampton so we must have a higher wage bill than them. This is the arrogance people talk about with Villa fans. Why in the world would newly promoted Villa have a higher wage bill than Burnley who are into their 5th straight year as a PL side or Southampton who are in their 8th? Just from intuition that should seem wrong. But then you can look this up and all sources say their wage bills dwarf ours multiple times over. Or if you don't trust these sources, there's Purslow who's mentioned that we are currently paying Championship wages and that it would take 3 whole years before we could compete with those "lowly" clubs, forget about the European places.

This is why the first year back for a newly promoted club is only about survival. Sure you'll have exceptions to this like Sheffield United or Wolves but that's just what they are, exceptions. The vast majority of them are in the same boat we find ourselves in, and it's never ever pretty. Look at Norwich, who won the league at a canter last season while we finished 5th, some 20 points behind them. They are rock bottom and not panicking because they've been here before. They knew it was going to be like this. They won't be talking about "hmm why aren't we as good as these established PL clubs who have a wage bill  2 or 3 times the size of ours???".