Dean Smith

[avfc1982am]

I think Smith is done. The players look lost, the fans are lost and our PL status was lost a long time ago. We are devoid of ideas, enthusiasm, guile and for a team(loose) we are devoid of confidence.. Smith has been scared of his shadow since the start of the season. He's ultimately lacked leadership or at least enough to inspire his players to progress as the season has unfolded. All the makings of a dead man walking the way I see it. 

Imo we are not a great side however I think we have enough to survive albeit not under Smith. I think it's not against the grain to believe that the reality of the situation is we are leaderless, rudderless and currently sinking very quickly. 

I believe the owners should whatever happens release Smith and Suso at the end of the season. Sell Grealish and whoever else we can for good money and spend the money on bringing in a top manager for a change. Benetiez is the level I would be looking at with a huge restoration project. Give them a huge budget with no FFP restrictions to worry about and prepare to go back up 1st time not 3 years later.  

[Sulberto21]

Just now, avfc1982am said:

I think Smith is done. The players look lost, the fans are lost and our PL status was lost a long time ago. We are devoid of ideas, enthusiasm, guile and for a team(loose) we are devoid of confidence.. Smith has been scared of his shadow since the start of the season. He's ultimately lacked leadership or at least enough to inspire his players to progress as the season has unfolded. All the makings of a dead man walking the way I see it. 

Imo we are not a great side however I think we have enough to survive albeit not under Smith. I think it's not against the grain to believe that the reality of the situation is we are leaderless, rudderless and currently sinking very quickly. 

I believe the owners should whatever happens release Smith and Suso at the end of the season. Sell Grealish and whoever else we can for good money and spend the money on bringing in a top manager for a change. Benetiez is the level I would be looking at with a huge restoration project. Give them a huge budget with no FFP restrictions to worry about and prepare to go back up 1st time not 3 years later.  

Fans are definitely lost two home games and none of them turned up.

[DCJonah]

1 minute ago, Sulberto21 said:

Fans are definitely lost two home games and none of them turned up.

They sounded in good spirits though. No booing at full time. 

[VillaCas]

I agree that the level of expectations that you approach the season with will colour your view as to whether what we are seeing is acceptable or not. Personally, I will be very very happy with 17th and have thought that from the off - For me what we are experiencing now is exactly what I thought 17th would feel like - just less than a point a game. Its frustrating as hell but its exactly what I expected.

We have been a victim of our own success. Bruce's squad was aging and unbalanced and needed a serious overhaul - that could have been done more slowly and carefully if we had stayed in the Championship and still allowed us to be very competitive.

Against the odds we won promotion and that neccessitated a massive changearound (I dont buy the arguement that we could have kept more of the championship winning squad and added fewer, high quality players. I dont think we had the numbers to do that). This has left us with a very average players by PL terms and a squad that has been asked to find its feet and find some cohesion in the cauldron of PL competition. We have only a handful of players who are truly good enough for the PL (Grealish, Mings, Heaton, McGinn - 2 of which are injured), a handful who wouldnt look out of place in the PL with very good players around them but are not ready/able to carry a team themselves (Targett, Luiz, Samatta), those who are clearly Championship quality or worse (Nyland, Engels, Guibert, Hause, Hourihane, Trez, AEG, Nakamba, Lansbury, Jota, Davis) and outright disappointments (for me) like Wesley. We can probably argue certain players up or down a category but whichever way you argue it we are a lower, lower-half squad all day long.

The hope is that we can scrape together enough points to survive and then swap out four or five or the exisiting squad for better quality.  If we go down its trickier - we will be forced to lose the PL quality players.

 It's hard to allocate blame exactly but my take is a big chunk to Steve Bruce and the previous regime for building an aging squad with no eye on the future strategy, the next biggest chunk to the situation (doing better than expected and having to move our plans forward), next chunk to Jesus for a less than stellar recruitment campaign (you expect some pluses and minuses buth for me we could have done better), finally DS - I think he has perhaps been a little naive and has had to learn some hard lessons.

I still think we can stay up - a win against Newcastle is vital. If we go down I would stick with Smith who proved to me he had what it took last season

Just my opinion

[Graham t]

4 minutes ago, VillaCas said:

I agree that the level of expectations that you approach the season with will colour your view as to whether what we are seeing is acceptable or not. Personally, I will be very very happy with 17th and have thought that from the off - For me what we are experiencing now is exactly what I thought 17th would feel like - just less than a point a game. Its frustrating as hell but its exactly what I expected.

We have been a victim of our own success. Bruce's squad was aging and unbalanced and needed a serious overhaul - that could have been done more slowly and carefully if we had stayed in the Championship and still allowed us to be very competitive.

Against the odds we won promotion and that neccessitated a massive changearound (I dont buy the arguement that we could have kept more of the championship winning squad and added fewer, high quality players. I dont think we had the numbers to do that). This has left us with a very average players by PL terms and a squad that has been asked to find its feet and find some cohesion in the cauldron of PL competition. We have only a handful of players who are truly good enough for the PL (Grealish, Mings, Heaton, McGinn - 2 of which are injured), a handful who wouldnt look out of place in the PL with very good players around them but are not ready/able to carry a team themselves (Targett, Luiz, Samatta), those who are clearly Championship quality or worse (Nyland, Engels, Guibert, Hause, Hourihane, Trez, AEG, Nakamba, Lansbury, Jota, Davis) and outright disappointments (for me) like Wesley. We can probably argue certain players up or down a category but whichever way you argue it we are a lower, lower-half squad all day long.

The hope is that we can scrape together enough points to survive and then swap out four or five or the exisiting squad for better quality.  If we go down its trickier - we will be forced to lose the PL quality players.

 It's hard to allocate blame exactly but my take is a big chunk to Steve Bruce and the previous regime for building an aging squad with no eye on the future strategy, the next biggest chunk to the situation (doing better than expected and having to move our plans forward), next chunk to Jesus for a less than stellar recruitment campaign (you expect some pluses and minuses buth for me we could have done better), finally DS - I think he has perhaps been a little naive and has had to learn some hard lessons.

I still think we can stay up - a win against Newcastle is vital. If we go down I would stick with Smith who proved to me he had what it took last season

Just my opinion

We spent a veritable fortune , £150 million plus, on mostly poor players who were no where near being premier standard. WHOEVER sanctioned these transfers MUST go , no question. I hope we survive and even if we do those responsible for this debacle must leave. Most of the players that came in on Smiths watch are virtually worth nothing or damn close to it. As for the 'great' Wesley debate, don't even get me started......

VLD.

 

[AntrimBlack]

13 hours ago, Davkaus said:

Agreed. But regrettably we're now forced to only really consider ones willing to work in the second tier. 

Yes, but there are second tier clubs, and then there are second tier clubs with the financial clout of Premier League clubs.

A big difference, but I know what you are saying absolutely. However, we need someone special to get us promoted quickly, not just the usual second tier suspects.

[Sulberto21]

20 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

They sounded in good spirits though. No booing at full time. 

Made a lot of noise though on my Sky feed. 

[villalad21]

 

Decent place? 

Is he even aware of our fixture list?

[SimplyTheBez]

4 hours ago, Demitri_C said:

Because it shows how shit a job smith is doing but your defeneding him bizarrely. 

There is absolutely no foundatin for smith to stay qhile we continue to show such shit performances.

The guys lost the dressing room im almost certain of that.

I seem to recall that you said that you had a source who had told you that Smith had lost the dressing room about 18 months ago....right before our 10 game winning run and subsequent promotion. Hopefully you repeating that statement will have the same effect this time!

[avfc1982am]

The problem with Smith is it's always the next game...He's soon going to run out of 'next games' and find the excuses and rhetoric he spews out have been overshadowed by relegation. 

[Eastie]

7 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

 

Decent place? 

Is he even aware of our fixture list?

Ffs - I wish he’d knock a few heads together and do his job instead of praising such crappy performances 

[DaveAV1]

9 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

 

Decent place? 

Is he even aware of our fixture list?

What exactly would you expect him, or any other manager, to say?? 

[sne]

Think he is very much in the same mindset that Lambert ended up in here as in he's lost faith in what he is doing and is stumped about what to do next.

He is afraid and he doesn't have any answers. This is all new to him and he's not up to it sadly.

[chrisvilla4]

11 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

 

Decent place? 

Is he even aware of our fixture list?

If this is the case then they all need a kick up the arse. Why isn't JT getting more involved- even if its dishing out bollockings? 

They're just all so passive and apathetic. 

[Eastie]

4 minutes ago, DaveAV1 said:

What exactly would you expect him, or any other manager, to say?? 

How about it’s not good enough but we will give our all to rectify things ?  This continual praise for poor performances is doing himself no favours

i watched Chris wilder after the game yesterday and he pulled no punches making clear it was totally unacceptable and needed to improve - smith fools nobody with his post match comments - not tough enough to command respect in my opinion 

Edited June 22, 2020 by Eastie

[villalad21]

 

5 minutes ago, sne said:

Think he is very much in the same mindset that Lambert ended up in here as in he's lost faith in what he is doing and is stumped about what to do next.

He is afraid and he doesn't have any answers. This is all new to him and he's not up to it sadly.

I get the same feeling.

He has completely gone away from the coach he were at Brentford and Walsall.

He looks desperate and nervous and you are not making the right calls when you are in that state of mind.

The signing of Drinkwater and throwing him straight in against Man City despite being way off the pace. Like i said, desperation.

Edited June 22, 2020 by villalad21

[Blasterpocket68]

1 hour ago, Graham t said:

We spent a veritable fortune , £150 million plus, on mostly poor players who were no where near being premier standard. WHOEVER sanctioned these transfers MUST go , no question. I hope we survive and even if we do those responsible for this debacle must leave. Most of the players that came in on Smiths watch are virtually worth nothing or damn close to it. As for the 'great' Wesley debate, don't even get me started......

VLD.

 

Smith scouted and was fully  involved in the purchase of these players, the whole  structure at Villa should be reviewed before we embark on another rebuild! Smith thou no matter what is out of his depth at this level 

[Eastie]

Just now, villalad21 said:

 

I get the same feeling.

He has completely gone away from the coach he were at Brentford and Walsall.

He looks desperate and nervous and you are not making the right calls when you are in that state of mind.

Not completely gone away - his defences are still shit as they were at both clubs too 

[foreveryoung]

Everyone on this forum would be happy to survive at 17th, no doubt. But the problem is, an I will repeat for some fans who ignore it. It's not the quality, it's the manner in which we are losing games. I don't follow stats really, but we must have lost more games from winning positions than any other team in the Prem and probably the Championship., we are breaking records again, like the Lambert days.

We have competed in some really difficult games, Tottenham, Liverpool without Grealish, Leicester cup game I could go on. The league game against Leicester,  just proves the vulnerability of the team. Leicester played no better, we were just not on our game, or seemed much interested. This is down to coaching and management, the team is not improving under Smith. If the quality ain't there that's fine, but there's no aggression, no motivation, no one seems interested. One of the only teams in the start up I have noticed going out half arsed. This is down to management. You can tell when the team are on it, cause to be fair we can give anyone a good game, we have seen it with the Liverpool game.

Norwich are a poor team and it shows, but you would not sack the manager, because you can see the motivation of the team. From what I have seen you can see they try every game they play, they are just not good enough. Smith was up in the stands yesterday watching the game, please tell me if i'm wrong, but I haven't seen any other managers up in the stands while the team just ships in goals and loses.

[nick76]

So the Villa fans are looking to get rid of another manager, we havent even got through a full season with Dean yet with him coming in last season and getting us promoted and only 3/4 through this season with still a chance that we'll stay up.  No wonder we are labelled fickle fans, we never give anybody a real chance to manage this club.  Our target this season was always survival and we still have a great chance of that but no let's just give up now.  I'm as depressed as anybody on here but aiming for safety this season, we were always going to be bad for large parts of the season, we just have to be less bad than three others.  Until that final whistle happens we are still right in the mix of whether we are or arent.  Do we look like winning? No. Do our rivals look like winning? No....so just battle through these next 8 games and hope we can nick a win or two and then reassess as a group at the end of the season.