Dean Smith

[Tomaszk]

I really hope Villa fans who never rated Smith are still enjoying this. Be such a shame to waste this being bitter.

The attitude he's got into this squad is something else.

[Guest av1]

5 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

Not to be a stick in the mud, but would Smith still be doing it if Grealish was not here this season???

Would Pep have done what he did a Barca without Messi in the team?

Look Grealish is genuinely world class so of course losing him would have been huge, he's irreplaceable. But I look to Smith's recruitment in the summer which was stunning, and I'm sure the extra £100m in the kitty (what Jack would have gone for) would have been spent wisely. 

Would we be as good without Jack? Of course not, but I still think we'd have seen a big improvement on last season. 

[VillaCas]

Incredible season so far and amazing positivity on VT - we have three massive games coming up, let’s hope we can win a few points but if luck doesn’t go with us let’s not throw our toys out the pram. 
We’ve witnessed a unbelievable turnaround so far - we are sure to have a few more up and downs - let’s continue to appreciate how far we’ve come

Edited December 27, 2020 by VillaCas

[Guest av1]

5 minutes ago, Tomaszk said:

 

The attitude he's got into this squad is something else.

When we went to 10 men yesterday I can't say I still thought we'd win, but what I was absolutely 100% sure about though was we would still try to win and try to take the game to Palace. 

He was never going to just shut up shop. As a fan it's just brilliant and the players must absolutely love it..

[Tomaszk]

24 minutes ago, av1 said:

When we went to 10 men yesterday I can't say I still thought we'd win, but what I was absolutely 100% sure about though was we would still try to win and try to take the game to Palace. 

He was never going to just shut up shop. As a fan it's just brilliant and the players must absolutely love it..

He came into a horrific situation and turned it right round. Had help on the way no doubt, the owners, Jack Grealish etc.

But he leads this team. He doesn't just send them out and see what happens. There's structure, a plan, thinking behind what happens.

Been some tough decisions along the way as well, and he shirks nothing. The biggest being moving Grealish to a position he openly didn't like at the time, making him even better.

[Sam-AVFC]

45 minutes ago, av1 said:

At this point would anyone be against us "doing a Ashley/Pardew" and giving him a stupidly long contract?

I know I bloody wouldn't. Exciting, vibrant, fearless football all whist picking up great results.

It's a football fans dream isn't it. 

Yes, because it would be completely unnecessary. I can't see him wanting to go anywhere else as long as we're improving and he's being backed.

[sharkyvilla]

35 minutes ago, av1 said:

Would Pep have done what he did a Barca without Messi in the team?

Look Grealish is genuinely world class so of course losing him would have been huge, he's irreplaceable. But I look to Smith's recruitment in the summer which was stunning, and I'm sure the extra £100m in the kitty (what Jack would have gone for) would have been spent wisely. 

Would we be as good without Jack? Of course not, but I still think we'd have seen a big improvement on last season. 

Dean never seems to get much credit for Jack becoming world class.  He obviously was destined to be very good but his improvement has been off the scale and coaching and man-management must have a lot to do with that.

[Guest av1]

3 minutes ago, sharkyvilla said:

Dean never seems to get much credit for Jack becoming world class.  He obviously was destined to be very good but his improvement has been off the scale and coaching and man-management must have a lot to do with that.

Agreed mate. 

[zab6359]

55 minutes ago, av1 said:

At this point would anyone be against us "doing a Ashley/Pardew" and giving him a stupidly long contract?

I know I bloody wouldn't. Exciting, vibrant, fearless football all whist picking up great results.

It's a football fans dream isn't it. 

We've already done that last year a new 4 yr contract! What are you proposing a 10 yr?

[Villarocker]

39 minutes ago, av1 said:

When we went to 10 men yesterday I can't say I still thought we'd win, but what I was absolutely 100% sure about though was we would still try to win and try to take the game to Palace. 

He was never going to just shut up shop. As a fan it's just brilliant and the players must absolutely love it..

Micah Richards said yesterday that, during his time at Villa, Smith would train 10 v 11 and it was all about the 10 attacking. 

Smith has the right mental attitude and that is to go into every game trying to win it, no matter who we play. It's so refreshing. But, beyond that, you just have to be impressed with the football we are playing. We must be one of the most entertaining teams to watch in world football, right now. 

[zab6359]

8 minutes ago, sharkyvilla said:

Dean never seems to get much credit for Jack becoming world class.  He obviously was destined to be very good but his improvement has been off the scale and coaching and man-management must have a lot to do with that.

As much as I like DS and am happy he is charge he's had very little to do with Jack's development Jack was always destined for big things!

[nick76]

1 hour ago, av1 said:

At this point would anyone be against us "doing a Ashley/Pardew" and giving him a stupidly long contract?

I know I bloody wouldn't. Exciting, vibrant, fearless football all whist picking up great results.

It's a football fans dream isn't it. 

I would be against this.  As you will see from my history I've always backed Smith even in the darkest times but I think this is unnecessary. 

Nobody knows what's going to happen in the future and we are a winner either way.  If he's failing in a couple of years time then we should be in a great position by then to attract a great manager, if he's successful why would he leave his boyhood club and if he did we would be in a great position to get another great manager.  If we need to sack him, lets say in 18 months because we suddenly go really poor for a season or so then signing a ten year contract means we would be paying out 9 years of wages which could be huge.  At 50k a week would be well over 20m, which is a massive outlay!

I think everybody is comfortable with the four years he has left on his contract, which will be reviewed regularly by the board who seem to be fair to all parties.

[Guest av1]

11 minutes ago, nick76 said:

I would be against this.  As you will see from my history I've always backed Smith even in the darkest times but I think this is unnecessary. 

Nobody knows what's going to happen in the future and we are a winner either way.  If he's failing in a couple of years time then we should be in a great position by then to attract a great manager, if he's successful why would he leave his boyhood club and if he did we would be in a great position to get another great manager.  If we need to sack him, lets say in 18 months because we suddenly go really poor for a season or so then signing a ten year contract means we would be paying out 9 years of wages which could be huge.  At 50k a week would be well over 20m, which is a massive outlay!

I think everybody is comfortable with the four years he has left on his contract, which will be reviewed regularly by the board who seem to be fair to all parties.

Fair point mate..

[Sulberto21]

1 hour ago, VillaCas said:

Incredible season so far and amazing positivity on VT - we have three massive games coming up, let’s hope we can win a few points but if luck doesn’t go with us let’s not throw our toys out the pram. 
We’ve witnessed a unbelievable turnaround so far - we are sure to have a few more up and downs - let’s continue to appreciate how far we’ve come

I'd argue that the next 4 league games will determine whether we genuinely challenge for top 6 / title (amazingly) or we finish close to the top half (9 -12th) which will be a brilliant season. 

For the next 4 league games I say in each game for the first 20 minutes we should go all out attack and blitz them.

[dudevillaisnice]

1 hour ago, foreveryoung said:

Not to be a stick in the mud, but would Smith still be doing it if Grealish was not here this season???

In fairness we’ve had some managers in the past who hadn’t a clue how to utilise him properly, if anything he deserves credit for getting the best out of him which is helping us as a team. 

[Guest av1]

1 minute ago, dudevillaisnice said:

In fairness we’ve had some managers in the past who hadn’t a clue how to utilise him properly, if anything he deserves credit for getting the best out of him which is helping us as a team. 

100%

18 months or so ago there was quite a few people on here and at the ground saying that McGinn had overtaken Jack as our most important player.

Look that's not a pop at JM, far from it, but Jack has elevated himself to truly world class levels, and as you say, the manager has to take great credit for that. 

[WooJung]

2 hours ago, TheMelvillan said:

I imagine that with all the health and fitness tech and statistics etc at his disposal that Dean knows exactly what his players are capable of and what their limits are.

Dean seems to like consistency. Mr No.tinkerman

I don't dispute that. There is however the chance of a bad taclke which could take a player out, no amount of tech can predict that. 

[DaveAV1]

1 hour ago, zab6359 said:

As much as I like DS and am happy he is charge he's had very little to do with Jack's development Jack was always destined for big things!

I think you’re wrong on this. It’s very hard to quantify the amount a coach contributes but there have been a lot of very talented players in many sports that for various reasons haven’t achieved their full potential. A change in coaching has brought big improvements in players no matter how talented they already were. 
 

I often think, why do world class tennis players or golfers change their coaches? Even why do they need a coach? What can you teach a Nadal or a Tiger Woods? However they all have them and often change them, so they must make a difference or why bother? 

[TRO]

1 hour ago, Tomaszk said:

He came into a horrific situation and turned it right round. Had help on the way no doubt, the owners, Jack Grealish etc.

But he leads this team. He doesn't just send them out and see what happens. There's structure, a plan, thinking behind what happens.

Been some tough decisions along the way as well, and he shirks nothing. The biggest being moving Grealish to a position he openly didn't like at the time, making him even better.

I think credit has to be given where's its due.....I wasn't sure at one time, but he has created incremental improvement.....its very hard for fans to appreciate the rate of improvement.....we all want perfection yesterday....but ,its a credit to Dean for creating it.

Dean talks about the team maturing, he is right, but in football management he has too...i think his maturity is evident.

As a side issue, Chelsea are deemed above us in quality and status, having oodles of expensive signings.....but with Frank coming out and rubbishing his teams last performance, we don't have that disharmony in our camp, the maturity and character is developing on an incremental basis.....its so encouraging to see, and being a part of.

Edited December 27, 2020 by TRO

[Rightdm00]

10 minutes ago, DaveAV1 said:

I think you’re wrong on this. It’s very hard to quantify the amount a coach contributes but there have been a lot of very talented players in many sports that for various reasons haven’t achieved their full potential. A change in coaching has brought big improvements in players no matter how talented they already were. 
 

I often think, why do world class tennis players or golfers change their coaches? Even why do they need a coach? What can you teach a Nadal or a Tiger Woods? However they all have them and often change them, so they must make a difference or why bother? 

The perfect state side example would be Phil Jackson and Michael Jordan. If you got some time to kill the Netflix documentary "The Last Dance" shows how Jordan made the leap with Phil's direction.