Dean Smith

[DCJonah]

14 hours ago, KentVillan said:

Obviously, but we’re not talking about Chelsea etc here - we’re talking about clubs like Wolves, Everton, Newcastle, Brighton etc. They’ve all had their fair share of transfer horror shows and bad management.

Net spend over last 5 years is as good a measure as any really. Sure you can pick holes in it, and last season was unique because we had such a big clear out. But we are basically now a mid table team again, and expectations surely rise?

Could Smith survive a bottom half finish next season? I don’t think so. I back him, though, and think we’ll be fighting for 7th or 8th, assuming we keep Jack and keep him fit.

Depends. 11th or 12th? I could see the board sticking with him. Any lower and he might be in trouble. 

I think the owners see the long term project and with any like this, there will be dips on the way. 

[Icarium]

23 hours ago, AshVilla said:

Some of the people demanding top 6 next season need their heads testing, have they forgotten that we were only promoted last season and stayed up by the skin of our teeth?

Were very much a work in progress and what Dean has achieved so far has been nothing but amazing for this club.

I'd be more than happy with a top 10 finish again next season as were no where near the top 6 in terms of squad depth and this will require more time and significant investment.

In Dean and NSWE i trust.

 

 

While I don't think people are demanding top 6, the first half only this seasons shows we can mix it with the top teams when we bother to turn up every game, instead of every other game like we have since the new year. 

I would expect that with another decent outlay in the upcoming transfer window we should improve again, meaning that where we finish this season is the absolute minimum return next season.

 

Also, generally speaking, people need to get past this, 'we only just survived last season as an excuse. By next season that will be 2 seasons ago and even more irrelevant than it is now. 

We started the season beating top 4 teams, now we can't beat teams in the relegation zone. While the main issue is probably squad size and quality, with good recruiting we should not have that issue again next year, if we fail to improve questions need to be asked.

[osmark86]

7 minutes ago, Icarium said:

While I don't think people are demanding top 6, the first half only this seasons shows we can mix it with the top teams when we bother to turn up every game, instead of every other game like we have since the new year. 

I would expect that with another decent outlay in the upcoming transfer window we should improve again, meaning that where we finish this season is the absolute minimum return next season.

 

Also, generally speaking, people need to get past this, 'we only just survived last season as an excuse. By next season that will be 2 seasons ago and even more irrelevant than it is now. 

We started the season beating top 4 teams, now we can't beat teams in the relegation zone. While the main issue is probably squad size and quality, with good recruiting we should not have that issue again next year, if we fail to improve questions need to be asked.

I sense there might be some future debates here

[Adam2003]

14 hours ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Our first team squad when we got promoted:

Nyland, Steer, Kalanic, Elmo, Guilbert, Taylor, Hourihane, Gardner, Mcginn, Davis. 
 

If our net spent wasn’t high, not only would we have got relegated, we’d have struggled to field a team. 

I’d genuinely argue that’s the weakest squad starting point anyone has ever had to build a PL team from. Fascinated to know who Smith should have sold from that bunch to offset our transfer outlay and win the mythical net spend trophy. But more to the point... what unbelievable progress we have made in two years from that base.

[Adam2003]

12 minutes ago, Icarium said:

I would expect that with another decent outlay in the upcoming transfer window we should improve again, meaning that where we finish this season is the absolute minimum return next season.

This is basically the start and finish of it for me. I want to see us progressing. So next year I want to see us better this year’s points total/position and that’s progress. If it’s by a couple of points or one position it’s still progress.

Obviously by this metric I am delighted with this season. Next season - want us to cement top half and would love to see us stay in the mix for Europe until the end of the season. But, say, 9th would likely still be progress.

[MrBlack]

1 hour ago, DCJonah said:

Depends. 11th or 12th? I could see the board sticking with him. Any lower and he might be in trouble. 

I think the owners see the long term project and with any like this, there will be dips on the way. 

Depends on the investment.  If they spend as much as I think they will, and Grealish stays fit, then a top half finish is the minimum expectation, and rightfully so it should be. If injuries hit us is the only way i think he'd survive a bottom half finish in my expected scenario. 

[Rolta]

That list above is missing Grealish btw!

A fairer appraisal of our transfer spending in comparison to, say, Leeds when we were both promoted would be to remove all the loan players from the Championship (Mings, Hause, El Ghazi etc.) so we can compare our promotion team + first summer additions against their promotion team + first summer additions. 

Ours is about £80million, roughly, and theirs seems to be about £90million. I don't know if they had any loans to permanent signings in that. I'm on my phone and all the prices are appearing in euros so I might not be completely accurate. 

Then bear in mind Leeds were a Championship force for two seasons and we were a complete mess until Smith came and Smith's job looks even more remarkable. Then consider we had to replace Tammy Abraham too and had some season ending injuries in our first season back to basically our only striker and our only good goalkeeper and the job looks better still. 

Anyway, Bielsa is doing a good job. So is Smith. So was Wilder until this season.

Edited May 15, 2021 by Rolta

[villalad21]

We'll probably finish 11th

[villalad21]

1 hour ago, Rolta said:

That list above is missing Grealish btw!

A fairer appraisal of our transfer spending in comparison to, say, Leeds when we were both promoted would be to remove all the loan players from the Championship (Mings, Hause, El Ghazi etc.) so we can compare our promotion team + first summer additions against their promotion team + first summer additions. 

Ours is about £80million, roughly, and theirs seems to be about £90million. I don't know if they had any loans to permanent signings in that. I'm on my phone and all the prices are appearing in euros so I might not be completely accurate. 

Then bear in mind Leeds were a Championship force for two seasons and we were a complete mess until Smith came and Smith's job looks even more remarkable. Then consider we had to replace Tammy Abraham too and had some season ending injuries in our first season back to basically our only striker and our only good goalkeeper and the job looks better still. 

Anyway, Bielsa is doing a good job. So is Smith. So was Wilder until this season.

Smith is doing a good job but not as good as Bielsa

[Rightdm00]

11 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

Smith is doing a good job but not as good as Bielsa

[villalad21]

Probably need to win all our remaining games to finish in the top half now

[sne]

4 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

Probably need to win all our remaining games to finish in the top half now

But we can we still loan Januzaj?

[rjw63]

16 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

Smith is doing a good job but not as good as Bielsa

[paul514]

With Leeds result today it pretty much means we are going to finish 11th.

It is time to give some of the kids 20/30 minutes for each of our three games left to see what they are about in mens football.

[The_Steve]

39 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

Smith is doing a good job but not as good as Bielsa

Go support Leeds then

[Awol]

3 minutes ago, paul514 said:

With Leeds result today it pretty much means we are going to finish 11th.

It is time to give some of the kids 20/30 minutes for each of our three games left to see what they are about in mens football.

It won’t be tomorrow for Carney or Kesler having played yesterday (Kesler was cramping towards the end anyway) but maybe they’ll get a run against Spurs. I hope so. 

[paul514]

7 minutes ago, Awol said:

It won’t be tomorrow for Carney or Kesler having played yesterday (Kesler was cramping towards the end anyway) but maybe they’ll get a run against Spurs. I hope so. 

20 mins against a tiring team should be fine as long as a muscle isn’t fatigued 

[ender4]

9 minutes ago, The_Steve said:

Go support Leeds then

Errr, he already does.  

[useless]

If we beat Palace tomorrow we're only one point behind Leeds, so we're not going to give up on catching them or finishing top half yet, they will have the easier fixtures in their last two games, but anyone who's watched their results this season will know they're more than capable of losing the so called easier games. If we can win two of the last three I think we will still have a chance of finishing top half.

[avfc1982am]

1 hour ago, villalad21 said:

Smith is doing a good job but not as good as Bielsa

If Carlsberg did forum transfers.....