Dean Smith

[Dave-R]

2 minutes ago, OxfordVillan said:

They’ve put the money up thus far. All the noises being made indicate they’ll put the money up again this summer. And when they do they will not expect a return of points/form that we have seen over the last few months, which is bottom 3 type of form. And that’s fair enough. 

I think they will and I hope they do, it's needed.

Yeah I think this season coming, the new season if they splash the cash they will want a good showing for Europe. It's a good case to fetch 200 mill out anyway and they could certainly do it. I've seen signs from them myself during lockdown that they will splash securing a player they deem worth which cost them around 250 million dollars.

[Zatman]

2 hours ago, Demitri_C said:

Then thats the fault of smith. If elmo isn't good enough then why not show some faith in kesler? Didnt even make the benxh but instead we have taylor on there who isnt even going to be here next season.

We have nothing to play for. I dont see the harm in giving kesler some game time against palace. 

Kesler played 90 minutes in a FA youth cup seni final 36 hours before. Professional footballers with more experience are struggling with that turnaround never nind a kid up against Zaha

[Zatman]

48 minutes ago, hippo said:

He didn't look great against WBA though.

I think we might be getting a little carried away with our youth prospects.

I remember when we won the youth cup a few years back - none of the players became first team regulars

4 of them played 50 or more games for Villa until MON didn't know how to develop youth players

[VillaFaninLondon]

14 minutes ago, Dave-R said:

Oh I know there's no guarantees it was in response to Oxford saying the Owners may want the team to be in or around 8th all season long. 

If you want the best kind of guarantee the. Your going to have to spend wisely and as much as you possibly can.

As it stands I think our squad is a lower mistake to relegation scenario next season's but with some decent spending we could maybe do what we did this season or better. I'm not holding my hopes up for a good season like this season again, I didn't expect it and certainly don't unless some coinage is tossed the three amigos way.

You do realise we're approximately where we should be based on what we've spent? It has been a decent season overall (but a very disappointing last few months) but to think we've overachieved in any way is naive. West Ham and Leeds are the overachievers this season and our aim should be to next season to overtake them (and possibly one or two others). 

 

If we finish lower next season after what I suspect will be another summer of investment there is no way it will be acceptable. 

[Demitri_C]

1 hour ago, hippo said:

He didn't look great against WBA though.

I think we might be getting a little carried away with our youth prospects.

I remember when we won the youth cup a few years back - none of the players became first team regulars

I disagree. I thought chuk looked really good and causing havoc in the middle of the park. Him and barry were excellent.i also thought young played well

[Demitri_C]

18 minutes ago, Zatman said:

Kesler played 90 minutes in a FA youth cup seni final 36 hours before. Professional footballers with more experience are struggling with that turnaround never nind a kid up against Zaha

If we didnt have a youth game 2 days before i still doubt smith would have used kesler or chuk

[Zatman]

4 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

If we didnt have a youth game 2 days before i still doubt smith would have used kesler or chuk

But we did and the club wants the Youth Cup 

Ramsey started over Barkley 

Edited May 17, 2021 by Zatman

[BleedClaretAndBlue]

I think DM will be top of Smiths wishlist and something Mackenzie will be tasked with getting right this summer.

Smith made clear when promoted he wanted Kalvin Phillips, but ended up with Douglas & Nakamba (Suso signings; not sure how much input Smith would have had in those 2)

Smith can clearly see it hasnt worked out in midfield in 2021, Dougies form has gone backwards at an alarming rate imo; dont think he can continue playing that role next season if we want to play the way Smith wants. Get this position right and we can see a much better version of McGinn, Doug and Sanson than we’ve seen this season. 

[OxfordVillan]

8 minutes ago, BleedClaretAndBlue said:

I think DM will be top of Smiths wishlist and something Mackenzie will be tasked with getting right this summer.

Smith made clear when promoted he wanted Kalvin Phillips, but ended up with Douglas & Nakamba (Suso signings; not sure how much input Smith would have had in those 2)

Smith can clearly see it hasnt worked out in midfield in 2021, Dougies form has gone backwards at an alarming rate imo; dont think he can continue playing that role next season if we want to play the way Smith wants. Get this position right and we can see a much better version of McGinn, Doug and Sanson than we’ve seen this season. 

Good post. I think it is worth remembering that Dean wanted Phillips, it’s an indicator of the type of player he wants in that position. I do think Luiz is more of a 7 or 8, rather than a 6. That’s where any new record fee needs to be spent this summer. A Declan Rice type signing. 

[DCJonah]

1 hour ago, peterw said:

First season - wins 10 games on the bounce and gets us promoted. just enough?

Second season - survive (unlike the majority of sides that have gone up through the play offs in recent years) and reach a  major Cup final? just enough?

third season - midtable and played some of the best football from a Villa team for many a year? Just enough?

 

Blimey, tough crowd.

Yeah, if mid table championship to mid table prem in 2 and a half seasons is just doing enough then I can see why some moan so much. 

Thankfully, I highly doubt our owners see it that way.

[GENTLEMAN]

20 minutes ago, OxfordVillan said:

Good post. I think it is worth remembering that Dean wanted Phillips, it’s an indicator of the type of player he wants in that position. I do think Luiz is more of a 7 or 8, rather than a 6. That’s where any new record fee needs to be spent this summer. A Declan Rice type signing. 

And Weston McKennie.

[DCJonah]

If you look at the table, there's only 1 team that you could make an argument for why we should be ahead of them.

That for me shows we are where we probably should be. And 2021 form isn't great but since when has a season been broken in half? The aim is to finish where you can after 38 games and we've done as well as we should. 

Other years 49 pts gets you top half. This year it didn't. Other teams doing well is out of our control. 

 

[villalad21]

2 hours ago, CVByrne said:

9 points from last 10 games is second worst in the League. With Spurs and Chelsea to end the season it'll be 2nd worst final third of the season. The worry is this bad form is carried into next season, we see it all the time. We saw it with us at the beginning of this season and most famously with Leicester. 

On paper 11th is par for the course, that was the target and we achieved it, unfortunately in the wrong way around with a very strong start and then the terrible finish. If we lose the last two games that means when you take out our 4 game winning start to the season we've been in form that would have us 16/17th with an average of 1.08pts per game over the last 34 games. It's a shocking level of form. We've had that 6 months of good form over the past two seasons and been pretty much terrible other than that.

Dean Smith is an average manager. He's had huge investment in terms of player signings and has done just enough in terms of results to keep his job. Last season was survival, this season was 12th. Both times he managed just enough. 

The main worry now is if we start next season bad and we are down in bottom 5/6 after 10 or 12 games. The damage done there is twofold, we replace Dean Smith and we likely lose Jack Grealish next summer as we've gone backwards. Lets hope we make the right signings, we start next season well and Dean proves my fears unfounded.

Spot on bro. We are very likely to lose our last remaining games and that is horrible momentum to bring on to next season.

Just hope we get a kind schedule in the start of next season or it could get really bad.

If we don't significally improve on the likes of Traore and McGinn next season i'll be worried. Crystal Palace ordinary midfield dominated, that's scary.

Edited May 17, 2021 by villalad21

[DCJonah]

6 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

Spot on bro. We are very likely to lose our last remaining games and that is horrible momentum to bring on to next season.

Just hope we get a kind schedule in the start of next season or it could get really bad.

If we don't significally improve on the likes of Traore and McGinn next season i'll be worried. Crystal Palace ordinary midfield dominated, that's scary.

Why?

Can you prove that this usually effects how a team does over 38 games the following season?

 

[HKP90]

12 minutes ago, GENTLEMAN said:

And Weston McKennie.

Good shout.

His market value is £22.5M, so within our budget, if Juve would sell him. By the sounds of it though they are having some financial issues.

[Zatman]

2 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

Why?

Can you prove that this usually effects how a team does over 38 games the following season?

 

Leicester had 3 wins in the last 15 at the end of last season, I guess they declined

West Ham had 4 wins in 20 at the end of last season

Norwich 2 wins in 25 same time frame, also Crystal Palace 4 wins in 20

 

I assume they all had terrible seasons

[Zatman]

Just now, HKP90 said:

Good shout.

His market value is £22.5M, so within our budget, if Juve would sell him. By the sounds of it though they are having some financial issues.

They just paid that for him in March

[villalad21]

8 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

Why?

Can you prove that this usually effects how a team does over 38 games the following season?

 

Momentum is everything in football. 

Yes form is temporary but we're not talking about a few bad games here. The 2021 table have us in the bottom 3 so that's where i think the team's level is at. Hence why we need a huge summer.

We have a very average manager so we need better players than most to compensate for the lack of coaching. Smith isn't like Bielsa who can make gold out of utter shit, so again. We need an amazing summer.

Edited May 17, 2021 by villalad21

[HKP90]

1 minute ago, Zatman said:

They just paid that for him in March

Thought it was around 16. Ah well. Could be worth testing the waters in any case

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

So having come back down to earth, after almost blowing a blood vessel yesterday after Palace.

I'm thinking, knowing Deano, he will spend the post season watching/analysing our matches with our stats, management team and players etc.

Hopefully similar to Covid break, this will help him assess players, what we need, and what we need to work on.

Obviously they will probably have done the above already, but hopefully it will help them see what our priorities are.

I desperately wanted us to achieve 10th or above ( And finish above Leeds ) but it is what it is.

Hopefully we get to see a few of our highest rated kids feature in the final two games.

As some senior players might already be on the beach, but the kids will be excited and bring some energy.