Dean Smith

[DCJonah]

8 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

Honestly, if we don’t sign anyone else - lol.

These owners can forget Europe, or the consequences of finishing 13th.

We needed 2 before today’s game. Two central midfielders. The scary thing is, we may need more. 

What are the consequences of finishing 13th?

To be straight, I think Dean may lose his job if we finish 13th. But not for the first time, there seems to be this doomsday scenario surrounding where we finish. 

It was the same last season. Where's it coming from? Some are acting like the club is dead if we don't get Europe right now. 

 

[villalad21]

1 minute ago, DCJonah said:

What are the consequences of finishing 13th?

To be straight, I think Dean may lose his job if we finish 13th. But not for the first time, there seems to be this doomsday scenario surrounding where we finish. 

It was the same last season. Where's it coming from? Some are acting like the club is dead if we don't get Europe right now. 

 

Because it's crucial to keep progressing if you want to keep your best players. 

[Delphinho123]

2 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

What are the consequences of finishing 13th?

To be straight, I think Dean may lose his job if we finish 13th. But not for the first time, there seems to be this doomsday scenario surrounding where we finish. 

It was the same last season. Where's it coming from? Some are acting like the club is dead if we don't get Europe right now. 

 

It’s simple. We lose our better players. 

The harsh reality is that we need to keep progressing in order to avoid the ‘Grealish Saga’ like we did this Summer.

In the short term, Smith will lose his job, which would be a shame because I like him. However, it’s difficult to have sympathy at times when his team selection and tactics are so rash. 

[YLN]

39 minutes ago, TRO said:

but it was never feasible to expect Ollie to play around 50+ games inc cups on his own.

 

Not feasible no. I'd say 41 games is probably as many as anyone will play

[MWARLEY2]

Yep. I cannot think of 1 other manager who has spent £320 million in 24 months who has been out of Europe.  it is scary backing. 

[Delphinho123]

Money, results, performances, whatever. His record without Jack Grealish is absolutely abysmal. And he‘ll know that. And he’ll know most people are looking at that.

The big difference this year is, he won’t come back from an injury to save us. 

His record without him lingers. It just doesn’t go away. 

[MaVilla]

Just now, Kiwivillan said:

Who was our DM in the 7-2 win against Liverpool?

come on dude, we can all make those types of arguments.

If you mean Luiz, i do think Luiz (or Sanson, McGinn), would be just fine alongside a proper DM.

I just think we need a proper DM to allow the other midfielders we have to properly flourish.

[DCJonah]

1 minute ago, Delphinho123 said:

Money, results, performances, whatever. His record without Jack Grealish is absolutely abysmal. And he‘ll know that. And he’ll know most people are looking at that.

The big difference this year is, he won’t come back from an injury to save us. 

His record without him lingers. It just doesn’t go away. 

We've played one game since Jack left the club. With his replacements not up to speed or full fitness.

Nothing like giving something a chance eh.

[Delphinho123]

Just now, VillaChris said:

We can argue all we like but the owners simply won't be waiting years for him to come up with some coherent formation and strategy in the post G***lish era.

I'm sure they've studied our recent past and saw how wrong it quickly went in 2015 (and it obviously wasn't great in the seasons before that).

They and Purslow will simply look at it and say....we've given you millions and you now have two top class strikers in the squad, two reasonably proven creative players to replace you know who and also the guys you signed last summer like Traore. And an 18m midfielder signed in January aswell.

Make it work by by November is the simple brief I think once everyone is fully fit and settled.

They'll be looking at top level managers who have endless attacking players coming out of their ears yet produced structually sound teams.

O.k maybe unfair comparing DS to likes of Guardiola and Tuchel but give say Brendan Rodgers our squad and a pre season and I'm sure within a few months we'd be playing pretty well. Up to Dean to step up and do that rather than falling back down the table as we will do playing regularly like today.

Spot on. 

They absolutely will. 

Personally, we’ve got it wrong with our transfers this summer in terms of balance but the board will absolutely say,  ‘you’ve spent x and we’ve given you these players, why isn’t it working?’

Hope Dean can turn it around. 

[DCJonah]

2 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

We can argue all we like but the owners simply won't be waiting years for him to come up with some coherent formation and strategy in the post G***lish era.

I'm sure they've studied our recent past and saw how wrong it quickly went in 2015 (and it obviously wasn't great in the seasons before that).

They and Purslow will simply look at it and say....we've given you millions and you now have two top class strikers in the squad, two reasonably proven creative players to replace you know who and also the guys you signed last summer like Traore. And an 18m midfielder signed in January aswell.

Make it work by by November is the simple brief I think once everyone is fully fit and settled.

They'll be looking at top level managers who have endless attacking players coming out of their ears yet produced structually sound teams.

O.k maybe unfair comparing DS to likes of Guardiola and Tuchel but give say Brendan Rodgers our squad and a pre season and I'm sure within a few months we'd be playing pretty well. Up to Dean to step up and do that rather than falling back down the table as we will do playing regularly like today.

I agree. Which is why I don't get the foot stomping and end of the world posts.

If he doesn't deliver what the owners want then he'll be replaced.

Simple. 

[string28]

1 minute ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

It’s madness. One game!!  

Wait till its after 3 games lol

[VillaChris]

Just now, Delphinho123 said:

Spot on. 

They absolutely will. 

Personally, we’ve got it wrong with our transfers this summer in terms of balance but the board will absolutely say,  ‘you’ve spent x and we’ve given you these players, why isn’t it working?’

Hope Dean can turn it around. 

It reminds me a bit of when Everton sold Lukaku that one summer and spend it on endless attacking midfielders and had no one upfront. Koeman got sacked by end of October despite doing well in his first season. Bit different but we have to be realistic, you know who is a massive void to fill not just for quality but personality in the team and around the club. People suggesting McGinn gets dropped but we need him more than ever out on the pitch as he's one of those that has got the club by now and can lead by example.

All that however dosen't give DS a free pass to be 15th/16th going into say December. We need to step up in next two games as don't really fancy going into September which has Chelsea and Man. United away and tricky home game with Everton scrambling around for a first win. As we've seen before at prem level that's how quickly it can hit crisis levels.

Our brilliant start last season gave us the buffer to have runs like 4 loses out of 6 (which actually happened in last Oct-Nov period) but no such margin this time if we don't start winning soon.

Newcastle at home is generally an ideal fixture for us if we've had some disappointing loses so need to go out and do what we usually do v them. We will have full week's training at Bodymoor so coming out as flat as we were today will simply not acceptable.

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

I give Deano shite when it's deserved, however, i'm pretty surprised by some of the over the top reactions in here.

First game of the season, after a pretty soul ripping departure and a set of new players.

He probably got it wrong to start off with, but at least tried to rectify, relatively quickly.

Way too early to be calling for Deanos head.

I do suspect, he will be under immense pressure this season though.

If we don't try to address our midfield I might start to worry.

[Big Salad]

11 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

I give Deano shite when it's deserved, however, i'm pretty surprised by some of the over the top reactions in here.

First game of the season, after a pretty soul ripping departure and a set of new players.

He probably got it wrong to start off with, but at least tried to rectify, relatively quickly.

Way too early to be calling for Deanos head.

I do suspect, he will be under immense pressure this season though.

If we don't try to address our midfield I might start to worry.

No place for sensible posts like this in here tonight!

[string28]

remember when we lost the first four games under brian little the one year and that was before the twitter age lol 

To try and say dean needs sacking after one game is silly and the truth lets give him the chance to fix it he deserves that.

Edited August 14, 2021 by string28

[bobzy]

3 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

I give Deano shite when it's deserved, however, i'm pretty surprised by some of the over the top reactions in here.

First game of the season, after a pretty soul ripping departure and a set of new players.

Are you really surprised though?  

[VillaChris]

6 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

I agree. Which is why I don't get the foot stomping and end of the world posts.

If he doesn't deliver what the owners want then he'll be replaced.

Simple. 

Do get a feeling on here because he's one of us a few are really getting emotionally attached to him and can't imagine anyone else ever managing us. As we've seen in last few weeks it's not really a healthy situation to fixate so much on one individual. It's also a bit like the cult of O'Neill that formed and that caused us issues after he left.

Of course we'd all love Dean to be the one to eventually lead us to silverware and he certainly deserves more time but we can't be blind to serious progress forever.

Will probably be lots of sniping if we sack him mid season and replace him with someone not percieved as top level. Less so if we pull off massive coup like a Conte or Pochettino if he's out of work and DS will likely be quickly forgotten such is the way of modern football.

Still that's all for the board to decide eventually. Hopefully we just beat Newcastle, Barrow and Brentford and then it's still a decent start to the season and he can keep building.

[DCJonah]

Just now, VillaChris said:

Do get a feeling on here because he's one of us a few are really getting emotionally attached to him and can't imagine anyone else ever managing us. As we've seen in last few weeks it's not really a healthy situation to fixate so much on one individual. It's also a bit like the cult of O'Neill that formed and that caused us issues after he left.

Of course we'd all love Dean to be the one to eventually lead us to silverware and he certainly deserves more time but we can't be blind to serious progress forever.

Will probably be lots of sniping if we sack him mid season and replace him with someone not percieved as top level. Less so if we pull off massive coup like a Conte or Pochettino if he's out of work and DS will likely be quickly forgotten such is the way of modern football.

Still that's all for the board to decide eventually. Hopefully we just beat Newcastle, Barrow and Brentford and then it's still a decent start to the season and he can keep building.

I love Dean. I think he's proved so many of his doubters wrong and I think he's done a great job. I think whatever happens he's created something that our success can be built upon. 

However, I trust our owners and if Dean can't progress the club then I'm sure they'll bring in someone else.

I hope Dean can do it. I'd love for him to continue to succeed with us  

[bobzy]

1 minute ago, VillaChris said:

Do get a feeling on here because he's one of us a few are really getting emotionally attached to him and can't imagine anyone else ever managing us. As we've seen in last few weeks it's not really a healthy situation to fixate so much on one individual. It's also a bit like the cult of O'Neill that formed and that caused us issues after he left.

I don’t think this is really the case - there’s a huge amount of modern-day football overreaction happening though.

It’s a disappointing result against a newly promoted team. These things happen in football. It doesn’t mean the end of the season has happened. 

[Tommo_b]

19 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

We can argue all we like but the owners simply won't be waiting years for him to come up with some coherent formation and strategy in the post G***lish era.

I'm sure they've studied our recent past and saw how wrong it quickly went in 2015 (and it obviously wasn't great in the seasons before that).

They and Purslow will simply look at it and say....we've given you millions and you now have two top class strikers in the squad, two reasonably proven creative players to replace you know who and also the guys you signed last summer like Traore. And an 18m midfielder signed in January aswell.

Make it work by by November is the simple brief I think once everyone is fully fit and settled.

They'll be looking at top level managers who have endless attacking players coming out of their ears yet produced structually sound teams.

O.k maybe unfair comparing DS to likes of Guardiola and Tuchel but give say Brendan Rodgers our squad and a pre season and I'm sure within a few months we'd be playing pretty well. Up to Dean to step up and do that rather than falling back down the table as we will do playing regularly like today.

To be fair, Brendan Rogers only finished 11 points above Dean last season and that’s with having an already impressive squad.