Dean Smith

[foreveryoung]

8 hours ago, DCJonah said:

Its very confusing. 

You actually ignored my post................again!  This is why people get frustrated with you. There are many posts on here, justifying the issues with Smith, like a very good one Trent posted, but you ignore them, as it does not suit you narrative that Smith's doing nothing wrong. 

[Risso]

I reckon Watfotd sacking their manager when they did was more of a factor of us staying up than the Sheffield United Hawkeye failure to be honest.

[DCJonah]

5 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

You actually ignored my post................again!  This is why people get frustrated with you. There are many posts on here, justifying the issues with Smith, like a very good one Trent posted, but you ignore them, as it does not suit you narrative that Smith's doing nothing wrong. 

What did I ignore? You said, only a couple of months ago, that on balance, mid table is acceptable. And now you're saying people will find excuses for finishing midtable. 

I didn't ignore Trent's post. Some of it, i agree with, some not so much. But I didn't feel the need to argue it. He made some valid points and did so in a good post. The difference is, Trent hasn't spent the last 3 years criticising the man over everything he does. He hasn't tried to belittle what he's done so far and hasn't called for him to be replaced on numerous occasions. I don't feel any need to jump on his post. 

Lots of people make similar good posts. You'll notice there's only a handful of people I generally respond to on this thread and it's pretty clear why. 

[foreveryoung]

7 minutes ago, Risso said:

I reckon Watfotd sacking their manager when they did was more of a factor of us staying up than the Sheffield United Hawkeye failure to be honest.

Take into account in the Championship, you could argue we had the best team by a good margin. 

[thabucks]

Smith has performed in line with expectations. His appointed aim would’ve been challenge for promotion - which he achieved admirably first attempt. 

Next was to stay up and start to build a new squad capable of surviving. He did that again with admiration under the circumstances. 

Next was to be to build upon that in terms of performances and league position, which he did along in line expectations and again commendably. 

Now he must build again and can no longer learn on the job and rely upon what was achieved 2/3 years ago. IMO he must now be judged solely on where we are both currently and where he can take us moving forwards. Sentimentality of winning runs & promotion have no bearing for me when it comes to goodwill if the poor form continues past the next 2 games. That doesn’t mean I think he should necessarily be sacked anytime soon either. It also doesn’t mean that he gets a free pass for his (continued) deficiencies. We cannot afford a season standing still.   

Edited October 28, 2021 by thabucks

[foreveryoung]

5 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

What did I ignore? You said, only a couple of months ago, that on balance, mid table is acceptable. And now you're saying people will find excuses for finishing midtable. 

I didn't ignore Trent's post. Some of it, i agree with, some not so much. But I didn't feel the need to argue it. He made some valid points and did so in a good post. The difference is, Trent hasn't spent the last 3 years criticising the man over everything he does. He hasn't tried to belittle what he's done so far and hasn't called for him to be replaced on numerous occasions. I don't feel any need to jump on his post. 

Lots of people make similar good posts. You'll notice there's only a handful of people I generally respond to on this thread and it's pretty clear why. 

You ignored the fact last season was a poor League.

As for saying we will finish midtable, am I not allowed to change my mind? Or is it against the rules of your narrative?

The only thing I find Midtable about this team is the manager, he still has alot to prove and this could be the defining season.

[DCJonah]

1 minute ago, foreveryoung said:

You ignored the fact last season was a poor League.

As for saying we will finish midtable, am I not allowed to change my mind? Or is it against the rules of your narrative?

The only thing I find Midtable about this team is the manager, he still has alot to prove and this could be the defining season.

You can change your mind and I can question the rational behind it and why it leads you to be so angry, as it seems to be have been based on 2 games. 

I'm not sure its a fact that last season was a poor season, but I guess its a nice way to take away from the improvement we made. 

[DCJonah]

21 minutes ago, Risso said:

I reckon Watfotd sacking their manager when they did was more of a factor of us staying up than the Sheffield United Hawkeye failure to be honest.

Absolutely. The ghost goal was one incident with a quarter of the season left. You might as well point to an opposition player missing an easy chance in a random game. 

[Peter Griffin]

54 minutes ago, Zatman said:

Just like the ghost Lansbury goal? 

Not quite the Lansbury goal. It can be argued that goal shouldn't have stood, personally I think it was a goal but I can see why some would argue it shouldn't. Like many goals there can be debate regarding them. No debate with the Ghost goal

[mole86]

3 minutes ago, Peter Griffin said:

Not quite the Lansbury goal. It can be argued that goal shouldn't have stood, personally I think it was a goal but I can see why some would argue it shouldn't. Like many goals there can be debate regarding them. No debate with the Ghost goal

The clear distinction between the two being that one was the last kick of the game and directly cost us a point, the other happened in the first half and no one can confidently state the impact of it on the end result. It’s not a given we would have lost 1-0 had it correctly been awarded. Weird to have to point that out to be honest

[Peter Griffin]

33 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

What I can't get my head around, is why do you and a few others have to go out of your way to knock what he's achieved previously?

 

I have never knocked what he has achieved. You claim this quite a lot but it is not the case. I give credit to Smith for what he has achieved. Well done Dean, it is brilliant that we are in the PL. Thank you! And while I am at it thank you for getting us to a cup final. 

But I am not blinkered and I can see his weaknesses and it is good to discuss them and I am not going to stick my head in the sand and act like they don't believe. The best managers will review what is going badly and look to fix it. What is wrong with fans reviewing what is going badly?

[useless]

We stayed up because we took eight points from our last four games (I predicted twelve so I was wrong) and finished on thirty-five points which is usually enough to avoid finishing in the bottom three. Watford's last three games were West Ham away who were in good form at the time and Man City and Arsenal, so it's likely they would have lost those regardless of whether they had sacked Pearson or not sacked Pearson.

[Peter Griffin]

5 minutes ago, mole86 said:

The clear distinction between the two being that one was the last kick of the game and directly cost us a point, the other happened in the first half and no one can confidently state the impact of it on the end result. It’s not a given we would have lost 1-0 had it correctly been awarded. Weird to have to point that out to be honest

Did u actually read my comment? I said "I will also understand that we do not know how significant as we don't know how game would have panned out."

Obviously a typo in that as it should read I 'do' as opposed to I 'will'

[Peter Griffin]

5 minutes ago, useless said:

We stayed up because we took eight points from our last four games (I predicted twelve so I was wrong) and finished on thirty-five points which is usually enough to avoid finishing in the bottom three. Watford's last three games were West Ham away who were in good form at the time and Man City and Arsenal, so it's likely they would have lost those regardless of whether they had sacked Pearson or not sacked Pearson.

We stayed up because we finished in 17th place, 1 point ahead of 18th.

[DCJonah]

9 minutes ago, mole86 said:

The clear distinction between the two being that one was the last kick of the game and directly cost us a point, the other happened in the first half and no one can confidently state the impact of it on the end result. It’s not a given we would have lost 1-0 had it correctly been awarded. Weird to have to point that out to be honest

Yep. You'd have thought all villa fans were clearly aware of both scenarios. 

[Indigo]

20 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

You ignored the fact last season was a poor League.

How, out of interest? The bottom three were poor and a few of the bigger sides underperformed, granted, but otherwise the points totals of mid table sides and general distribution of talent of the remaining teams - which is the sizable region of the table pertinent to Villa - was among the strongest it's ever been in the league.

[Peter Griffin]

1 minute ago, DCJonah said:

Yep. You'd have thought all villa fans were clearly aware of both scenarios. 

I would have thought Villa fans could read too, but hey, life springs surprises on a daily basis

[DCJonah]

9 minutes ago, Peter Griffin said:

I have never knocked what he has achieved. You claim this quite a lot but it is not the case. I give credit to Smith for what he has achieved. Well done Dean, it is brilliant that we are in the PL. Thank you! And while I am at it thank you for getting us to a cup final. 

But I am not blinkered and I can see his weaknesses and it is good to discuss them and I am not going to stick my head in the sand and act like they don't believe. The best managers will review what is going badly and look to fix it. What is wrong with fans reviewing what is going badly?

You've literally just said neither achievements were convincing seasons and you repeatedly use the ghost goal as a reason for us staying up. So yeah, not sure I agree with that one. 

Nothing wrong with reviewing where it's gone bad in recent games. Most things like that don't get many responses. 

[thabucks]

Yawn rinse repeat 

[villalad21]

11 wins in the last 34 League games.

Less points from 9 games than 19/20

You're mental if you believe he is under no pressure.