Dean Smith

[Kuwabatake Sanjuro]

24 minutes ago, stewiek2 said:

Deano hasn't been the same manager since he lost Richard O'Kelly by his side.

Apart from Craig Shakespeare's first 6 months here his influence on Smith has been detrimental. The hoofball we were playing at the start of last season was awful. Norwich have not been a fluent passing side under his watch either. O'Kelly had a track record of coaching good passing teams with the likes of Sean O'Driscoll and under Smith at Walsall and Brentford.

[LondonLax]

2 hours ago, Davkaus said:

Quite a naive view, IMO. You don't want to stay out of a job for years, or you become Alan Curbishley, but that doesn't mean you need to take the first job that comes your way a week later.

Since he was sacked, the below clubs sacked their manager:

I think he could have comfortably got 3 of those 5 jobs, and yeah, two of them went down, but he'd have been in a better position at the start of this season if he were at Burnley. Everton would have been a bloody good job for him that I think he'd have got.

He might have been in contention for some of those but he might well have been passed over for another candidate and still twiddling his thumbs waiting for a call, it’s a ridiculously competitive industry after all. You know what they say about the ‘bird in hand’ etc

[Demitri_C]

1 hour ago, stewiek2 said:

Deano hasn't been the same manager since he lost Richard O'Kelly by his side.

I think this is a important point. Smiths gone completely downhill sonce terry and o kelly left him

[VillaChris]

3 hours ago, Zatman said:

Everton only seem to want to hire big name managers though so cant imagine Smith would have been near the running

Didn't he get the Norwich job over Lampard?

Not sure on Everton but he'd have been a shoe in to take over at West Brom if he'd been available when they sacked Ismael imo.

Think Blackburn and Preston would've interviewed him aswell.

[Zatman]

5 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

Didn't he get the Norwich job over Lampard?

Not sure on Everton but he'd have been a shoe in to take over at West Brom if he'd been available when they sacked Ismael imo.

Think Blackburn and Preston would've interviewed him aswell.

the 3 Championship clubs from the outside dont look like they have the budget to challenge for promotion. With Norwich was a squad who have done that bfore

[VillaChris]

Just now, Zatman said:

the 3 Championship clubs from the outside dont look like they have the budget to challenge for promotion. With Norwich was a squad who have done that bfore

Well if he gets sacked by Norwich in next two weeks I can see him turning up at Stoke at some point this season, that feels like the right sort of club to build up a bit considering they don't have a terrible squad but are just stuck in mid table in championship so even reaching play offs would feel a big success.

[mikeyp102]

2 hours ago, Kuwabatake Sanjuro said:

Apart from Craig Shakespeare's first 6 months here his influence on Smith has been detrimental. The hoofball we were playing at the start of last season was awful. Norwich have not been a fluent passing side under his watch either. O'Kelly had a track record of coaching good passing teams with the likes of Sean O'Driscoll and under Smith at Walsall and Brentford.

Shakespeare does seem to have differing football philosophy than Smith had in previous roles, you do have to wonder how they work. It’s a shame for Deano, but could see him back at Walsall 

[Peter Griffin]

21 hours ago, Zatman said:

We had 7 points after 3 games in our promotion season, within 8 games we had a new manager 

We had also just changed ownership which may have something to do with changing manager. Deano hasn't been there that long, it would make sense to give him some time, also the current owners of Norwich employed Deano

[Dale]

They're two points off the top of the Championship, not sure why everyone thinks he's on the verge of the sack. I'd take their form! 

[Zatman]

2 minutes ago, Dale said:

They're two points off the top of the Championship, not sure why everyone thinks he's on the verge of the sack. I'd take their form! 

Because some on here have a vendetta and dont believe he did a good job at Villa. It was all Grealish, or he was lucky or too well backed

Funny enough they are among the ones backing the current "head coach"

[Ingram85]

He started really badly tbf so it’s hardly unwarranted, he has turned it around very well though so deserves the praise equally. It’s not either or all the time. 

[Pinebro]

Deano will take them up.

They have a very good squad for the Championship

[Talldarkandransome]

2 hours ago, Zatman said:

Because some on here have a vendetta and dont believe he did a good job at Villa. It was all Grealish, or he was lucky or too well backed

Funny enough they are among the ones backing the current "head coach"

Deano did a massive job at Villa, we'd still be in the championship without Deano. If  grealish made that much of a difference he'd be starting at Man City

[MessiWillSignForVilla]

38 minutes ago, Talldarkandransome said:

Deano did a massive job at Villa, we'd still be in the championship without Deano. If  grealish made that much of a difference he'd be starting at Man City

Nonsense. We went on a 10 game winning run when Grealish returned from injury and had gotten just 2 wins from the previous 13 without him. Not to mention our run of good form before his injury coincided with him getting 2 goals and 3 assists from 6 games.

Smith deserves a lot of credit for getting Grealish to realise his potential, but it's completely revisionist to suggest Grealish didn't make much difference that season.

[Talldarkandransome]

2 minutes ago, MessiWillSignForVilla said:

Nonsense. We went on a 10 game winning run when Grealish returned from injury and had gotten just 2 wins from the previous 13 without him. Not to mention our run of good form before his injury coincided with him getting 2 goals and 3 assists from 6 games.

Smith deserves a lot of credit for getting Grealish to realise his potential, but it's completely revisionist to suggest Grealish didn't make much difference that season.

Sorry bud, it's not nonsense. Yes Grealish made Villa better bit he didn't define Deanos tenure.

[VillaChris]

3 minutes ago, Talldarkandransome said:

Sorry bud, it's not nonsense. Yes Grealish made Villa better bit he didn't define Deanos tenure.

We went on that long winless run from very promising position in Feb 2021 when he got injured though.

He hit his targets for us so should always have eternal thanks, got us up, kept us up (just), got us a cup final and really was unlucky not to get us top half in 20/21.

Made some errors after Grealish left and I think he'd hit his limit anyway but he'll be remembered in decades time whereas Gerrard will be swiftly forgotten and that's how it should be given their respective tenures.

Believe it or not but there are more capable managers in world football than just Gerrard and Smith so seems futile just endlessly comparing them.

[Talldarkandransome]

1 minute ago, VillaChris said:

We went on that long winless run from very promising position in Feb 2021 when he got injured though.

He hit his targets for us so should always have eternal thanks, got us up, kept us up (just), got us a cup final and really was unlucky not to get us top half in 20/21.

Made some errors after Grealish left and I think he'd hit his limit anyway but he'll be remembered in decades time whereas Gerrard will be swiftly forgotten and that's how it should be given their respective tenures.

Believe it or not but there are more capable managers in world football than just Gerrard and Smith so seems futile just endlessly comparing them.

I wasnt comparing them. 

But Deano is miles ahead of Gerrard

[VillaChris]

1 minute ago, Talldarkandransome said:

I wasnt comparing them. 

But Deano is miles ahead of Gerrard

They're similar in lack of plan B and in game changes. DS really struggled aswell working out how to get Ings and Watkins playing as combination giving the 3-5-2 didn't work out in the end (Forest and Spurs are both playing that formation currently and done well last six months playing it).

However DS ultimately had likes of Trez, Wesley and Davis as attacking subs to change things so nowhere near options Gerrard has of Buendia and Bailey so that must be taken into context.

[Talldarkandransome]

1 minute ago, VillaChris said:

They're similar in lack of plan B and in game changes. DS really struggled aswell working out how to get Ings and Watkins playing as combination giving the 3-5-2 didn't work out in the end (Forest and Spurs are both playing that formation currently and done well last six months playing it).

However DS ultimately had likes of Trez, Wesley and Davis as attacking subs to change things so nowhere near options Gerrard has of Buendia and Bailey so that must be taken into context.

So you are agreeing with me then. Deano is miles ahead of Gerrard

[VillaChris]

Just now, Talldarkandransome said:

So you are agreeing with me then. Deano is miles ahead of Gerrard

He is.

However I do get the feeling post Gerrard a few on here will be calling for us to bring DS back which won't progress us much e.g. DS is better than Gerrard but someone like Rodgers in right conditions is comfortably better than both if you get my reasoning so that's how we get moving back up premier league table again after rocky last 12 months.

Hopefully he continues winning at Norwich although part of me would find it incredibly tedious coming back up just to go down with 25 points again. At least likes of Forest are genuinely having a go and interesting to watch as are Fulham.