Dean Smith

[Johnnyp]

29 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

I disagree. I thought onomah was very over rated by spurs and half the time didn't seem interested.  I think I would have preferred to have given o hare more sof an opportunity 

Spurs got a bit giddy as regards onomah last summer because he was part of an England team that won a first u20 WC. He isn't that good. And i think they've realised that now. He'll have to have a he'll of a season at Wednesday for spurs to take a look at him in future.

[CosmicVillan]

2 hours ago, bannedfromHandV said:

We always have 'great players' coming through. 

The problem is that they don't come through. 

How many players have been deemed surplus to requirements and are currently playing at clubs above us ?

Ciaran Clark. Nathan Baker , Gary Cahill , Joe Bennett,  Enda Stevens,  Derrick Williams

Mark Albrighton , Barry Bannan ,  Adama Traore ,   Ashley Westwood ,  Matt Lowton ,

Andi Wiemann

[DaveAV1]

It’s been hard for the kids coming into a team that has been very inconsistent. We’ve seen seasoned pros not performing, so what chance do the younger players have?

I thought when Davis first came into the team, out of necessity rather than choice, he did well. His performances tailed off before he got injured, which could be because young players often blow hot and cold or could be a symptom of the poor coaching at first team level. Suggesting of course that well coached youth team players haven’t progressed once they join the poor first team coaching set up. Hopefully the new management throughout the club will cure this in the future. 

[Zatman]

2 hours ago, Johnnyp said:

Off topic lads slightly, is it common practice to have a good few of the u23s training with the first team squad during the international break ? Surprised to see o'hare and doyle-hayes training yesterday . Smith hardly made that call and he's barely in.

Was reading an article and was either Klopp or Mourinho who was talking about youngsters training this week with senior squad so probably is to make up the numbers

[maqroll]

Having watched the interview, he strikes me as confident, serious, focused and open minded. I have a very good feeling that we may have finally sorted it all out!

[Johnnyp]

1 minute ago, maqroll said:

Having watched the interview, he strikes me as confident, serious, focused and open minded. I have a very good feeling that we may have finally sorted it all out!

It won't happen overnight though so let's not lose our nut if in the short term it's tough going. 

[maqroll]

Just now, Johnnyp said:

It won't happen overnight though so let's not lose our nut if in the short term it's tough going. 

Naturally. I'd settle for 2-3 more years in the C'ship if it meant building a true foundation for sustained success.

[Stevo985]

2 hours ago, Keyblade said:

When it comes to the fans' perception of him perhaps, but I think the 2 situations are eerily similar.

Both came in mid-October with the club in the bottom half. Both had unbalanced squads to contend with (back then it was no midfield, this time it's no defence). Both have wonderfully stocked squads apart from the aforementioned deficiencies. I would say that Smith might be more restricted in January due to FFP than Bruce was who splurged in his first January window iirc. 

I'd say Smith is luckier in the sense that the league this season seems to be much tighter. Put a little run together and we could be right up there, whereas Newcastle and Brighton ran away with the league in Bruce's first season.

Smith has a better squad to start with. Purslow seems to be saying we will comfortably work within FFP. 

Bruce splurged but he had to use the value already in the squad. His bet spend was negative. That’s not to say he didn’t have resource to work with. Of course he did. But he didn’t have loads of cash to splurge. 

Our league position is about the only thing similar to be honest. 

[Stevo985]

2 hours ago, Demitri_C said:

It is a fact  for his time here and here is why. How many times did he use stick with youngsters in  league games consistently?

The only youth players you can rely say he used was green and davis

How many youth players were good enough?

[romavillan]

8 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

How many youth players were good enough?

Of the ones on the books I think we might be about to find out.

[TheStagMan]

7 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

Smith has a better squad to start with. Purslow seems to be saying we will comfortably work within FFP. 

Bruce splurged but he had to use the value already in the squad. His bet spend was negative. That’s not to say he didn’t have resource to work with. Of course he did. But he didn’t have loads of cash to splurge. 

Our league position is about the only thing similar to be honest. 

The post you are quoting was in reference to comparing the immediate situations the two managers inherited. In that case, the first transfer window is the situation being compared. Bruce very definately did splurge during that window, and certainly did not have a net negative spend. 

I will agree that overall net spend for Bruce was negative (bearing in mind he sold a Premier league squad and assembled a Championship one, and one on very high wages).

[Spoony]

30 minutes ago, maqroll said:

Naturally. I'd settle for 2-3 more years in the C'ship if it meant building a true foundation for sustained success.

People would be calling for his head and he would probably be sacked within 2 of those years.

[Mark Albrighton]

5 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

Smith has a better squad to start with. Purslow seems to be saying we will comfortably work within FFP. 

Bruce splurged but he had to use the value already in the squad. His bet spend was negative. That’s not to say he didn’t have resource to work with. Of course he did. But he didn’t have loads of cash to splurge. 

Our league position is about the only thing similar to be honest. 

I’d say the league position are similar and the deficiencies that were in midfield when Bruce took over can be compared to those that are now in the defence. And the keeper situation is similar too.

However I’d agree that broadly speaking, the squad has more quality now. There’s mess to be cleared up, but probably not as big as two years ago.

As for the general discussion on what I’d expect from Smith, I think a push for top six is realistic. I didn’t expect to see us picking up 2 points from 9 games across January and February and ultimately finishing 13th under Bruce and I don’t expect that under Smith either.

[Tommo_b]

1 hour ago, CosmicVillan said:

How many players have been deemed surplus to requirements and are currently playing at clubs above us ?

Ciaran Clark. Nathan Baker , Gary Cahill , Joe Bennett,  Enda Stevens,  Derrick Williams

Mark Albrighton , Barry Bannan ,  Adama Traore ,   Ashley Westwood ,  Matt Lowton ,

Andi Wiemann

Yet for me they all a bit naff except Cahill. 

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

2 minutes ago, Tommo_b said:

Yet for me they all a bit naff except Cahill. 

Well that would imply that we have been even nafferer than them.

 

[bannedfromHandV]

1 hour ago, CosmicVillan said:

How many players have been deemed surplus to requirements and are currently playing at clubs above us ?

Ciaran Clark. Nathan Baker , Gary Cahill , Joe Bennett,  Enda Stevens,  Derrick Williams

Mark Albrighton , Barry Bannan ,  Adama Traore ,   Ashley Westwood ,  Matt Lowton ,

Andi Wiemann

And? Most of them were shit for us, what do you do? Keep paying them for 5+ years in the hope they get to a decent level? 

Most of those listed are no higher up than us really and a whole host of them did not come through the academy so not sure why they're listed. 

The exception of course is cahill, will never understand the logic on that one. 

[Tommo_b]

17 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Well that would imply that we have been even nafferer than them.

 

We have!

[AvfcRigo82]

10 minutes ago, bannedfromHandV said:

The exception of course is cahill, will never understand the logic on that one. 

To be fair he was not going to get much of a look in with Mellberg & Laursen etc, and MO'N couldn't guarantee him 1st team football and so off to Bolton he went as he didn't want to just sit on the bench with us.

[dont_do_it_doug.]

1 minute ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

To be fair he was not going to get much of a look in with Mellberg & Laursen etc, and MO'N couldn't guarantee him 1st team football and so off to Bolton he went as he didn't want to just sit on the bench with us.

Is that Mellberg the right back? 

Cahill was binned off for Zat Knight. 

[Davkaus]

Oh for the glory days of Enda Stevens at Aston Villa.We could really have used him while he was doing a job for a few years down in League 2.

Frankly I've never heard of Derrick Williams, but, again, we let him go as a fairly comfortable PL side, and he's been plodding along in the lower leagues ever since.

Obviously Cahill, and I'd argue Albrighton, were big mistakes, but most of those players were shit and were let go when we were a much better team, should we hold on to all of the cast offs just in case we're even shitter in 5 years time?

And Joe **** Bennett. Hopefully that bloke isn't scared of his own shadow any more. I've never seen a player look more like they were going to shit themselves every time the ball came near him. Gary Cahill he ain't.

Edited October 17, 2018 by Davkaus