Dean Smith

[Laughable Chimp]

20 minutes ago, Rightdm00 said:

As others have mentioned Brentford went in a free fall after Smith left.  Then Brentford brought in 19 players over the summer window.  Comparing that team to last year's is just plain dumb.  Using it as a stick to beat Dean is even dumber. 

Anyone who is saying get rid of Smith when he sits a whole point off our target for the season really need to check themselves. At least don't be the same people complaining when a player looks to move on to a better team one season after signing. 

They averaged 1.5points per game under Smith that season. After he left, they averaged 1.35 points per game till the end of the season. I'd hardly call that freefall

[Keyblade]

How about we stop trying to look for patterns and meaning in context-less numbers and just evaluate what he's doing for us today? 15 games to go and we are 1 point off our Target of safety and with a decent shout to go through to a cup final. Couldn't give a monkey's left nut about Brentford.

[Zatman]

7 hours ago, DCJonah said:

Someone on twitter said that it showed how low our standards have become when we are happy with a pt away to Brighton.

How many years ago are people going back to when this kind of result was considered low standards?

I've said all along, that the expectations of our fans could be the thing that really **** us over. 

Said it in the Elphick thread we have been except for 3/4 seasons consistently shit in this league for nearly 2 decades. 

We have some deluded fans who then laugh at fans of teams like Newcastle for high expectations

[Zatman]

5 hours ago, foreveryoung said:

He is certainly not shit. But he is far from PL standard which is what we needed this season. It was just to early for him. My goodness does he even now the best system yet. People blame the players, but if they are still gelling, still learning why keep changing systems.

But without Smith we wouldn't be in the Premier League. Biggest mistake Smith seems to have made is getting promoted due to ridiculous expectations 

[maqroll]

Hi guys

I really hope the best for Aston Villa Football Club.

[villan_007]

1 hour ago, Zatman said:

Said it in the Elphick thread we have been except for 3/4 seasons consistently shit in this league for nearly 2 decades. 

We have some deluded fans who then laugh at fans of teams like Newcastle for high expectations

Hmmm I don't think that's true to be fair. We've been in the prem since day dot. I wouldn't say the majority of our time there has been as a shit club. 

[Zatman]

15 minutes ago, villan_007 said:

Hmmm I don't think that's true to be fair. We've been in the prem since day dot. I wouldn't say the majority of our time there has been as a shit club. 

I didn't say when Premier League started. Said 2 decades which is recent history 

[MarkLillis]

23 minutes ago, Zatman said:

I didn't say when Premier League started. Said 2 decades which is recent history 

But you have exaggerated slightly 

Up until O Neil left we were at top half/top six club who no one in their right mind would even consider being in the relegation mix.

so for approximately 9 years we have been poor....

Edited January 19, 2020 by MarkLillis

[Zatman]

2 minutes ago, MarkLillis said:

But you have exaggerated slightly 

Up until O Neil left we were at top half/top six club who no one in their right mind would even consider being in the relegation mix.

so for approximately 9 years we have been poor....

Under O'Leary and GT2 we were in relegation battles as well 

[LondonLax]

17 minutes ago, Zatman said:

Under O'Leary and GT2 we were in relegation battles as well 

Yes the MON years were more the exception rather than the norm. 

[useless]

We'd finished in the top six seven times in the premier league before O'Neill had even arrived at the club, there'd only been fourteen premier league seasons, so in half of them we'd finished top six, we had only finished outside of the top  ten only three times, and had also won two trophies. Basically for the most part until Lerner gave up and stopped funding us after O'Neill left, we had been a decent premier league side, so whilst we haven't the right to beat anyone, this idea that we've always struggled, and should know our place and not expect any better just isn't true either.

[Kiwivillan]

11 minutes ago, useless said:

We'd finished in the top six seven times in the premier league before O'Neill had even arrived at the club, there'd only been fourteen premier league seasons, so in half of them we'd finished top six, we had only finished outside of the top  ten only three times, and had also won two trophies. Basically for the most part until Lerner gave up and stopped funding us after O'Neill left, we had been a decent premier league side, so whilst we haven't the right to beat anyone, this idea that we've always struggled, and should know our place and not expect any better just isn't true either.

MON caused our downward spiral with so many junk signings which he absolutely had 100% say on. **** that egotistical hobbit word removed. **** Sunderland next. Forest legend even they realised he's a muppet

Edited January 19, 2020 by Kiwivillan

[DCJonah]

11 minutes ago, useless said:

We'd finished in the top six seven times in the premier league before O'Neill had even arrived at the club, there'd only been fourteen premier league seasons, so in half of them we'd finished top six, we had only finished outside of the top  ten only three times, and had also won two trophies. Basically for the most part until Lerner gave up and stopped funding us after O'Neill left, we had been a decent premier league side, so whilst we haven't the right to beat anyone, this idea that we've always struggled, and should know our place and not expect any better just isn't true either.

So because over 10 years ago we had decent spells we should all be angry and expect better than a relegation battle now?

What has a good spell so long ago got to do with the present? Do we get extra points for past glory? Our the players we sign much better than everyone else because we finished 6th when a lot of our starting 11 were still in school? 

It's this kind of nonsense that causes issues. Nothing that happened years ago impacts us today. We finished 5th in the championship last season. 17th this year is success. 

[useless]

Not really sure what you're talking about in reply to my post, I'm disputing the suggestion that we've been 'shit for two decades' and had only been decent for a few seasons under O'Neill, which was said as a defence of our poor form this season, as if we've always been poor and shouldn't hope for any better. I haven't said that people should be angry or that they should expect better than a relegation battle this season, but what I would say is that the constant playing down of expectations is just as damaging if not more so, than fans who have unrealistic expectations, you have to get the balance right, just passively accepting our position will get us nowhere, I think many are just scared to hope for better because they're scared of being disappointed. For I, if we finish seventeenth come the end of the season then that will be a season well done, but the best way of achieving that is to aim higher, the worst way of achieving it is to write off every poor result and bad performance by saying 'alright our only aim is to finsih seventeenth anyway'.

It's also worth noting that the club itself said on the official site via Purslow before the season began that it has no appetite for a relegation battle or to just make up the numbers.

[DCJonah]

13 minutes ago, useless said:

Not really sure what you're talking about in reply to my post, I'm disputing the suggestion that we've been 'shit for two decades' and had only been decent for a few seasons under O'Neill, which was said as a defence of our poor form this season, as if we've always been poor and shouldn't hope for any better. I haven't said that people should be angry or that they should expect better than a relegation battle this season, but what I would say is that the constant playing down of expectations is just as damaging if not more so, than fans who have unrealistic expectations, you have to get the balance right, just passively accepting our position will get us nowhere, I think many are just scared to hope for better because they're scared of being disappointed. For I, if we finish seventeenth come the end of the season then that will be a season well done, but the best way of achieving that is to aim higher, the worst way of achieving it is to write off every poor result and bad performance by saying 'alright our only aim is to finsih seventeenth anyway'.

It's also worth noting that the club itself said on the official site via Purslow before the season began that it has no appetite for a relegation battle or to just make up the numbers.

Which I'm sure the club are. Us fans demanding more and wanting the manager sacked on social media isn't going to do anything to help it. 

[useless]

Well I don't think Smith is going to be anywhere near getting the sack at the moment, whilst of course things could be better and he could be doing better, it's not really his fault that we have no strikers, or that we have several players out injured, would probably be somewhat unfair to get rid of him in those circumstances, especially when overall our form hasn't actually been that bad recently, twelve in the form guide for past six games.

[Dave-R]

2 hours ago, MarkLillis said:

But you have exaggerated slightly 

Up until O Neil left we were at top half/top six club who no one in their right mind would even consider being in the relegation mix.

so for approximately 9 years we have been poor....

I'd say 20 years too, Id further go to say that since John Gregory left, we havnt been a decent side. David o'leary i think deserves the credit that MON now seems to get from fans, MON just built off of O'leary. The MON era was really him being MON and holding onto what had alll fell into place and MON walking out as MON does when things don't go his way left us in a hell of a mess. I'd say MON came into what was a very good Villa team in 2006 at the time and he managed to aid in that for a while, but boy when he left 2010 did he leave Villa in a mess and the next three managers couldn't get anything right, what was it a manager a year for the next three years, Houllier,McLeish and Lambert?? Then it went up two managers a year starting with Sherwood and garde.

Ridiculous how far we fell how fast and I'd say MON was pretty much just the beginning of it all, maybe not straight away but the signs were there.

MON gets way to much credit these days.

Edited January 19, 2020 by Dave-R

[New_Hope]

3 hours ago, maqroll said:

Hi guys

I really hope the best for Aston Villa Football Club.

Sounds like a 'Good bye'

[KenjiOgiwara]

Kinda hard to write this on a phone, but I honestly feel like some of the fans on here are on a completely different planet than me. 

I genuinly feel it's either you or me, but coexisting can't happen. 

For absolute ages we've lacked a modern manager and philosophy in the club. We've gone from clogger to clogger with neanderthal football. The second we've faced adversity we've sacked and started over again. Those trying to change style and philosophy got sacked even faster than others, for instance Garde. 

Now we got Deano who not only achieved the unlikely and got us promoted at first go, but he's also been put in the impossible situation where he has to sign a new squad and make it survive its virgin voyage in the toughest league in the world. Yet we once again see the impatience and people calling for sacking after some loss of form and after every time we go down a goal during matches. I just can't identify myself with such total lack of patience and belief in long term thinking. So get on board and stop whining about Smith, so I can keep following this club. 

We saw last year we got back from a loss of form. We're basically where we expected to be. 

This doesn't mean you can't criticise obvious mistakes or poor management, but there's that and cutting off your nose to spite your face. 

Now lets hammer Watford and hope the recruitment department have come out of hibernation. 

Edited January 19, 2020 by KenjiOgiwara

[DCJonah]

40 minutes ago, Dave-R said:

I'd say 20 years too, Id further go to say that since John Gregory left, we havnt been a decent side. David o'leary i think deserves the credit that MON now seems to get from fans, MON just built off of O'leary. The MON era was really him being MON and holding onto what had alll fell into place and MON walking out as MON does when things don't go his way left us in a hell of a mess. I'd say MON came into what was a very good Villa team in 2006 at the time and he managed to aid in that for a while, but boy when he left 2010 did he leave Villa in a mess and the next three managers couldn't get anything right, what was it a manager a year for the next three years, Houllier,McLeish and Lambert?? Then it went up two managers a year starting with Sherwood and garde.

Ridiculous how far we fell how fast and I'd say MON was pretty much just the beginning of it all, maybe not straight away but the signs were there.

MON gets way to much credit these days.

Er...what?

That team finished 16th with 42 pts. That's your standard of a very good team. 

Yeah what a mess he left. Just the highest points total since the 92 season. 

Way off topic, but as always when it comes to MON, absolute rubbish is being posted. 

Edited January 19, 2020 by DCJonah