Dean Smith

[Kiwivillan]

11 minutes ago, KenjiOgiwara said:

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

I agree with most of what you posted but not getting result against 1st in the PL for last 6 game form wouldn't be end of world for me. I really hope we get at least a draw to prevent the inevitable Smith out mantra. Boring 0-0 would do me fine. Bournemouth after is another story. That's absolute 6 pointer

[Delphinho123]

One could argue Smith is doing a fantastic job with the players at his disposal. Most would agree we only have 2-3 fit Premier League standard players in our squad. To even be in with a chance of staying up at this stage of the season is an achievement. 

[Vive_La_Villa]

2 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

One could argue Smith is doing a fantastic job with the players at his disposal. Most would agree we only have 2-3 fit Premier League standard players in our squad. To even be in with a chance of staying up at this stage of the season is an achievement. 

That maybe true but whether he was involved in the recruitment or not the manager or ‘head coach’ is always the one that takes the blame for the players bought in. It’s just the way it is. 

Edited January 19, 2020 by Vive_La_Villa

[Vive_La_Villa]

9 minutes ago, Kiwivillan said:

I agree with most of what you posted but not getting result against 1st in the PL for last 6 game form wouldn't be end of world for me. I really hope we get at least a draw to prevent the inevitable Smith out mantra. Boring 0-0 would do me fine. Bournemouth after is another story. That's absolute 6 pointer

Might sound OTT but I think this game will determine if we go down or not. It will be the equivalent of the Sunderland game we lost 3-1 the year we went down.  
 

Bournemouth are a complete shambles at the moment so lose this and we’ll probably have to accept we’re not going to be good enough to stay up. 

[Kiwivillan]

3 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

That maybe true but whether he was involved in the recruitment or not the manager or ‘head coach’ is always the one that takes the blame for the players bought in. It’s just the way it is. 

I love that we'll soon be offloading some of our biggest earners after Kodjia. Possibly Lansbury this window. How long Hogan got? Good that we've moved away from these ridiculous signings/contracts Bruce the latter 2. Bruce doing ok at Newcastle. Did he get to sign those that came in pre season or already done deals?

[Kiwivillan]

1 minute ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Might sound OTT but I think this game will determine if we go down or not. It will be the equivalent of the Sunderland game we lost 3-1 the year we went down.  
 

Bournemouth are a complete shambles at the moment so lose this and we’ll probably have to accept we’re not going to be good enough to stay up. 

 Not OTT but I operate on idea that of we were to beat Watford that gives us grace of expected win. At least 3pts from next 2 required. Hopefully 6pts

[Vive_La_Villa]

2 minutes ago, Kiwivillan said:

I love that we'll soon be offloading some of our biggest earners after Kodjia. Possibly Lansbury this window. How long Hogan got? Good that we've moved away from these ridiculous signings/contracts Bruce the latter 2. Bruce doing ok at Newcastle. Did he get to sign those that came in pre season or already done deals?

I think they were done deals but it was only 2 players anyway wasn’t it? They kept most the team from last season. 

[Villarocker]

23 minutes ago, KenjiOgiwara said:

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. 

That's a cracking post mate! 

This season had to be about survival despite Purslow and Smith saying, before the season started, that we wanted to more than just survive. 

We have had so many new faces in that it was quite obvious that they would need time to gel. I think Dean, because he loves the club so much, would honestly walk away if he felt he wasn't up to it. Yes, he's made mistakes but, he's new to the league too. Most of his coaching staff must also be new to this level so we simply have to give them time. 

As a fan, I'm sick of us being a laughing stock. Chopping and changing has taken us down before and so I'm in it for the long-haul and would rather go down - if it happens - with a Villa man at the helm and safe in the knowledge that the very same man was the one to take us up last time and the newest recruits will be a lot more settled. 

When the manager is in a weak position the players have a get-out clause if they perform badly. Everyone needs to unite behind Dean Smith and let the players know that no matter what, we still want our manager. When the manager has such power, the players have no hiding place. The prime example of that was Ferguson at Man Utd. It was perform or go. That's what Villa need now. 

[Vive_La_Villa]

1 minute ago, Kiwivillan said:

 Not OTT but I operate on idea that of we were to beat Watford that gives us grace of expected win. At least 3pts from next 2 required. Hopefully 6pts

True. I can’t see us beating Watford. They just seem a much better team right now.  Home advantage doesn’t seem to be lifting the players either. 

[Kiwivillan]

Just now, Vive_La_Villa said:

They kept most the team from last season. 

I think we'd be comfortable mid table if our team had a season together under their belt or in Newcastle's case, several. 

[DaveAV1]

I believe that there is a clear difference between expectations and aspirations. No team can expect to win anything. Man U went over 20 years without winning the league and Liverpool have gone a similar period, although that will quite probably end this season. 

However we can and indeed should aspire to better things. There Is no need to limit our aspirations but we have to manage them for the situation that we’re in. Dean said at the start of the season that we should enter every game with a plan to win it, that doesn’t mean we expect to win every game. 

We are a big club in stature, history and infrastructure but currently we aren’t a big club on the pitch. We can and should aspire to being a big team again but to achieve that will need time and hard work. We can’t just expect teams to come to Villa Park look at our wonderful ground, marvel out our history and respectfully lose because we’re Aston Villa and they’re only Brighton or whoever, no disrespect intended. 

Things that make us a big club should be used to our best advantage when appropriate but once on the pitch they count for very little. 

[Wainy316]

1 hour 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.

Your memory is well off here mate.  We were awful in DOLs last season, that was the year of the players revolt and all that.  Gareth Barry was off to Pompey for £2.5m.

[MikeMcKenna]

We need 3 points against Watford Tuesday night and Bournemouth is absolutely another critical game. 4/6 points from these two, bring in a couple of players, squad gains in confidence, get some upward momentum, survive, keep Jack and have a great season next year   

Have lived down here for 18 years and have never been to their ground and really hope my first visit is an away win. 

[Kingman]

7 minutes ago, MikeMcKenna said:

We need 3 points against Watford Tuesday night and Bournemouth is absolutely another critical game. 4/6 points from these two, bring in a couple of players, squad gains in confidence, get some upward momentum, survive, keep Jack and have a great season next year   

Have lived down here for 18 years and have never been to their ground and really hope my first visit is an away win. 

[markavfc40]

9 hours ago, TRO said:

I don't doubt that, but signing Drinkwater hardly fills you with the joys of spring, if its meant to help keep us up, we might be disappointed.

How long do we have to wait for him to find his Leicester form?

Smith isn't solely responsible for transfers but regardless of that I think we are cutting our cloth to suit. We have plenty of money but due to FFP we can't spend a fortune this window and I'd imagine in terms of fees a centre forward is the priority.

Any signing we make at this point will be a gamble. It is the January window, no team in the bottom half of the Premier League will want to help us out, we are a team in danger of being relegated so hardly an attractive proposition and we have to ensure we stay within FFP.  It is tough and every signing we make is likely to be risky and come with no guarantees. Reina has hardly played for 18 months and Drinkwater for a couple of years. I don't know how long we will have to wait before we see Drinkwaters form from Leicester. Longer than the 160 minutes he has played so far or perhaps he'll never get back to it. That was always the gamble. Samatta may also come in and take months to adjust. Another gamble but that is not Smiths fault. That is the reality of where we are as a club.

[Kiwivillan]

31 minutes ago, MikeMcKenna said:

We need 3 points against Watford Tuesday night

Check out Watford last 6 results since 2-0 loss away to Liverpool

[TRO]

10 minutes ago, markavfc40 said:

Smith isn't solely responsible for transfers but regardless of that I think we are cutting our cloth to suit. We have plenty of money but due to FFP we can't spend a fortune this window and I'd imagine in terms of fees a centre forward is the priority.

Any signing we make at this point will be a gamble. It is the January window, no team in the bottom half of the Premier League will want to help us out, we are a team in danger of being relegated so hardly an attractive proposition and we have to ensure we stay within FFP.  It is tough and every signing we make is likely to be risky and come with no guarantees. Reina has hardly played for 18 months and Drinkwater for a couple of years. I don't know how long we will have to wait before we see Drinkwaters form from Leicester. Longer than the 160 minutes he has played so far or perhaps he'll never get back to it. That was always the gamble. Samatta may also come in and take months to adjust. Another gamble but that is not Smiths fault. That is the reality of where we are as a club.

Yeah.

but don't be so defensive.....I don't blame smith for every negative.

and I don't want him gone.I want him to turn us around a get us to find some form, sure the injuries have disrupted us.sometimes managers learn more in troubled times, I think the man city game, he should have learnt a lot.

I hope when i post, that i describe the shortfalls and flaws not who is to blame for them....and for all the mitigation, i can't ignore them.

I don't know what goes on at B6 to make a meaningful judgment,on folk, so I avoid that.

[TRO]

3 minutes ago, Kiwivillan said:

Check out Watford last 6 results since 2-0 loss away to Liverpool

In terms of form, they are probably near the top of the form league.....pearson has made a remarkable impact.

They were as flat as a witches tit, before he came.

He has organised them and subsequently given them belief.

I wouldn't rely on Watford to be one of the 3 to go down.

[Kiwivillan]

1 minute ago, TRO said:

In terms of form, they are probably near the top of the form league.....pearson has made a remarkable impact.

They were as flat as a witches tit, before he came.

He has organised them and subsequently given them belief.

I wouldn't rely on Watford to be one of the 3 to go down.

I'm certain I mentioned Pearson after Bruce got sacked and was slated

[Vive_La_Villa]

10 minutes ago, Kiwivillan said:

Check out Watford last 6 results since 2-0 loss away to Liverpool

Even that game they missed some sitters. 
 

Maybe it’s time for their good form to come to an end. 

Edited January 19, 2020 by Vive_La_Villa