Careful wishing required

[pauliewalnuts]

Totally against firing Smith - it's four bad games. If that becomes ten, I'll listen. There's no reason why it has to.

It's not just 4 games. We've played 10 games, and have 10 points. The football is horrendous, and we're conceding just about two goals a game on average. He's averaged just over a point a game in 2021, and now looks like dragging us into a relegation scrap. It's not good enough on multiple levels, and it's time for him to go.

Exactly, it is 10 games, of which the last four have been particularly execrable and have shown no sign of getting any better.

Add to that the recent kick off of the usual 'blame everyone else / social media / the players' routine you get from managers in a bad place, plus an extra slice of "it's not about systems" - which is the sort of talk I was hoping we'd never hear from a Villa manager again - and a stubborn continuation of making the same mistakes over and over.

All the elements for a sacking are in place, unfortunately. Lose at Southampton and there is just no way he persists - and rightly so.

With big money and investment comes bigger expectations. Mooking about in 15th and getting worse after 10 games is nothing like acceptable.

[Drummond]

Interesting article and a good reminder of the past. Ive been advocate of Dean on this forum for the last couple of years and he has without doubt been our best coach/manager since the early days of MON. But there does feel an inevitability to Friday now. Its not just the losses but what seems from the outside looking in, a growing disharmony and ill discipline amongst the players as well as confused tactics. I do feel a genuine sadness about all this.

I'm feeling exactly the same, it just feels like it's all unravelling and I would be gutted for that to happen to him.  There also seems to be a social media blackout at the moment too, the players aren't posting.  You'd normally see Mings rallying after a defeat, or McGinn, but nothing.

Perhaps they've been told to focus on doing the business on the pitch and not on Instagram. Let's see what happens on Friday, he won't be gone before that.

Unless we get a resounding win and performance, I think he's gone. A comfortable 2/3-0 win and he'll stay.

[rougegorge]

Whilst the article is a good factual account of managerial turnover, I am not sure you can compare something that happened 20, 30 or 40 years go with the present day. Just because some managers at Villa didn't turn out to be good choices mid-season doesn't mean that shouldn't work in the future.

Also, you have to put things into context. Post O'Neill, the managers appointed in the close season were not good choices (e.g. McLeish, Lambert) and then funding was reduced,  which set us on a downward spiral and we ended up hiring and firing in desperation ending up with Remi Garde.

If the owners are serious about success, as many people say on here, then if they are good at their job and in turn appoint a good person for the job, there is no reason why a mid-season change can't be successful.

Being 'careful what you wish for' may be more applicable when a club has no money and mediocre or poor players, as it's hard to change things. However, the consensus is that neither of those are applicable at the moment.

[brontebilly]

The severe and speedy decline of BFRs team is still hard to fathom.

[RamboandBruno]

The severe and speedy decline of BFRs team is still hard to fathom.

I was away at uni then, so going to every home game like before and after, but was just gutted at the time, still felt it was premature then, but maybe not in hindsight. Although this squad even with ratboy hasnt climbed the heights of BFRs villa teams, the rapid demise does feel similar at the moment.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Totally against firing Smith - it's four bad games. If that becomes ten, I'll listen. There's no reason why it has to.

It's not just 4 games. We've played 10 games, and have 10 points. The football is horrendous, and we're conceding just about two goals a game on average. He's averaged just over a point a game in 2021, and now looks like dragging us into a relegation scrap. It's not good enough on multiple levels, and it's time for him to go.

By any standards, it's a shocking record and pretty much impossible to defend. If there were signs Dean was turning it around you'd have to say give him more time but sadly the opposite is true. Like you I don't think the owners will be judging him on the last 4 or ten games, they'll be looking at the results and trend this year.

[montague]

Totally against firing Smith - it's four bad games. If that becomes ten, I'll listen. There's no reason why it has to.

It's not just 4 games. We've played 10 games, and have 10 points. The football is horrendous, and we're conceding just about two goals a game on average. He's averaged just over a point a game in 2021, and now looks like dragging us into a relegation scrap. It's not good enough on multiple levels, and it's time for him to go.

By any standards, it's a shocking record and pretty much impossible to defend. If there were signs Dean was turning it around you'd have to say give him more time but sadly the opposite is true. Like you I don't think the owners will be judging him on the last 4 or ten games, they'll be looking at the results and trend this year.

Won 11 lost 17 in 2021 excluding cups