The 50-year-old has been working as a manager for a decade but he has never been sacked, only ever taking positive steps in his career from Walsall to Brentford, and on to his boyhood club.

I am desperate for things to start going right for Dean. This has really hit home for me over the course of the last week.

I didn’t make it to the match last Sunday - I was all ready to go, but my 1-year-old son hadn’t been very well, so in the afternoon my wife rang 111. They sent an ambulance crew over, who after an assessment, took him and my wife off the Children’s Hospital. (He’s absolutely fine now, and came home yesterday - he just gave us a very real scare on Halloween).

Anyway, the Villa-West Ham match was on mute in the background as I hurried around the house to pack bags for them both - the result didn’t matter to me, of course, but the silent, flickering images of another defeat, on a miserable, dark afternoon was somehow quite fitting to add that feeling of everything going wrong.

As I said, he is fine now. I have spent my week dashing about picking them some things up, like fresh food and snacks, changes of clothes, toys etc, and then dropping it all off at the Children’s Hospital. Quite the change from my usual week of sitting at my desk at home, all day every day.

Being out of the house, sporting my Villa hat and face mask, I have had countless conversations, both in the shops and the hospital, about how Villa are doing - with Villa fans, Blues fans, Albion fans (funny how the latter two are much more open to talking when we aren’t doing so well!). To be honest, it’s been lovely to have those brief conversations around the city. A welcome distraction to the other thoughts and every single one has been good natured and pleasant. The hat and face mask became conversation openers, at a time when I probably would have otherwise avoided social contact with everyone - immersing myself with worry instead.

What has this got to do with Dean? Well, he is part of that. He grew up as part of this community, he understands what Villa means in the city, and whatever anyone else says when they turn up about “it’s a massive club”, you need to live here for a quite a while before you really get it.

What we have, with Dean as manager, is special. We probably won’t have this again in my lifetime - a proper fan as a manager. So, if it was up to me, I would give him as much time as possible to put this right. I would give him until after Christmas, and even then only give him the shove if relegation was a real threat.

I appreciate the owners will almost definitely see it differently, as most fans will. The table never lies, we haven’t been performing anywhere near the levels that we should have and I will admit to being increasingly concerned by his assessments post-game.

But at the same time, I won’t apologise for being overly sentimental, this week of all weeks. We have been very lucky to have Dean as our manager for these last 3 years, it is something that a lot of football supporters won’t get to experience. I’m not ready for it to end yet.

3 points tonight please boys.

Glad things are OK Boozey, much more important than football.

Best wishes boozy.

Thanks everyone.

We are the lucky ones - we went in and came out of the Children's Hospital with (fingers crossed) no lasting consequences. I just thought I would share my thoughts and offer a slightly different perspective.

I know we all want Dean, and therefore the club, to succeed. The great thing about this site is there are so many reasonable and well thought out theories on how we should get to where we all want to be.

Thanks everyone.

We are the lucky ones - we went in and came out of the Children's Hospital with (fingers crossed) no lasting consequences. I just thought I would share my thoughts and offer a slightly different perspective.

I know we all want Dean, and therefore the club, to succeed. The great thing about this site is there are so many reasonable and well thought out theories on how we should get to where we all want to be.

All the best boozey, nothing more important than your kids. I hope Villa give you a win at the end of a tough week.

Sadly the time is probably up for Dean Smith. He’s a nice chap and has contributed so much to the progress of Aston Villa that it would be unfortunate for him to see it all unravel particularly as he is personally invested in the club (a fan). I don’t think he’s lost most of the players, but unfortunately for Dean he has made mistakes (team selection/formation, substitutions, game management...). Something has gone on behind the scenes since the Wolves collapse and I wouldn’t be surprised if it revolves around Sanson and with Sanson the likes of Lange in a ‘him or me’ type situation.
Personally I think Sanson should be involved (you don’t have to like the players you play), but what’s being played out appears to be running deeper than one player.
For the good of Aston Villa something needs to happen. Dean moving on maybe the best for all concerned though if it was up to me I would also part ways with Lange (generally poor recruitment) and the silver tongued Purslow should also be looking over his shoulder for overseeing a sh-tfest of a summer’s business culminating in his ridiculous 3 players for 1 player comment.

Glad your lads doing ok now Boozey! Way more important things in life than what Villa are doing (Or not doing)

Yeah - best wishes to you all, Boozey.