Dean Smith - Confirmed

[AV82EC]

The best performance in the 10 game run was McGinn away at Rotherham. The goal Grealish scored was sensational.

Those 4 days in Yorkshire with the win at Wednesday and Rotherham...that's when you knew it was happening.

4 days in Yorkshire, sounds like an Alan Bennett monologue.

I was at a mates wedding for the Wednesday game and he was saying his vows whilst most of you lot were going mental in added on time at Hillsborough.

I was at Rotherham and it was the day I really felt we were bouncing back, total commitment from the team, especially McGinn, Grealish imperious.

[RamboandBruno]

The best performance in the 10 game run was McGinn away at Rotherham. The goal Grealish scored was sensational.

Those 4 days in Yorkshire with the win at Wednesday and Rotherham...that's when you knew it was happening.

Bristol city was also a good game and result.

True, and jack didn’t play in that game.

Wednesday away in that run is one of my favourite ever away days, just a great day, start to finish and not one but two last minute goals, perfect and yes it was at that point walking in the sunshine, through the park by Hillsborough, a few beers worse for wear, that I thought it was on.

[Risso]

The best performance in the 10 game run was McGinn away at Rotherham. The goal Grealish scored was sensational.

Those 4 days in Yorkshire with the win at Wednesday and Rotherham...that's when you knew it was happening.

It was the Forest game away for me, exactly where we’d have dropped points under Bruce after the high of beating the rags on the Sunday before.

I was at that sat in with the Forest fans.  SJM was great that game.

[Ads]

The Wednesday game was very Man United at Villa Park for most of the last 25 years. Fantastic result.

I'm really glad we're out the Championship but I will look back on that run as one of my favourite times as a Villa fan.

[eamonn]

He wasn't going to get us promoted until he did, but that was down to Grealish. He wasn't going to keep us up until he did, but that was down to lockdown. He couldn't attract big names until he did, but that was down to Terry. For someone who can't do anything he seems to have a lot happen regardless.

It's like politics. You form an opinion and then confirmation bias has people looking for whatever can be interpreted as supporting evidence. Anything that doesn't support that view must be down to outside factors.

Exactly this. There are pro and anti smith camps and in truth he’s given, and continues to give, evidence to both to support their cause.

It’s true he got us promoted, which deserves much credit, also true that having the best player in the division back from injury and winning games on his own played a part. Impossible to separate these factors.

It’s true he kept a poor squad up last year thanks to a great (overall) post lockdown run. It’s also true that he performed badly, overall, IMO, before lockdown, showing a lot of tactical naivety and intransigence, which put us in the position in the first place.

I don’t think reeling out the the end results repeatedly makes the criticisms of how we got there any less valid. Or that criticising him means you don’t want him to succeed.

Not disagreeing with your overall point. But Grealish didn’t win a single game on his own at any point. In the 10 game run to go up he was hugely influential, but wasn’t necessarily the best player in a fair number of those games, including the semi final away leg and final. SGM was just as influential in many of those games.

SGM...

Saint Gohn McGinn? Sven Goran Merikssen ?

[dave.woodhall]

He wasn't going to get us promoted until he did, but that was down to Grealish. He wasn't going to keep us up until he did, but that was down to lockdown. He couldn't attract big names until he did, but that was down to Terry. For someone who can't do anything he seems to have a lot happen regardless.

He must be very lucky Dave.

I like lucky managers.

You and Napoleon both.

[Mister E]

The best performance in the 10 game run was McGinn away at Rotherham. The goal Grealish scored was sensational.

Those 4 days in Yorkshire with the win at Wednesday and Rotherham...that's when you knew it was happening.

Definitely. Nice and local for me, and stunning games.

We've had some great days at Hillsborough. The BFR opener will always stick in my memory.

[RamboandBruno]

He wasn't going to get us promoted until he did, but that was down to Grealish. He wasn't going to keep us up until he did, but that was down to lockdown. He couldn't attract big names until he did, but that was down to Terry. For someone who can't do anything he seems to have a lot happen regardless.

It's like politics. You form an opinion and then confirmation bias has people looking for whatever can be interpreted as supporting evidence. Anything that doesn't support that view must be down to outside factors.

Exactly this. There are pro and anti smith camps and in truth he’s given, and continues to give, evidence to both to support their cause.

It’s true he got us promoted, which deserves much credit, also true that having the best player in the division back from injury and winning games on his own played a part. Impossible to separate these factors.

It’s true he kept a poor squad up last year thanks to a great (overall) post lockdown run. It’s also true that he performed badly, overall, IMO, before lockdown, showing a lot of tactical naivety and intransigence, which put us in the position in the first place.

I don’t think reeling out the the end results repeatedly makes the criticisms of how we got there any less valid. Or that criticising him means you don’t want him to succeed.

Not disagreeing with your overall point. But Grealish didn’t win a single game on his own at any point. In the 10 game run to go up he was hugely influential, but wasn’t necessarily the best player in a fair number of those games, including the semi final away leg and final. SGM was just as influential in many of those games.

SGM...

Saint Gohn McGinn? Sven Goran Merikssen ?

That’s the one!
Early morning bleary eyes and typing fingers, the general point remains 😊

[Drummond]

I have immense respect for those who have built H and V into the source of good judgement, humour and pleasure it is today.  I cannot rid myself of the nagging doubt that Dean Smith is either flawed or not yet fully fledged.  It is indisputable that his managerial qualiies have taken us from the swamp of the lower Championship to at least the foothills of the sunlit uplands of the Premiership.  Seventy percent of me believes he is the man to get us to a staging post from which we can unleash an assault on the peak.  Then, with unfailing regularity we have games like Stoke and the Mr Hyde in me emerges.  I am assailed with doubt that our future will be like our immediate past.  I have never wanted a Villa manager to succeed as much as I want Dean to succeed.  Liverpool is the perfect game to restore our spirits.  Ours and the players.

That doubt Brian, is based on the last decade at least of our history. Disappointment and not quite enough time after time.

Even before then we were nearly men, the 00s and 90s were littered with what might have been moments. And yet we fell.

Two League Cup wins are all well and good, but we should be aspiring to more, to more European nights. Time will tell if Smith can get us there, but so far he's met his brief, and he's learning and developing too. For once I don't doubt our owners intent, ability or bank balance either.

[Risso]

I have immense respect for those who have built H and V into the source of good judgement, humour and pleasure it is today.  I cannot rid myself of the nagging doubt that Dean Smith is either flawed or not yet fully fledged.  It is indisputable that his managerial qualiies have taken us from the swamp of the lower Championship to at least the foothills of the sunlit uplands of the Premiership.  Seventy percent of me believes he is the man to get us to a staging post from which we can unleash an assault on the peak.  Then, with unfailing regularity we have games like Stoke and the Mr Hyde in me emerges.  I am assailed with doubt that our future will be like our immediate past.  I have never wanted a Villa manager to succeed as much as I want Dean to succeed.  Liverpool is the perfect game to restore our spirits.  Ours and the players.

That doubt Brian, is based on the last decade at least of our history. Disappointment and not quite enough time after time.

Even before then we were nearly men, the 00s and 90s were littered with what might have been moments. And yet we fell.

Two League Cup wins are all well and good, but we should be aspiring to more, to more European nights. Time will tell if Smith can get us there, but so far he's met his brief, and he's learning and developing too. For once I don't doubt our owners intent, ability or bank balance either.

Good posts from both of you. I was critical of Smith last year, but the improvement after lockdown meant he deserved another crack.  I think the owners will rightly want an improvement this year, and would say that a mid-table finish will be thier target.  Another relelgation battle and I think they'd change tack next season, but things are going in the right direction so far.  I have to admit I wasn't that bothered about the Stoke loss, and would gladly accept that for a positive result tomorrow.

[Villan For Life]

It’s been mentioned on the Stoke post match thread already, but the Stoke result highlighted that our squad strength is poor. Our new starting XI would have comfortably dealt with Stoke. At the moment our squad is where I’d expect a squad that’s a year out of the Championship to be. We’ve invested, our first choice XI look good but the rest of the squad is Championship standard at best. We can address that by continuing to establish ourselves in the PL thus attracting a better standard of squad players and promoting the quality younger players that we have.

Don’t lose heart Brian, I think we are at the start of some good years after the dross of the last few seasons.

[Mister E]

... I wasn't that bothered about the Stoke loss, and would gladly accept that for a positive result tomorrow.

Agreed.
The Stoke result was symptomatic of a squad in transition: we cannot bring in another 10 players during this window, which means we inevitably carry players who are not really Premier-League standard.
We have to focus on doing as well in the league as we can and this will enable us to invest again this time next year. Do enough pre-Christmas and we should be able to have a real go at the FA Cup.

[Pat Mustard]

All the Stoke result signified is that you can’t play all of that team together in the Premier League. For where we are at in our development we could carry a few of those players in some games and they wouldn’t let us down, helped by the higher quality we’ve now got in the rest of the the team.  The big problem last season was that post Christmas we were having to play a load of them (or similar if including Drinkwater, Samatta etc) together out of necessity.

[LeeB]

All the Stoke result signified is that you can’t play all of that team together in the Premier League. For where we are at in our development we could carry a few of those players in some games and they wouldn’t let us down, helped by the higher quality we’ve now got in the rest of the the team.  The big problem last season was that post Christmas we were having to play a load of them (or similar if including Drinkwater, Samatta etc) together out of necessity.

More wise words from the hairy baby maker.

[sickbeggar]

Depends who gets crocked really. You can survive if you don't lose a Grealish, or a Luiz, or hopefully a Watkins if finds his shooting boots.  Otherwise you're stuffed