Dean Smith - Confirmed

[Clampy]

He got us promoted at the first time of asking. He kept us in the top flight. He's currently leading us to mid-table security, and this is only his third season with us.

Personally, I think the bloke's a fooking hero.

He's doing ok by me as well. Like I said earlier. this season could have been even better but when you get people/person before the game complaining that we were 10th, it almost makes you crazily think they just get bored and want change for the sake of it.

[Taylor]

He got us promoted at the first time of asking. He kept us in the top flight. He's currently leading us to mid-table security, and this is only his third season with us.

Personally, I think the bloke's a fooking hero.

Yup

[Border villan]

He got us promoted at the first time of asking. He kept us in the top flight. He's currently leading us to mid-table security, and this is only his third season with us.

Personally, I think the bloke's a fooking hero.

Yup

Just a mention, not a comparison, it took Ron Saunders seven years to produce a league winning team.

[pauliewalnuts]

He's managed in a top League for one season, having managed Walsall and Brentford before.

He kept us up last season miraculously and got us up the season before almost as miraculously.

We are an erratic team, sometimes brilliant, sometimes poor. We are frustratingly inconsistent at times.

He's going to learn, though, and so are we, we will improve the quality of the squad again and push on.

A mid table finish after a decade of fighting relegation or scrambling to get promoted is something every single one of us would have taken prior to the start of the season.

Yes, his game management is annoying, yes, we have recurring weaknesses but anyone seriously thinking he should be getting sacked after the season we are having is bonkers.

I understand why people were asking whether he was the man when it looked like we were donned last year but he saved us, you have to give him a chance purely based on that.

We sound like wolves fans, shitting their pants over a tricky season and wanting Nuno out, ignoring the depths to which their club had previously sumk.

[andyh]

He got us promoted at the first time of asking. He kept us in the top flight. He's currently leading us to mid-table security, and this is only his third season with us.

Personally, I think the bloke's a fooking hero.

He's doing ok by me as well. Like I said earlier. this season could have been even better but when you get people/person before the game complaining that we were 10th, it almost makes you crazily think they just get bored and want change for the sake of it.

To be fair, you have defended every single manger over the last few years.

[PaulWinch again]

He's managed in a top League for one season, having managed Walsall and Brentford before.

He kept us up last season miraculously and got us up the season before almost as miraculously.

We are an erratic team, sometimes brilliant, sometimes poor. We are frustratingly inconsistent at times.

He's going to learn, though, and so are we, we will improve the quality of the squad again and push on.

A mid table finish after a decade of fighting relegation or scrambling to get promoted is something every single one of us would have taken prior to the start of the season.

Yes, his game management is annoying, yes, we have recurring weaknesses but anyone seriously thinking he should be getting sacked after the season we are having is bonkers.

I understand why people were asking whether he was the man when it looked like we were donned last year but he saved us, you have to give him a chance purely based on that.

We sound like wolves fans, shitting their pants over a tricky season and wanting Nuno out, ignoring the depths to which their club had previously sumk.

Yep talk of the sack is nuts. We’re going to finish mid table and that is great progress.

[AV82EC]

He's managed in a top League for one season, having managed Walsall and Brentford before.

He kept us up last season miraculously and got us up the season before almost as miraculously.

We are an erratic team, sometimes brilliant, sometimes poor. We are frustratingly inconsistent at times.

He's going to learn, though, and so are we, we will improve the quality of the squad again and push on.

A mid table finish after a decade of fighting relegation or scrambling to get promoted is something every single one of us would have taken prior to the start of the season.

Yes, his game management is annoying, yes, we have recurring weaknesses but anyone seriously thinking he should be getting sacked after the season we are having is bonkers.

I understand why people were asking whether he was the man when it looked like we were donned last year but he saved us, you have to give him a chance purely based on that.

We sound like wolves fans, shitting their pants over a tricky season and wanting Nuno out, ignoring the depths to which their club had previously sumk.

Well said, I suppose what annoys though are the people who can’t accept the criticism of him and who immediately conflate that to “oh you want him sacked then”.

[Risso]

I think it depends on how the rest of the season goes. We've improved on last year, mainly due to our away results, and we still need a win and a draw from home games against Man City, Man U, Chelsea, Everton and WBA to match last season's home record. We've been playing really poorly for ages now, and if it goes on, and he loses say, 6 of the final 8, I think he'll be toast.

[Toronto Villa]

The loss of Grealish gives him a temporary pass in my opinion until Christmas. But it won’t have gone unnoticed by the owners/board how below average we look without him. Either that highlights needed investment or the inability of the manager to do more without him. He better hope it’s not the latter.

[stubbsyandy]

I want us to continue with Dean, he’s learning as we build, and remember we are better season on season..BUT, how he persists with that wastrel Barkley beggars belief and though Traore is ‘ mercurial’ when he’s off his game it’s obvious from the first few minutes..so change it! Davis isn’t the answer but can hold the ball for others to play off him. All too often because we only have Ollie up front the ball comes straight back which means our midfield isn’t attacking but trying to hold and they can’t do that for 90 minutes. Good job we have a decent back five but they are living on too many blocks..it’ll catch up on us and we will get thumped soon.
We are however ahead of where we were looking to be, but need to be more flexible and progressive in our tactics.

[Risso]

If rumours are to believed he would have been sacked last season if Covid hadn't forced the shutdown. He's improved the defence this year, but I just can't see the owners standing for another really poor run, which this period is definitely turning into. Wes Edens sacked a mate of his, Jason Kidd, at the Bucks, so I wouldn't be expecting sentimentality from him:

[olaftab]

Just getting ready to head off down to join the mob on Trinity Road with my pikestaff calling for Smith's head.
But stopped to consider this:
2018 - appointed manager
2019 - play off promotion winners
2020 - keeps us in the Prem/League Cup runners up
2021 - solid mid table position.
Then I asked myself - how many of today's Villa starting squad would make the Liverpool squad and vice versa?
Decided to put the pikestaff back in the shed.
We clearly don't have sufficient in tems of individual quality or strength in depth.
Smith could be doing better, but given what he has to work with, I'm not going to complain too much.

With that sort of record a case could be made either way so  I won't be surprised if our owners decide to shake hands with Dean at the end of the season.

[pauliewalnuts]

I think it depends on how the rest of the season goes. We've improved on last year, mainly due to our away results, and we still need a win and a draw from home games against Man City, Man U, Chelsea, Everton and WBA to match last season's home record. We've been playing really poorly for ages now, and if it goes on, and he loses say, 6 of the final 8, I think he'll be toast.

Not sure how matching last season's home record becomes an important measure of progress?

We're on 44 points with 8 matches still to go. How would not matching last season's home record sully that?

[Drummond]

Clutch at a reason as its the only thing that wouldn't have been improved upon is my guess.

[Scott Nielsen]

Smith does seem to too rigidly hold on to his preferred system. I would like to see him try some tweaks when things are demonstrably not working.

On the other hand, that is what most every other supporter of every other club say about their manager. From Guardiola and Klopp to Wilder. The manager does chose the starting eleven but beyond that we tend to overstate their impact on the game. The teams with the best players are more successful. And we have quite a few in the middle of the park that aren't all that great which means we are falling away when Grealish can't paper over the cracks.

For us to take another large step forward we are talking three or four top transfers of 50m+. And we would have to be lucky enough for at least the majority of those transfers to turn out really well. If we can also add another Watkins or Cash steal from the lower leagues we'd be set. I honestly think that is the size of gap we have to bridge in order to compete for a top-6 finish over the course of a full season.

A long-winded way of saying I think the quality of too many of our players are far more of a limitation than Smith is.