Dean Smith - Confirmed

[Brend'Watkins]

We had Grealish for years before Smith turned up and were a laughing stock in the 2nd tier.

It's under him that Grealish realised his potential, and the same with so many others, finally reversing the trend of players joining, disappointing, and then leaving for less.

The single most important factor in our rejuvenation is still here, and he's now armed to the teeth.

Agreed. He’s risen to every challenge so far in his time here (and before, otherwise he wouldn’t have got the job) and I am confident that he’ll continue in the same way.

Agree too. he does his job under all conditions, never moans and never gloats. Professional and thoughtful with his words throughout.  I'd go as far as saying he's an ideal candidate for the England job as he has all the attributes and the football nous which is currently lacking, obviously wouldn't want him to be considered or take it even if he was asked. I'm sure he has an ego but it doesn't show.  He just seems a genuinely decent bloke. Yes, we will see how he copes without JG and I'm sure he'd have loved to hang on to him but this nonsense of "we will now see his team" is just that, nonsense.  Every manager in the league would want JG in their squad because he's a great player and will be a greater player with better players around him.  We are just going to play different and we now have better quality in depth.

[RamboandBruno]

We had Grealish for years before Smith turned up and were a laughing stock in the 2nd tier.

It's under him that Grealish realised his potential, and the same with so many others, finally reversing the trend of players joining, disappointing, and then leaving for less.

The single most important factor in our rejuvenation is still here, and he's now armed to the teeth.

Agreed. He’s risen to every challenge so far in his time here (and before, otherwise he wouldn’t have got the job) and I am confident that he’ll continue in the same way.

Agree too. he does his job under all conditions, never moans and never gloats. Professional and thoughtful with his words throughout.  I'd go as far as saying he's an ideal candidate for the England job as he has all the attributes and the football nous which is currently lacking, obviously wouldn't want him to be considered or take it even if he was asked. I'm sure he has an ego but it doesn't show.  He just seems a genuinely decent bloke. Yes, we will see how he copes without JG and I'm sure he'd have loved to hang on to him but this nonsense of "we will now see his team" is just that, nonsense.  Every manager in the league would want JG in their squad because he's a great player and will be a greater player with better players around him.  We are just going to play different and we now have better quality in depth.

Well said

[paul_e]

We had Grealish for years before Smith turned up and were a laughing stock in the 2nd tier.

It's under him that Grealish realised his potential, and the same with so many others, finally reversing the trend of players joining, disappointing, and then leaving for less.

The single most important factor in our rejuvenation is still here, and he's now armed to the teeth.

Yes I totally agree with this. I posted on here several times last season when some were extremely critical of Smith that the wheels came off for us when Covid hit the squad. We never looked the same after that. We also had a paper thin squad with no scope to rest key players. That will be different this season

It was a combination of things, the covid break clearly had an impact, the loss of form for Barkley and Luiz had an impact and losing Ratty clearly played a part. I said at the time that it was never as simple as with or without him and the turn around in form started before he came back as well.

[Smithy]

Different scale but Smith has already cut his teeth on having his best players leave every year.

Same goes for Lange too.

I've got faith in him but another season like last won't be good enough for the board. We need to constantly be improving.

I like Smith, I like the way he tries to play football, and I like the way he represents our club.  I'm also quite excited to see how the team plays this season given there will no longer be that reliance on Jack.

That said, I don't buy into this "he's had previous experience losing his best players each year" as if he thrived in that situation.  Yes, under him, Brentford lost their top player(s) most years.  But his replacement got Brentford promoted to the premier league after losing Konsa, Watkins, Maupay and Benrahma - four solid premier league performers.

I have faith we'll do well this season, but I don't think he's yet "proven" he can handle losing his best player and improve the performance of the side left behind.

[martyn ellis]

And, it should be noted, he chooses intelligently the people who he works with and evidently trusts them to deliver without pushing the 'I'm the boss' card. He would be the first to agree it's a team effort, all the way from first team to Mark Delaney, Jedinak, Harrison, Cutler, Verity and a host more I've missed out. They all know their jobs and come with high reputation. Some of that at least must be down to people wanting to work with Dean.

[Smoke]

So when Smith was at Brentford losing players the project continued, Frank has certainly lost more players of higher quality but wouldn't brentford argue that was always part of the model to continue improving? Where by now they've (finally) achieved 1 of their objectives.

My point was Manager and Sporting Director have not been thrust into this situation for the first time, infact they've both learned their trade by having this exact situation happen time and time again.

[danno]

I wouldn't underestimate the egos of professional footballers, there will be a lot of our team determined to prove they're far more than sidemen for the Jack Grealish show.

To some extent I think with John Terry gone as well, that may well extend to our manager.

[brontebilly]

We had Grealish for years before Smith turned up and were a laughing stock in the 2nd tier.

It's under him that Grealish realised his potential, and the same with so many others, finally reversing the trend of players joining, disappointing, and then leaving for less.

The single most important factor in our rejuvenation is still here, and he's now armed to the teeth.

Grealish had driven us to the playoff final v Fulham a few months prior to Smith arriving, tends to get lost in the revisionism.... The data would argue we were rabble under Smith in the championship too and prem if Grealish was unavailable for any reason. Last season was absolutely shocking at times without Grealish let's not kid ourselves, barely able to put 3 or 4 passes together.

Huge test for Smith this season no doubt. It's effectively trying to build a new team and style of play without Grealish over a couple of weeks pre season with a number of new players. He will also have to start rotating players a lot more regularly and make much better use of his bench, neither of which he has done much of to date. A few early wins would certainly help matters. Top 8 for me should be a realistic target given the budget he has been given this summer and some very talented players we already have.

[Sexual Ealing]

Looking on the bright side again, bronte!

[not3bad]

In Christian Purslow's address he said that they took Grealish's qualities and instead of trying to find a like for like replacement (which would have been virtually impossible anyway) they split these qualities over a number of players (Buenvida, Bailey, Ings). In this way the side would be more resilient and there would be less chance of a critical point of failure as before. I don't doubt that Smith was a big part of this strategy.

[Mister E]

In Christian Purslow's address he said that they took Grealish's qualities and instead of trying to find a like for like replacement (which would have been virtually impossible anyway) they split these qualities over a number of players (Buenvida, Bailey, Ings). In this way the side would be more resilient and there would be less chance of a critical point of failure as before. I don't doubt that Smith was a big part of this strategy.

Not rocket science, though, was it? - on here, we've all bemoaned the 13 game period without JG where we only won twice.
The clever bit is in the way they've recruited to address it: Buendia was someone I would have liked to have seen in a Villa shirt 12 months' ago (and several of us made that point at the time), but Bailey and Ings are potentially inspired signings.
Where the strategy falls down is if we get 2 or 3 injuries at the same time, 'cos then we'd only have Traore, P-Bidace, Chuky, Sanson and AEG to turn to.
... wait a minute ...   

[brontebilly]

Looking on the bright side again, bronte!

I think I am! Looking forward to seeing Buendia in particular in action, think he could be a cracking player for us compared to a joker like Barkley.

[David_Nab]

Looking on the bright side again, bronte!

I think I am! Looking forward to seeing Buendia in particular in action, think he could be a cracking player for us compared to a joker like Barkley.

Him feeding either Watkins & Ings or both together should be good

[West Derby Villan]

We had Grealish for years before Smith turned up and were a laughing stock in the 2nd tier.

It's under him that Grealish realised his potential, and the same with so many others, finally reversing the trend of players joining, disappointing, and then leaving for less.

The single most important factor in our rejuvenation is still here, and he's now armed to the teeth.

Agreed. He’s risen to every challenge so far in his time here (and before, otherwise he wouldn’t have got the job) and I am confident that he’ll continue in the same way.

Agree too. he does his job under all conditions, never moans and never gloats. Professional and thoughtful with his words throughout.  I'd go as far as saying he's an ideal candidate for the England job as he has all the attributes and the football nous which is currently lacking, obviously wouldn't want him to be considered or take it even if he was asked. I'm sure he has an ego but it doesn't show.  He just seems a genuinely decent bloke. Yes, we will see how he copes without JG and I'm sure he'd have loved to hang on to him but this nonsense of "we will now see his team" is just that, nonsense.  Every manager in the league would want JG in their squad because he's a great player and will be a greater player with better players around him.  We are just going to play different and we now have better quality in depth.

Couldn’t agree more

[passport1]

Not normally a stato but on the back of Purslows comments I've had a look at the stats for the three replacements and they are pretty eye watering. Combined 36 goals and 28 assists vs Ratboy 6 goals and 10 assists.  That's excluding Watkins. I think we have played a blinder.