Dean Smith - Confirmed

[Villa in Denmark]

Brentford aren't where they were.

For all the talk about "a Brentford machine in which Smith was a small cog" they've been shite since he left.

He's a good manager. We're going up, albeit the hard/exciting way and we're staying up.

That might have something to do with Thomas Frank being the Danish equivalent of TSM. Managed to come 3rd and 4th in a 2 horse race whilst manager of Brøndby if memory serves.

[stuart445]

wasn’t just what Bruce bought it’s who they replaced in his great team building master plan

Hogan for Ayew
Taylor for Amavi
Hourihane for Veratout
Triora for Adoma
Barney/Lansbury for Gaye

I mean is there a single upgrade there

Amavi was promised if no promotion in 1sr season we wouldn't stop him leaving. Hogan Ayew is much of a muchness. I'd have Adomah over Adama every single time. But I'm not sure why you're using Veretout and Gueye in regards of Bruce and Adomah as well for that matter because weren't they all here / gone by the time Bruce arrived

Hogan Ayew oh yes very similar players

Ayew scored 9 goals for Villa, Hogan has scored 7. So as there is currently only 2 goals in it, it's pretty much like for like

[sickbeggar]

I think if you haven't bought into the "building something long-term" idea  then you probably are going to be disappointed by our league position today. okay he wasn't my 1st or indeed 2nd choice for doing it, but I doubt we've had a Manager since Little or BFR who understands what this club is about and possibly has the ability to do it. I think we will get to the play-offs personally, but if not, success for me personally will be starting next season with a squad with a majority of players we own, that the manager has chosen to buy or who he wants to keep and not dependant on loans to make us competitive.  If his judgement in those players is proven flawed and he fails then so be it. Doesn't mean in 3 seasons time i want to jump back on the Bruce mr promotion bandwagon and dump any planning with a new guy

[mike]

Nice to see we're discussing Dean Smith again on the Dean Smith thread... isn't there a separate one somewhere for Steve Bruce?

[Legion]

Who would have been your 1st or 2nd choice?

[Ads]

Ayew was mightily disappointing in this league.

[Richard E]

Ayew was mightily disappointing in this league.

And he always had a facial expression like a smacked arse.

[sickbeggar]

Who would have been your 1st or 2nd choice?

Someone like Howe - coming from a smaller club with a limit to what he can ever achieve there, to a larger club with more potential financially and success wise albieit just potential currently.  A project - like SGT took on.  Possibly/probably unrealistic in his case i know.

[Legion]

Same as Dean Smith, then?

[sickbeggar]

Same as Dean Smith, then?

Well Howe's done it. Established a very small club in the premier for 3 seasons so far. very much like SGT, not to mention all the promotions through the league with a fraction of the resources we have.. A very similar story to SGT.  Smith, well, i think he's done well so far at similar sized teams but someone like Howe/SGT is the finished article imo;

[Ads]

Howe failed at Burnley.

[sickbeggar]

Howe failed at Burnley.

depends what you call fail really. He left for personal reasons with a better record than smith had managed at walsall.. I don't mean that as a criticism of Smith, just that Howe is in a league of his own imo. Getting someone like Howe would always be a big ask though, so Smith given hopefully more backing than he's ever recieved at the likes of Brentford is at least a plan based on potential for once.

[Ads]

He failed.

He succeeded at Bournemouth with a fuck load of cash mind.

[sickbeggar]

He failed.

He succeeded at Bournemouth with a fuck load of cash mind.

oh come on now.  bournemouth came up to the premier spending 4m at the start of the season. That's Mccormack's bar bill

[mike]

I'm massively disappointed with performances recently and I fear for our promotion chances this year, but Smith had some very impressive results before our injury issues. Bruce left us with a shocking defence and even what we had has been decimated plus we have lost our best midfielder. What would our results against the same teams have been under Bruce? The only thing that bothers me is that I (naively?) expected us to sign a couple of defenders on Jan 1st and we currently aren't linked with any and Jack will go in the summer if we don't go up.