Dean Smith - Confirmed

[Steve67]

Of course Dean Smith isn't as good as Saunders. That would be like comparing Jack Grealish to Gordon Cowans. I'm not sure whether Saunders' style would be as effective now, but I'd love to see how Ron Atkinson would spend NSWE's money.

Oh jeez, that would be amazing.  To have that maverick type of character and imagination would be excellent. 

[dave.woodhall]

Of course Dean Smith isn't as good as Saunders. That would be like comparing Jack Grealish to Gordon Cowans. I'm not sure whether Saunders' style would be as effective now, but I'd love to see how Ron Atkinson would spend NSWE's money.

Oh jeez, that would be amazing.  To have that maverick type of character and imagination would be excellent. 

Terry Weir put it best - when Ron was around we got the publicity we deserve.

[LeeB]

Of course Dean Smith isn't as good as Saunders. That would be like comparing Jack Grealish to Gordon Cowans. I'm not sure whether Saunders' style would be as effective now, but I'd love to see how Ron Atkinson would spend NSWE's money.

Oh jeez, that would be amazing.  To have that maverick type of character and imagination would be excellent. 

Terry Weir put it best - when Ron was around we got the publicity we deserve.

That's a great quote, and so true.

Wasn't it Taylor that recommended Ron as the man to take over from him? I wonder how things would have turned had he joined that summer instead.

[Drummond]

Bielsa and Mourinho are the closest in terms of being maverick.

I hope Smith becomes close to being as good as Saunders, with us.

I've just realised that I'm only 4 months younger than Dean Smith. Shit. It's still taking me time to adjust to being too old to play, now I'm the same age as the bloody  manager.

[RamboandBruno]

This thread especially over the last few pages epitomises what is wrong with the modern game..Saunders and Taylor struggled the year after promotion. How about at least give the guy the season to see he can emulate those greats before we try and coax Klopp from his current employer...FFS

I’ve been an advocate of keeping smith, partly because I believe he deserves the full season, partly because in the worst case scenario I think he could do a job back in the championship and partly because of what you mention in your post. We needed Liverpool to hammer West Ham in 89 to send them down and we stayed up by I think 1 point in Taylor’s first year in the top league after promotion. Season after we had a wobbly August and September and some people were calling for Taylor’s head, we nearly won the league that year and the rest is history.

I’m not saying Smith would achieve any of this of course, and even as big a supporter if you like, of smith, as I have been, I’ll admit after the Leicester game I thought we would looked down, with some players, notably Grealish looking liked they’d given up.

However, whether this season carries on in some farcical format or not, I don’t very much whether Smith will be going anywhere, unless we are relegated and that’s fine with me, I’m all for a bit of stability for a few years.

[LeeB]

He and we will come back from this better then we left it.

The likelihood is that the season will be scrapped and we'll get another crack, making this season effectively a dry run, we have time now maybe to do some work that wasn't afforded to us given the post promotion rush to build a new side.

[SoccerHQ]

Actually an interesting comparison is actually when we came straight back up under SGT. We finished 17th and only won 9 games all season (one more than relegation season of 86-87). What was the mood like in the stands that year, confidence we'd get it right under Graham or lots of concern he'd proved an effective re-organiser of the club, got the club straight back up but that was perhaps the limits to his ability? Of course it then clicked into place, we finished 2nd and he got the England job.

Certainly don't expect DS to do half of that but perhaps shows patience and giving a manager opportunity to learn from a naive first season back in the top flight can sometimes work.

[Steve67]

He and we will come back from this better then we left it.

The likelihood is that the season will be scrapped and we'll get another crack, making this season effectively a dry run, we have time now maybe to do some work that wasn't afforded to us given the post promotion rush to build a new side.

I fall between two stalls here.  There is zero evidence that we were getting better as a side and arguably getting worse defensively, going from a minus 8 goal difference to minus 22 in the space of around 10 games.  Therefore, if the season gets scrapped, he gets another chance to bring in the players we really need, starting with a proper central midfielder who can dictate play and protect the defence.  If the season is scrapped, do we give Dean another chance or do we go out and get a better Manager who can bring in better players. Do we stick or do we show ambition and try to get to the next level?  We have to remember of course that even John Percy was saying that Dean had one game left before he gets ditched.  I really want Dean to work out but things have to change for the better.

[SoccerHQ]

We need three players to give us a top half team I reckon (add in keeping Grealish). Experienced calm head CB alongside Mings (Southgate type), DM who can read the game and plug gaps left by our other CMs when they move forward (badly need another Townsend from somehwere) and a real quality wide player given how wildly inconsistant El Ghazi is.

We certainly shouldn't be signing another 7-8 players as that would defeat all logic given we have a decent sized squad already but half of them aren't good enough to be playing week in week out prem football currently.

Yes the full backs could be better aswell but you can't solve everything in one window. Get those three positions correct and we could have makings of another team that was starting to form in 2006 in MON's first season when Carew, Petrov and Young were all added through the year and were key in finishing 6th reguarly.

Despite how poor we've been at times this season, getting a free pass at staying up by the looks of it could be huge and we really need to play that card and not waste another opportunity.

[Damo70]

Actually an interesting comparison is actually when we came straight back up under SGT. We finished 17th and only won 9 games all season (one more than relegation season of 86-87). What was the mood like in the stands that year, confidence we'd get it right under Graham or lots of concern he'd proved an effective re-organiser of the club, got the club straight back up but that was perhaps the limits to his ability? Of course it then clicked into place, we finished 2nd and he got the England job.

Certainly don't expect DS to do half of that but perhaps shows patience and giving a manager opportunity to learn from a naive first season back in the top flight can sometimes work.

Without looking up any stats my general recollection of 1988-1989 was that we were pretty solid up to the new year but we were pretty poor from the turn of the year till the end of the season. It looked grim from March right up until the last game.

[ChicagoLion]

Actually an interesting comparison is actually when we came straight back up under SGT. We finished 17th and only won 9 games all season (one more than relegation season of 86-87). What was the mood like in the stands that year, confidence we'd get it right under Graham or lots of concern he'd proved an effective re-organiser of the club, got the club straight back up but that was perhaps the limits to his ability? Of course it then clicked into place, we finished 2nd and he got the England job.

Certainly don't expect DS to do half of that but perhaps shows patience and giving a manager opportunity to learn from a naive first season back in the top flight can sometimes work.

I think there was a realization that the club had yet again fallen into a mess.
Sir GT offered a glimmer of hope and he was very good at communicating to the fans the  challenge we faced. I think he massively over achieved in his 3rd season as I don’t think many were thinking we would be challenging. I certainly didn’t.

[dave.woodhall]

Actually an interesting comparison is actually when we came straight back up under SGT. We finished 17th and only won 9 games all season (one more than relegation season of 86-87). What was the mood like in the stands that year, confidence we'd get it right under Graham or lots of concern he'd proved an effective re-organiser of the club, got the club straight back up but that was perhaps the limits to his ability? Of course it then clicked into place, we finished 2nd and he got the England job.

Certainly don't expect DS to do half of that but perhaps shows patience and giving a manager opportunity to learn from a naive first season back in the top flight can sometimes work.

I think there was a realization that the club had yet again fallen into a mess.
Sir GT offered a glimmer of hope and he was very good at communicating to the fans the  challenge we faced. I think he massively over achieved in his 3rd season as I don’t think many were thinking we would be challenging. I certainly didn’t.

I'm sure I read somewhere that he said his biggest achievement wasn't promotion or runners-up, it was avoiding relegation because the squad wasn't ready. Certainly, once MacInally's goals dried up post-Christmas, we struggled bigstyle. 

[LeeB]

Remember going to Derby in April with Mark Lillus and Steve Sims starting, against a good Derby side, thanks to injuries.

We weren't ready then, according to one of our greatest managers, and he'd had two pre-seasons with us.

Deano had come in mid-season, rescued it, and then had more to do with less time, due to the late play off final.
He deserves more time.

[dcdavecollett]

Ron and Graham didn't have to deal with 25 players leaving the club at the end of their promotion seasons!!

[Damo70]

Remember going to Derby in April with Mark Lillus and Steve Sims starting, against a good Derby side, thanks to injuries.

We weren't ready then, according to one of our greatest managers, and he'd had two pre-seasons with us.

Deano had come in mid-season, rescued it, and then had more to do with less time, due to the late play off final.
He deserves more time.

It looked grim for us after that Derby game. Darrell Duffy made his one and only appearance for us that day. After that his next club was Moor Green.