Without getting all I Know Something That You Don't, one day someone will write the story of just how deep we were in it during summer 2018. We'll never know how close we came to today being about celebrating promotion to the Championship.
Quote from: garyfouroaks on July 26, 2020, 07:55:52 PMI am a veteran Villa fan who on this forum. I have always been quick to back managers, and slow to call for their sacking.Dean Smith did a very good job securing Villa promotion last season, he did it with the fifth best team in the Division.He was totally inexperienced at PL level – that was a big risk.His signings have been unimpressive. Yet you can never be sure whether they were his, or “The Board’s”, and he had to recruit in numbers. The Championship side would have finished bottom. When you do recruit in numbers chemistry is an unknown.I think that retaining him is too big a risk, and it would be kinder to all if he left this summer with a promotion and creditable survival campaign on his CV. His reputation enhanced, and untarnished.Who would you replace him with, though? I say keep him on. He deserves a chance to put right what went wrong this season having, hopefully, learned from his earlier mistakes and repeats/improves on the last four unbeaten games.
I am a veteran Villa fan who on this forum. I have always been quick to back managers, and slow to call for their sacking.Dean Smith did a very good job securing Villa promotion last season, he did it with the fifth best team in the Division.He was totally inexperienced at PL level – that was a big risk.His signings have been unimpressive. Yet you can never be sure whether they were his, or “The Board’s”, and he had to recruit in numbers. The Championship side would have finished bottom. When you do recruit in numbers chemistry is an unknown.I think that retaining him is too big a risk, and it would be kinder to all if he left this summer with a promotion and creditable survival campaign on his CV. His reputation enhanced, and untarnished.
Quote from: Legion on July 26, 2020, 08:09:20 PMQuote from: garyfouroaks on July 26, 2020, 07:55:52 PMI am a veteran Villa fan who on this forum. I have always been quick to back managers, and slow to call for their sacking.Dean Smith did a very good job securing Villa promotion last season, he did it with the fifth best team in the Division.He was totally inexperienced at PL level – that was a big risk.His signings have been unimpressive. Yet you can never be sure whether they were his, or “The Board’s”, and he had to recruit in numbers. The Championship side would have finished bottom. When you do recruit in numbers chemistry is an unknown.I think that retaining him is too big a risk, and it would be kinder to all if he left this summer with a promotion and creditable survival campaign on his CV. His reputation enhanced, and untarnished.Who would you replace him with, though? I say keep him on. He deserves a chance to put right what went wrong this season having, hopefully, learned from his earlier mistakes and repeats/improves on the last four unbeaten games.Managerial appointments are about what is going to happen next, not what has happened before.I read little into the bizarre mini-season of BCD games.On the downside, our club has had too many managers in too short a space of time and that has created problems of its own. Against that, I have seen little to suggest that he is a Santos or Dyche.As for who I would replace him with, that is not my job. There are people who are paid a lot of money to identify those who will "fit" a club's requirements.As it stands, will Smith outgun Bielsa and Leeds, or the Baggies and Bilic in the transfer market?
Can you give one reason why not? People talk about Bielsa like he's some managerial genius, but it's took him two years to do what Dean Smith did in seven months.
Quote from: dave.woodhall on July 26, 2020, 09:32:54 PMCan you give one reason why not? People talk about Bielsa like he's some managerial genius, but it's took him two years to do what Dean Smith did in seven months.Managerial genius isn't wholly measured by 'how does he match up to Dean Smith?'.
Then it's a good job nobody ever said it does, isn't it? But what someone had done, and this is why I was mentioning them both, was to make a comparison between him and Bielsa in the post I was answering.
Quote from: dave.woodhall on July 26, 2020, 09:40:36 PMThen it's a good job nobody ever said it does, isn't it? But what someone had done, and this is why I was mentioning them both, was to make a comparison between him and Bielsa in the post I was answering.It's fair to say that Bielsa's career to date is superior to Dean's.
There’s a story floating tonight that we are going to appoint Bruno Lage as Head Coach. No me neither.