Dean Smith - Confirmed

[chrisw1]

I stand by every word of what I said about the size of the pay package was to a greater or lesser degree an inducement to come to the Villa for our managers post MON. I genuinely think the money was secondary to Dean Smith. 

Every word?

  All our managers since and including MON have been mercenaries. 

Non of them were mercenaries when they arrived.  Not a single one.  Some held on for their pay-off but it's hard to think of any manager in this day and age who doesn't.

They have been bought off the shelf marked "Experienced, Safe Pair of Hands" or in Sherwood's case "Inexperienced but well regarded by the London Media close friend of the Villa CEO.".   

MON was hugely hot property at the time of the appointment, not a 'safe pair of hands'  Lambert was the bright young thing at the time.  Sherwood you mention above.  Garde was also young and well thought of.  Di Matteo was pretty young too.  Really only 2 of the 9 managers appointed could be considered to be in your category and to a man everybody agrees McLeish was a daft appointment.

  At last we have owners prepared to buy from the "Young, Dynamic, Ambitious, Hard working" shelf. 

Arguably they tried to do that when appointing MON, Lambert, Sherwood, Garde & Di Matteo.

You may be right that money would have been less of a motivator for Smith, but the rest of your comments are just nonsense.

[passport1]

Its a bit naive to think that the modern game is about anything other than money.

[Clampy]

And if you think money doesn't play a part ask yourself who you reckon over the 5 years has taken a pay cut to leave their job to join the Villa.

I'd say the last one was probably Sir Graham and that was over 30 years ago.

[john e]

i know he’s not a manager but didn’t Hutton have better money options but chose to sign with us

[chrisw1]

i know he’s not a manager but didn’t Hutton have better money options but chose to sign with us

Do you mean when he re-signed last summer?  If so, yes he did he had a two year contract offer from Forrest.  But a very different situation really.

[PeterWithesShin]

i know he’s not a manager but didn’t Hutton have better money options but chose to sign with us

If we'd offered 5K a week and someone had offered him £50k a week, do you think he'd be with us? There's a difference between accepting a bit less money but still being paid very well and having a competitive wage, to being underpaid the going rate but working for us just because we're Villa.

[Clampy]

I'm not sure that labelling managers post MON as mercenaries is fair either. For some, it was the biggest job they've had and i'm sure they wanted to be make a massive success at it.

[PeterWithesShin]

Houllier: Semi retired
McLeish: left a tinpot second division side
Lambert: Took the biggest job he'll ever have
Sherwood: On the dole
Garde: On the dole
RDM: On the dole
Bruce: On the dole

Hardly a mercenary hall of fame imo.

[Rigadon]

According to wikipedia, Garde is manager of Montreal Impact.  But I totally agree with the wider point about previous managers, they weren't mercenaries.  But they were all to varying degrees 'disappointing'.   

[PeterWithesShin]

I meant were they were when we appointed them.

[Rigadon]

Ah, well as you were then    I must admit, I am surprised RG is working after his 'experience' at Villa.

[john e]

i know he’s not a manager but didn’t Hutton have better money options but chose to sign with us

If we'd offered 5K a week and someone had offered him £50k a week, do you think he'd be with us? There's a difference between accepting a bit less money but still being paid very well and having a competitive wage, to being underpaid the going rate but working for us just because we're Villa.

I thought I and I might well be wrong because wages and contracts are not my thing, that he had had better monetary offers from elsewhere and chose to stay with us

whether the difference is large or small it's still unusual in modern day football
if its even true of course

[Drummond]

So far, so good. He's shown he's not afraid, he has a plan, and if that doesn't work he has another one. He's ambitious, like we should be. He understands how big we are and how much bigger we can be again. He doesn't seem in awe of the job at all and has geat staff behind him too.

We don't know if he's good enough yet though the signs are promising. When we have a bad patch, which is inevitable, we'll see if he has what it takes. So far, I think he's showing that he will.

I'm not sure who the last manager was that understood us like Smith does. Sir Graham? Sir Brian? Gregory perhaps?

That's what's been missing all these years.

[PeterWithesShin]

i know he’s not a manager but didn’t Hutton have better money options but chose to sign with us

If we'd offered 5K a week and someone had offered him £50k a week, do you think he'd be with us? There's a difference between accepting a bit less money but still being paid very well and having a competitive wage, to being underpaid the going rate but working for us just because we're Villa.

I thought I and I might well be wrong because wages and contracts are not my thing, that he had had better monetary offers from elsewhere and chose to stay with us

whether the difference is large or small it's still unusual in modern day football
if its even true of course

The bit less is the key thing, do you think Forest, or anyone, offered say 20K+ more a week than we did?
There's also a big difference in staying somewhere you're happy at for a bit less money at the end of your career and being in your prime and taking a pay cut to move clubs.

[Border villan]

And if you think money doesn't play a part ask yourself who you reckon over the 5 years has taken a pay cut to leave their job to join the Villa.

Cafu took a pay cut to stay this summer.