Dean Smith - Confirmed

[villa `cross the mersey]

A £22m Brazilian record signing doesn't scream "planning for relegation" to me.  If that's what they were intending, surely they'd have kept the likes of Whelan and Hogan.  The fact that Wesley has turned out to be awful wasn't intentional, just a complete failure of scouting and planning.

I wonder who his agent is and how much of the £22m went in his arse pocket

[ktvillan]

Agreed it would be daft but a lot of the signing look more Championship level than PL, but that could just be bad scouting and coaching.  £22m isn't that much these days, we could have wasted double that on Joelinton.

[Risso]

Agreed it would be daft but a lot of the signing look more Championship level than PL, but that could just be bad scouting and coaching.  £22m isn't that much these days, we could have wasted double that on Joelinton.

Other teams wasting money isn't that much of a defence though.  And £22m is still a fair old whack, it's more than Danny Ings, Lys Mousset and Neil Maupay cost.

[brian green]

How can you be a "bad" scout?  A pair of eyes a brain and a pocket calculator is all you need.  Give a potential purchase a points rating like you have buying a horse.  Age, fitness, speed, attitude, ability in tbe air, close control, no drug habit, no drink habit, girl friend who is not a porno model.  I suspect skullduggery.

[hilts_coolerking]

Agreed it would be daft but a lot of the signing look more Championship level than PL, but that could just be bad scouting and coaching.

Yep, I think they were just bad buys.  Or rather some of them were.  Fewer kids and more experience would have been the correct way to go.  Hopefully we address that next month.  I don't want any more 'young and hungry' bollocks.

[ChicagoLion]

Dean Smith at Norwich press conference said this

On tough run of results…
"It’s four Premier League defeats and four not great performances from us.

That’s concerning, obviously, and the goals that we’ve been giving away. The performance against Southampton wasn’t great.

For 20 minutes there was nothing in the game and then we made poor mistakes for the goals, which was disappointing. Our reaction to that wasn’t as good as it should have been. We’ve spoke about that at length during training and the only way you can put that right is by working hard in training."

Dean Smith has clearly looked to address this and hope to see signs coming up.
That's good coaching.

Yes it’s great coaching. 

[hilts_coolerking]

It's not just the 4 defeats in a row; it's the 4 points from 36.  7 defeats in 9.  9 goals in 9.  20 against in 9.

It shouldn't have taken this long to figure out something wasn't working.

[PaulWinch again]

It's not just the 4 defeats in a row; it's the 4 points from 36.  7 defeats in 9.  9 goals in 9.  20 against in 9.

It shouldn't have taken this long to figure out something wasn't working.

Yep too often we start the second half terribly, too often we flake away in the last 20, and too often we lack intensity. Not good enough.

[brian green]

I would like to think that Dean Smith is more concerned about how bad we have become than he seems to be.  If he is sleeping well at nights he shouldn't be.  I am not and I am only a Villa fan.

[AVH87]

I do worry sometimes that owners have it in their head that they want to stick with a manager for a long time because it's easier than finding a good replacement. Not saying he should have gone, but his position should be under serious threat if we don't win either of the next 2.

[AsTallAsLions]

So I sooner get rid of the Midfielders who don't deserve four year contracts than Dean Smith
They are the issue not Dean Smith or his system

Of course, Dean Smith has nothing to do with the midfield.

[TonyD]

I think he should have been fired after the deja vu rubbish on Saturday. 

I can’t see him changing much on Boxing Day. 

[passitsideways]

Frankly, if he takes us down, he takes us down, provided we do so fighting. I think the only way it shouldn't be the case is if it looks like the players have lost faith in his methods in such a way that a promotion challenge next season looks jeopardised.

Splurging the 100+ million obviously doesn't look great, and the returns from some of the signings don't look great so far, to say the least, but basically everyone in the summer agreed that the squad needed a massive rebuild given the release of the Dad's army and the heavy reliance on loanees, it wasn't like it was already a well-rounded squad which was then not improved upon at all.

[john2710]

£120m on mostly unproven players at PL level was always a risk. It should have been a mixture of experience & youthfulness.

What experience does Jesus have of buying PL players? Very little I suspect.

[OzVilla]

I would like to think that Dean Smith is more concerned about how bad we have become than he seems to be.  If he is sleeping well at nights he shouldn't be.  I am not and I am only a Villa fan.

Nice to know it’s not just me then Brian. I’m regularly waking up in the wee small hours and start thinking about it, we should be old enough to know better.