Dean Smith - Confirmed

[pauliewalnuts]

Smith is at the start of his. Bielsa is near the end.

Indeed, Bielsa has 20 years on Smith.

[kippaxvilla2]

Didn’t someone on here say he was going whether we survived or not.  Now that Dean has kept us up I’ve no idea whether to keep him or not.  But I’m thinking we need continuity after the last three seasons.

[Legion]

There’s a story floating tonight that we are going to appoint Bruno Lage as Head Coach.  No me neither.

I've just read the same story, it's in the Daily Express so I'd file under 'complete shite'.  We replace Dean Smith with a guy no-one has heard of?  I can't see it.

Load of bollocks.

[nodge]

Hopefully he’ll follow Sir Graham in getting us up, just about keeping us up, then finishing 2nd. I’d take that now.

[TonyD]

I’m struggling to talk as I’m trying to eat this big pie.

[garyfouroaks]

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.

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.

Bielsa has credibility at the highest levels for the work he did internationally with Argentina and Chile, and for his club stints at Athletic Bilbao, Spain, Marseille and Lille, France, Lazio, Italy. He hasn't a perfect record- but who has? It also buys you contacts.

Similarly, Bilic's international record with Croatia and club PL record at West Ham is impressive.

When players. and agents, choose clubs, confidence in the manager is vital. I am suggesting that however good a job Smith has done at taking us up, and keeping us up ( just), players are unlikely to pick Smith ahead of the other two.

[LeeB]

Promotion, Cup Final, secures place in Premier League.

Well done Dean!

Delivered the goods when it's mattered. Top man.

[themossman]

Fair play to him. Not long ago I thought he had lost the players and we were toast. Now it’s clear he had a good lockdown / post lockdown and kept the squad behind him and the nature of the points we have won in these last 4 has shown he’s learned how to set the team up against better teams and to win tight games.

The right thing from here IMO is for him to have a crack next season but no fannying around if it looks like another season hanging around in the relegation zone.

[dave.woodhall]

Bielsa has credibility at the highest levels for the work he did internationally with Argentina and Chile, and for his club stints at Athletic Bilbao, Spain, Marseille and Lille, France, Lazio, Italy. He hasn't a perfect record- but who has? It also buys you contacts.

Similarly, Bilic's international record with Croatia and club PL record at West Ham is impressive.

When players. and agents, choose clubs, confidence in the manager is vital. I am suggesting that however good a job Smith has done at taking us up, and keeping us up ( just), players are unlikely to pick Smith ahead of the other two.

And I doubt if the sort of players we're going to be looking at would think twice about Leeds or the other lot.

[Steve67]

It was good to listen to him talking about the culture of the club and how this needed building as we had a load of new players.  The culture is now in place and we can move forward.

[garyfouroaks]

Smith is at the start of his. Bielsa is near the end.

True.

Will Smith end up having successfully managed Argentina and Chile internationally, and Athletic Bilbao, Marseille, and Lazio at club level?

All that matters is next season. I am not saying that Bilic or Bielsa should replace Smith, I am saying that in a very tough league, two credible opposition managers are competing against us in the transfer market. And it is our success, or failure in the transfer market which will define next season. Smith has proved that his managerial skills on their own are not enough.

[LukeJames]

Smith... I have never wanted a manager to succed as badly as I have with him but ive also had doubts about him at varying points throughout the season, major doubts at some points, but he has delivered on every target set for him were more experienced 'expert' managers have failed.

Part of me still wants him to go and pass the mantle on to somebody else but thats purely because he will forever go down in our history as the guy that got us back and maintained our league status for somebody else to build on.
I think im just a bit worried that it could turn to shit and what hes achieved be forgotten.

Right now i fucking love the bloke and would love nothing more than him to lead us to midtable next season but I just dunno. Im way too fucked to be thinking this in depth about it after such a draining day.

[paul_e]

If you seriously think Leeds and the fucking baggies are going to be a bigger draw for players in the next couple of months than we are then you really need to have a word with yourself.

[eric woolban woolban]

Smith is at the start of his. Bielsa is near the end.

True.

Will Smith end up having successfully managed Argentina and Chile internationally, and Athletic Bilbao, Marseille, and Lazio at club level?

All that matters is next season. I am not saying that Bilic or Bielsa should replace Smith, I am saying that in a very tough league, two credible opposition managers are competing against us in the transfer market. And it is our success, or failure in the transfer market which will define next season. Smith has proved that his managerial skills on their own are not enough.

He's certainly getting jiggy with it tonight.

[ozzjim]

Bilic is an awful manager that West Ham fans wanted out.

Bielsa is clearly a brilliant but slightly deranged manager that often burns himself out when under serious pressure.

I don't think Smith will get us into the top 4, but he's shown he has enough about him to tactically tighten us up. Him or since random Portuguese fella... I'll keep Smith