Dean Smith - Confirmed

[AV82EC]

Absolutely, we had to rebuild a whole squad. It seemed a lot of money but in comparison it was also a lot of players for that amount. Not just a few at £30 - £40 million plus on singular players as others already in this league try and do.

As Dean said an average £9.5million per player which gets you bottom 6 squad fillers in this league.

[kippaxvilla2]

Rob Dorsett on SSN has just been on to say his job is 100% safe.  And that we will not be selling Jack unless someone comes in with a stupid offer.  Says the owners want better next season though.  I think it is right to keep Dean.  Far too much upheaval in too short a space of time if he was to leave.  Seems to have fixed the defence.  Keep Jack, go and find two more effective, pacey wingers and a top class forward and I think we can progress again next year.

[cdbearsfan]

A whole league Table higher than when he took over.

And one point, a draw, from being back down there again, despite spending £140m in the summer with the highest net PL spend, more than Man U, Liverpool, Arsenal etc.

And how many of them had to buy almost an entire new squad? Had about three players who were good enough two months before the season started? Or had season-ending injuries to two major players in the same game?

I think four of the previous five playoff winners had gone down straight away. History was against us, we had to spend serious money to have a chance. So spending money shouldn't be used as an excuse to handwave our achievements away.

Smith hasn't been perfect this season. I don't think any manager has, though. The way the defence has improved since lockdown suggests he is capable of learning and improving.

We were midtable in the Small Heath division last season. If anyone was offered promotion in 2020, they'd have taken it. Here we are in the same division. He has done all that was asked of him and more. He needs to stay.

[olaftab]

And one point, a draw, from being back down there again, despite spending £140m in the summer with the highest net PL spend, more than Man U, Liverpool, Arsenal etc.

Yes you are right that's piss poor for the team that won the Champions League season before.

[Drummond]

I'm honestly dumbfounded that people still want to sack him.

Why?

In business it is commonplace to hire managers and experts to do a job, a job they do well, and then recruit someone else for the next job.

Ironically, were Smith to go now, his stock would be far higher than if he was sacked for a second dismal PL campaign later on.

Because he's worked miracles in the 21 months he's been here. He's taken us from lower mid table in the Championship to staying in the Premier League. Having had pretty much had to change half the squad in a short space of time.

We've been to Wembley and gave a good account of ourselves.

Hes proven that he can do what lots of people seem keen to think he's not capable of.

Enjoy that we've stayed up. Let him try and take us further because you've no idea whether he can or not. So far he's managed to do everything asked of him and more.

Every manager starts somewhere, everyone has to learn. He's doing it and proving people wrong. Bloody well done I say.

[pauliewalnuts]

Rob Dorsett on SSN has just been on to say his job is 100% safe.  And that we will not be selling Jack unless someone comes in with a stupid offer.  Says the owners want better next season though.  I think it is right to keep Dean.  Far too much upheaval in too short a space of time if he was to leave.  Seems to have fixed the defence.  Keep Jack, go and find two more effective, pacey wingers and a top class forward and I think we can progress again next year.

I think it is also worth remembering that there's a very short break before the start of next season now.

Had we gone down, we'd have been starting again because we'd have lost our best players (not just Grealish), so I'd have used the fact we were going to go through turmoil and sacked him and started over again. We haven't, though, we've just about got the chance to build on something, and he has kept us up.

Next year needs to be better, though - assuming the owners support him with money, mid table or so. Great chunks of this season were horrific viewing, hopefully he has learned enough from it to make us, and him, better.

[DrGonzo]

From The Grauniad:

"Dean Smith

Teams who get promoted through the play-offs are expected to struggle, especially if they lose half their squad straight away. Dean Smith had to adapt to the top flight while blending in over a dozen new arrivals, promising talents recruited at an average price of around £9.5m each, which is small beer in the Premier League saloon. Then, halfway through the campaign, he had to cope with the loss of the spine of his team, with goalkeeper Tom Heaton and main striker Wesley suffering long-term injuries and John McGinn sidelined for several months. Smith showed his skills by successfully changing his approach and tightening up a defence that had been leaky, and he helped newcomers such as Douglas Luiz and Trezeguet to grow into very good Premier League players. Before the season ended it was clear that Villa would be wise to keep Smith irrespective of whether they stayed up or went down."

[AllanW]

From The Grauniad:

"Dean Smith

Teams who get promoted through the play-offs are expected to struggle, especially if they lose half their squad straight away. Dean Smith had to adapt to the top flight while blending in over a dozen new arrivals, promising talents recruited at an average price of around £9.5m each, which is small beer in the Premier League saloon. Then, halfway through the campaign, he had to cope with the loss of the spine of his team, with goalkeeper Tom Heaton and main striker Wesley suffering long-term injuries and John McGinn sidelined for several months. Smith showed his skills by successfully changing his approach and tightening up a defence that had been leaky, and he helped newcomers such as Douglas Luiz and Trezeguet to grow into very good Premier League players. Before the season ended it was clear that Villa would be wise to keep Smith irrespective of whether they stayed up or went down."

That's about right. A balanced assessment. I hope he's accurate and Smith stays; he deserves our respect and support.

[placeforparks]

really pleased for dean.

[kippaxvilla2]

It is similar to the Curbishley moment at Charlton.  Bournemouth were always going to be loyal to Howe and rightfully so.  But the shitfest at Watford in terms of managerial appointments and sackings proves, on balance, we would be right to keep him. Right now, we just need continuity and four quality additions to the squad.  Whilst getting rid of the deadwood - Lansbury, Jota, Taylor, possibly even Davies and Nyland.  Depending on Heaton's fitness update, maybe go and get Ben Foster. 

[mcgrath_85]

Dean Smith has 100% earned another crack.

However, there needs to be progress next season. We need to be winning more games and grinding out more draws.We lost 21 games this season, that needs to be down to less than 16 next season minimum - say 11 wins and 11 draws, what Newcastle did to finish 13th this season.

Progress next year would be finishing north of 14th, never being in a relegation scrap and always feeling that we were taking the points we had earned.

I think we should be aiming higher than this mate.

[oldhill_avfc]

Yes we had to rebuild a whole squad and of course there were inevitable purchases, we effectively needed a whole new defence and certainly a striker (in fact, we should have bought two). But we also replaced a lot of squad players with squad players and loaned out a number of young prospects which on balance didn't make a lot of sense. We essentially spent a fair amount of money on players that didn't significantly improve on those we consciously let go, with the exception of Luiz.

The players we bought in may have only scraped us through but they are significantly better than those we let go, ie - Whelan, jedinak, bjarnesson, adomah, hutton ,elphick, richards, et al.

The only arguable case was possibly letting Kodjia go as he might have offered more than Samatta and Davis.

[mcgrath_85]

Pay Potch whatever he wants and let’s properly crack on. There I said it. *ducks for cover.

Let’s face it. This season has been a drag. Getting seven points from our last 4 games against average teams who had nothing to play for saved us. That and are rivals being hopeless. I like Dean a lot, but lets act like the big club we are and be ambitious!

[PaulTheVillan]

I'm happy for Dean Smith. I'll be honest, before the lockdown after that Leicester game, I was calling for his head. I thought he was out of his depth.

He's obviously worked on the defensive problems. My worry is we're not going to have another break like that mid-season if all is failing next season.

[Villa Lew]

He has improved greatly since lockdown, has instilled a discipline and determination in the team, a huge improvement has been made defensively, for which credit must also be given to Terry for that.

He has also had to work with having 2 of the worst strikers in the league, when you think Burnley have Wood, Everton Calvert Lewin, West Ham Antonio, Brighton Maupay, even Deeney at Watford, and where would Southampton have been without Danny Ings, if we would of had a striker of the quality of those mentioned, we would have been looking at a position round mid table.

Definitely deserves another season, he has learnt a lot from this season and will be better for it.