Dean Smith - Confirmed

[Clampy]

Why?

Grow up.

I can't be bothered with an argument, but we're all fine with known, self identifying, racists now?

I think Regis, Cunningham, Batson and Big Dalian Atkinson to name but a few would disagree. I'd go away and have a think about things before you make even more of a twat of yourself.

[Sexual Ealing]

Why?

Grow up.

I can't be bothered with an argument, but we're all fine with known, self identifying, racists now?

I think Regis, Cunningham, Batson and Big Dalian Atkinson to name but a few would disagree. I'd go away and have a think about things before you make even more of a twat of yourself.

Perhaps you might benefit from taking your own advice.

[dave.woodhall]

Why?

Grow up.

I can't be bothered with an argument, but we're all fine with known, self identifying, racists now?

That one's been done to death, and totally irrelevant.

[OCD]

I just don't think we're consistent enough, or have the squad to mount a title challenge.  That's not a criticism as we're miles better than last year, and look competitive in every match, when mostly last season we stunk the place out. If we're even in with a shout of top 4 going into the last weeks, that would be unbelievable progress.  Be interesting to see what the owners' approach is in January.

I agree. We've been pretty consistent away but not at home. I'm not looking to make an outlandish statement, more asking a hypothetical question of whether the players and coaches would be talking themselves up and telling eachother that if they did start becoming more consistent, especially at home, whether they can put themselves into the equation. People are talking about Man Utd putting a challenge together. For me, it would be a massive change in attitude if behind the scenes if we were saying if they can be talking about a challenge, why can't we. Not having midweek games is a huge advantage that we have over them.

I think we've started to see a shift in mindset. What I'm really looking for is for that to grow very quickly. Leicester also set a precedent that should be having the players say if they can do it, so can we.

[Sexual Ealing]

Why?

Grow up.

I can't be bothered with an argument, but we're all fine with known, self identifying, racists now?

That one's been done to death, and totally irrelevant.

This place, while generally excellent, can be really disappointing at times.

And yes, I know what I can do if I don't like it etc.

[dave.woodhall]

This is still reminding me of one of those transition seasons (think 1978-80 or 1991-92) where we can be brilliant one week, poor the next and improving all the time.

[Toronto Villa]

Our inconsistency is all part of our evolution as you can have inconsistency both positively and negatively. Ours is positive because we have gone from being more consistently poor to being inconsistently good. Whereas say Arsenal on the other hand are going very much the opposite way. And generally these things don’t happen quickly. They take time to set in. That’s what is surprising about us or even Wolves. 2 years ago we are playing Championship football. Last season nearly went down. This season arguably challenging for European spot. It’s all a bit remarkable. I would argue therefore we are positively inconsistent and a path to being positively consistent.

[Clampy]

This is still reminding me of one of those transition seasons (think 1978-80 or 1991-92) where we can be brilliant one week, poor the next and improving all the time.

I don't think we've been that poor though, apart from the Leeds game. Naïve at times but I wouldn't say poor. Even at 4 down against Southampton, we could have come back and got something. It's good that we can go into games feeling confident of winning.

[ChicagoLion]

The one thing that can really mess up the transition process is qualifying for the horrible Europa League.
Teams seem to go backwards after Long run of  Channel 5 on a Thursday night.

[KevinGage]

If we did somehow manage to make it this season, we should -unlike Burnleh and other clubs who treated it as an inconvenience - be able to improve the squad sufficiently and cope with the extra demand.

Aston Villa should never snub their nose at European qualification.

Our last reasonable run in the competition gave us games such as Ajax and CSKA at home and Hamburg away. More of that please.

[clash city rocker]

I never expected us to achieve this season what we have already achieved. Therein lies the problem. Expectations are so much higher at the moment. At the start of the season if someone had told me we would finish top half I would have snatched their hand off.

[darren woolley]

Great win on his 100th game.

[Footy-Vill]

Great win on his 100th game.

Best English coach ! Dean is the best !

[Deano's Mullet]

Love Deano. It’s just positive vibes and unity from top to bottom at this club and I can’t remember it being like this before even in seasons when we actually won stuff (I’m on about
late eighties onwards, not the glory days of Rotterdam and the league title), there was always something to moan about or we never really pushed on but now the future seems incredibly exciting.

[AV82EC]

This guy has really worked hard to get his culture and his values into this squad. He seems to treat his players like adults, he values their input and the mentality he has engendered is infectious.

On the European qualification question, for those saying the UEFA Cup (let’s use its proper name) is a distraction need to stop listening to lazy pundits and media bollocks, there is 1 extra round of fixtures (2 games) which is hardly the stuff of nightmares.