Dean Smith - Confirmed

[Clampy]

Some of these latest posts are embarrassing. If it was any other club we'd be ripping the piss out of them.

It's always the same. Passions run high when we don't win.

Perhaps a bit of perspective might be called for.

Or maybe another Smith Out thread won't be long in coming.

He got us up, he kept us up and we're currently sitting mid-table. He ain't done too bad you know. This season was always going to be about being a bit more solid and aiming for a top ten finish. Next season we need to step up a gear. Let's take it one season as a time shall we? We could have been playing Coventry this weekend.

[Villan For Life]

Some of these latest posts are embarrassing. If it was any other club we'd be ripping the piss out of them.

It's always the same. Passions run high when we don't win.

Perhaps a bit of perspective might be called for.

Or maybe another Smith Out thread won't be long in coming.

He got us up, he kept us up and we're currently sitting mid-table. He ain't done too bad you know. This season was always going to be about being a bit more solid and aiming for a top ten finish. Next season we need to step up a gear. Let's take it one season as a time shall we? We could have been playing Coventry this weekend.

We are a work in progress and I’m happy with the progress that we have made. Some people have such short memories, and as others have said let’s have a little perspective.

[OzVilla]

We all probably just got carried away a bit. We’re football fans, it’s what we do.

I for one am happy to revel in a mid table ‘on the beach’ end to a Premier League  season for a change.

This morning (or last night) I just watched the game. It’s one of the few times I could recall watching us without really worrying about what the result may be. It was quite liberating.

[ChicagoLion]

We are still very much a team in the making and poor runs of form are quite often a sign of this. I have no doubts that the team will continue to move forward with a couple of positive purchases in the summer and we will steadily build over the next few years. Whilst it’s frustrating seeing performances like this, we are safely in mid-table and are likely to be up and down.  I am sure that Dean Smith sees exactly what we see and will improve talent in the squad going forward.

Sorry I don’t agree with any of that
We are not a team in the making we are a team that relies on Grealish

Without him we are a bottom half side
Maybe not bottom three but bottom six probably

Without Grealish we are no better than Newcastle

Some of you guys that think we are progressing in the right direction and Smith has it all under control are going to get a very big surprise if Grealish leaves
And let’s face it why should the best in England stay and play with Players who aren’t good enough to lace his boots

we are not progressing into a very good side we can look a very good side because we have one of the best players in the world
Yes we will get wins without him the same way as Sheffield United Newcastle and all the other teams in the bottom half get a few wins

But we are very ordinary bang average slow no creativity with literally zero ideas from management side
Yes I might get accused of overreacting and my post being embarrassing but what’s more embarrassing is that shower of shit that I saw last night trying to play football
Absolute garbage on and off the pitch

Sorry for the embarrassing post Dave but I don’t give a shit

I think we have won 4 out of 20 PL games without Grealish

[Rigadon]

I wonder if he is the man to get us back to winning titles - a task that would be massive for any manager in the world - but on the whole, he's done a brilliant job since he arrived.  Much will depend on how we finish the season I think, and if it completely falls on its arse there might well be temptation from our owners to go and get a 'big name'.
 

[Risso]

We are a work in progress and I’m happy with the progress that we have made. Some people have such short memories, and as others have said let’s have a little perspective.

Or, let's not settle for mediocrity and just letting things fizzle out. We could lose every game from now until the end of the season and finish on more points than we did last year. I doubt that the word "perspective" would be used as much if that happened though.

[Abbeyfealeavfc]

We are still very much a team in the making and poor runs of form are quite often a sign of this. I have no doubts that the team will continue to move forward with a couple of positive purchases in the summer and we will steadily build over the next few years. Whilst it’s frustrating seeing performances like this, we are safely in mid-table and are likely to be up and down.  I am sure that Dean Smith sees exactly what we see and will improve talent in the squad going forward.

Sorry I don’t agree with any of that
We are not a team in the making we are a team that relies on Grealish

Without him we are a bottom half side
Maybe not bottom three but bottom six probably

Without Grealish we are no better than Newcastle

Some of you guys that think we are progressing in the right direction and Smith has it all under control are going to get a very big surprise if Grealish leaves
And let’s face it why should the best in England stay and play with Players who aren’t good enough to lace his boots

we are not progressing into a very good side we can look a very good side because we have one of the best players in the world
Yes we will get wins without him the same way as Sheffield United Newcastle and all the other teams in the bottom half get a few wins

But we are very ordinary bang average slow no creativity with literally zero ideas from management side
Yes I might get accused of overreacting and my post being embarrassing but what’s more embarrassing is that shower of shit that I saw last night trying to play football
Absolute garbage on and off the pitch

Sorry for the embarrassing post Dave but I don’t give a shit

I think we have won 4 out of 20 PL games without Grealish

There was a point when we hadn't won many PL games with him. Some stat was doing the rounds last season which also took into consideration his appearances before relegation.
Obviously we would all love to have Jack back in the team, his worth is without doubt, but as annoying as the last few games have been without him, I'm not going to downplay the roles that our back five (especially with Cash to return) and Ollie have been playing this season. The problem is the midfield area (and I include our wide players in that) and cover for Ollie. Barkley was brought in under ffp restrictions (though I gather we're still playing plenty for him) to give us an alternative to Jack when attacking, but he's been hugely disappointing, that doesn't mean to say we won't be going for a better player(s) in the summer window to take the load off Jack. I can understand frustrations, but I can also see the strides forward we have made in over 2 seasons.

[john e]

Some of these latest posts are embarrassing. If it was any other club we'd be ripping the piss out of them.

It's always the same. Passions run high when we don't win.

Perhaps a bit of perspective might be called for.

Or maybe another Smith Out thread won't be long in coming.

He got us up, he kept us up and we're currently sitting mid-table. He ain't done too bad you know. This season was always going to be about being a bit more solid and aiming for a top ten finish. Next season we need to step up a gear. Let's take it one season as a time shall we? We could have been playing Coventry this weekend.

We are a work in progress and I’m happy with the progress that we have made. Some people have such short memories, and as others have said let’s have a little perspective.

We are the Jack Grealish show without him there is no show

[LukeJames]

We're going through one of those periods that we have gone through each season since Smith has been here were by all the good things we have been doing in previous matches just seems to have evaporated away and we look lethargic and slow. Previously we got out of these runs and click again via a decent half (Stoke away), although the next game coincided with the return of Jack and that 10 game run so that was a bigger factor but the players and fans definately clicked again initially in that 2nd half at Stoke and then last season we gained an advantage from the Covid break and we managed to play better and stay up.

Its been a hard watch the last few weeks but the positive this time is we have a much better defence so are still able to grind out results during this period were by the last couple of seasons these runs were met with thrashings by the likes of Wigan and Watford so theres definately progress there on that front.

[ChicagoLion]

The stride forward is we are much more difficult to beat.

[JuanMartinez]

Really happy with DS, another huge progressional season under him when allowing perspective. Looking forward to next season already especially with a full VP, well done Deano.

[Nunkin1965]

I wonder how many times the word "patience" has been mentioned on this site?
Dean Smith is on a hiding to nothing with a lot of posters and the progress made is now old news.
Thats fine but I'll support his season on season progress while he's making it and the evidence suggests he is doing just that.
There's obviously an over reliance on Jack and the squad isn't strong enough. We miss Cash at right back which also points to squad depth but were not even 2 years into our Premier League return and the development and quality of players is a long tern project. It won't happen but I'd suggest that those hideous 8 letters  need to be applied a bit more.

[Mister E]

Here's a weird one. The Grauniad reported Smith as saying of last night's game: “We didn’t deserve to win. It was a very scrappy game, we have a few players short on confidence and we’re not creating chances.”
Given that we are safe for the season, have outperformed on expectations and have a great platform to build on, why do we have players short on confidence and why  - if that is the case - is the manager playing them?!

[Ads]

What team, anywhere bar perhaps Man City  wouldn't rely on Grealish?

Barca would rely on Grealish. Thank goodness they're beyond skint.

Saying we're reliant on the best player in the league isn't the put down or sage analysis some seem to think it is.

[john e]

This perspective thing it’s quite an interesting one

I spent two years arguing with the same posters on here about Steve Bruce
Their perspective was he was doing a good job or steadying the ship some of them even enjoying his football down in the championship
Whereas from my perspective I hated football in the championship and hated Bruceball as well

So perspective can be looked at from two different sites

If we hadn’t got Grealish Smith wouldn’t still be here
Grealish is the reason we gained promotion Grealish is the reason we stayed in the league last season Grealish is the reason we are midway in the premiership this season

Without Grealish we are the team we saw last night
That’s not looking back with perspective that’s just what you can see in front of your eyes
What is it 4 out of 20 we’ve won without him

Keeping Grealish is the key to our future
But the manager whether it’s Smith or someone else needs to build a team capable of performing with him and competing at a higher level than we are now
He has been backed with multi million pounds worth of money
Yet without our talisman player we are bereft and look no better than fodder teams in the prem