Dean Smith - Confirmed

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Agreed. The quality of football everywhere recently has been poor.

[JuanMartinez]

Put it this way, I shan’t be having Leeds to win many on my accas from now to May.

[Drummond]

The lack of supporters can't be helping concentration and motivation levels for a lot of players either. There's not the professional tension that would normally be there to keep players focused.

[brontebilly]

It's been a long time since Villa were heading for midtable mediocrity. I'm trying to think of the last one to be honest, maybe MONs first season. There was one under Houllier/McAllister but that was more of a close miss from relegation followed by a very strong last handful of games. Maybe this is just the way it is, international tournament in the summer, not to mention the other non football distractions. There are a number of teams around us at the moment in beach mode too.

Recent performances haven't been remotely acceptable in any case, hopefully Grealish can come back and spur us to better performances before season end. This drift continues and we start next season on a bit of a downer though.

[Mister E]

It's been a long time since Villa were heading for midtable mediocrity. I'm trying to think of the last one to be honest, maybe MONs first season. There was one under Houllier/McAllister but that was more of a close miss from relegation followed by a very strong last handful of games. Maybe this is just the way it is, international tournament in the summer, not to mention the other non football distractions. There are a number of teams around us at the moment in beach mode too.
Recent performances haven't been remotely acceptable in any case, hopefully Grealish can come back and spur us to better performances before season end. This drift continues and we start next season on a bit of a downer though.

I think that entirely depends how we develop the squad through acquisitions and departures.
As long as we do not lose our last 11 games, I don't think there'll be a collective downer from this season.

[ChicagoLion]

I wonder if they're all starting to feel the effects of the short close-season.

I think it is a huge factor and impacting most teams, Citeh appear to be the only one coping with it well but with their squad depth.

[Ian.]

I wonder if they're all starting to feel the effects of the short close-season.

I think it is a huge factor and impacting most teams, Citeh appear to be the only one coping with it well but with their squad depth.

It definitely could be a massive factor in performances all across the league. Also it is crazy unprecedented times, in all walks of life we are going through the motions in many ways and we are all missing things in our normal lives.
Who's to say this in not taking it's toll on players in some degree.

I know I'm really missing seeing friends and family and seeing new places, or just places I would normally go to unwind to escape things, places like Dartmoor but it's a little too far at the moment.
 
All I seem to do is "go for a walk" around where I live. We're not designed to be so static and docile.

[olaftab]

I wonder if they're all starting to feel the effects of the short close-season.

Probably but that applies to all teams so it's a level playing field. I think the missing ingredient for us is something to fight for. If Dean and team made 6th a must finish in order to qualify for Europe that would give the team something to aim for. I am looking for the type of response that took us to a playoff spot rather than just meandering along till the end of the season.

[LeeB]

I wonder if they're all starting to feel the effects of the short close-season.

Probably but that applies to all teams so it's a level playing field. I think the missing ingredient for us is something to fight for. If Dean and team made 6th a must finish in order to qualify for Europe that would give the team something to aim for. I am looking for the type of response that took us to a playoff spot rather than just meandering along till the end of the season.

The team have been aiming for Europe, Martinez mentioned it explicitly after one game.

[Brend'Watkins]

I wonder if they're all starting to feel the effects of the short close-season.

Probably but that applies to all teams so it's a level playing field. I think the missing ingredient for us is something to fight for. If Dean and team made 6th a must finish in order to qualify for Europe that would give the team something to aim for. I am looking for the type of response that took us to a playoff spot rather than just meandering along till the end of the season.

The team have been aiming for Europe, Martinez mentioned it explicitly after one game.

Of course it's the aim just like it's everyone's aim in and around where we are. The last 4 or 5 games doesn't back it up though even allowing for staleness in our squad's performance in the middle and up front.

[Drummond]

If you were a footballer, would you spend some of your spare time browsing the internet, looking to see what the fans said? I would, and even more so now I suspect players have done/are doing that. They don't get feedback at matches any more, or people hanging around training facilities etc.

There's a buzz about matchday, but I'd guess it's all a bot of an anti-climax. The clubs' psychologists and their teams must be working really hard along with the coaches. before anyone says anything, I'm not blaming the fans at all. I think there's just a spark missing and it's easy to lose focus. We've all had to realign priorities over the last year haven't we? Some things seem far less important, others more.

[Allan C]

For those calling for his head

Pssst. Nobody is.

There are a number who seem to be questioning whether Smith is the right man for the job though. And others suggesting he's inept and out of his depth.

We're 9th. Ahead of Arsenal, 2 points and a game on hand behind last season's runaway champions and 4 points and a game in hand behind Spuds.

It's massive progress in such a short space of time. Smith is the best opportunity and breath of fresh air this club has had in decades. He'll get things wrong, and the players will too, they know when it's not good enough and are honest about it. They learn too.

Every big name manager started somewhere. Why not grow our own?

i think that's a good point and and i think your sort of both right
no one has called for his head but people have questioned his ability to take us higher
when i say people i really mean me and one or two others

as Chicago says i'm probably the closest so far to that heresy

every post i make re Villa or Smith is with the view that with the new owners and renewed ambition we need to be looking at being a top 6/4 side on a regular basis
yes i know where we were two years ago but i never accepted that was where we should have been and through inept ownership and managers we fell to a position that was totally avoidable

do i think Smith should go
No of course not, you cant sack a manager that's done what he's done in the last couple of seasons that would be ridiculous

do i think Smith can deliver a top 6 side even a top 4 side
Yes but only if we keep Grealish
and that's the key as iv'e always said, we must keep him and the best way of doing that is European football because it would be a tragedy if Grealish did not perform at the highest level of Domestic and European football

do i think Smith can deliver a top 6/4 side without Grealish
this is where it gets to that heresy thing, because if i'm honest i don't think he can
so there i've said it, that's doesn't mean i want him gone but it does mean i probably think he's less capable than many of you others on here

Grealish is the key as iv'e said many times, he's the reason we are where we are, he makes everyone look better than what they really are both players and managment

i might be wrong we might lose Grealish and with the money Smith puts together a top team and goes on to challenge
personally i think if we lose Grealish at the end of the season (not saying we will) Smith will be gone by the end of next year
but that's just pure conjecture

in another scenario we keep Grealish and bring in 2/3 top players to support him and bang we are challenging ( this is obviously the one i want to happen)

i didn't think Konsa was good enough at the start of this season so i got that one wrong
its a football forum we say are piece and sometimes we get it right and sometimes wrong
end of the day we have to be honest and say what we think, and time will be the judge

but remember i spent two years arguing on here with Drum, Clampy, Adds and many others about Bruce
i said he was no where good enough for us and taking us nowhere
you all argued that he was the man and we should be sticking with him
so forgive me if i think your judgement of managers is fatally flawed , but i do

so it all boils down to Grealish for me not Smith
certainly at this moment in our development

i'm still very hopeful that with a returning Grealish we can still make it into the Europa spots
i'm not looking down i'm still looking up and staying positive

I think John you speak really well and I do honestly get what your saying with this.
I realise that I sometimes come across as Smith fandom, I think this is partly down to the fact that when we appointed him it felt the most or in fact possibly only sensible managerial appointment we’d made since O’Neil back in 2006. Not because he had any profile particularly, just because he was young in managerial terms, played good football at that level, had earned his stripes and had the club at heart. It could of been Thierry Henry, which would of been more exciting on paper and a complete car crash in the championship.

However, I’m under no illusions that unless we’re on the cusp of something really special, then Smith won’t be here in 10 or 15 years and even if successful will probably be sacked or leave in 4 or 5 years at best, or in a year if we don’t do so well, that’s the name of the game.

Obviously Grealish is vitally important to all of this, mainly because of his ability but also what he symbolises, he is literally a hero to the younger generation of villa fans and probably us older heads as well. But I make the point again, we are not unique in this heavy reliance on one player to take us from average to very good. Leicester have been talked about in this thread, but for all their building and replacement of players that have left, where would they of been over the last 4 or 5 years without Vardy. The same with Spurs and Kane, no matter how good others like Son are. There is only Man City really and Liverpool last year that have a number of players of equal importance in an attacking sense.

Where I do think Smith deserves huge praise is the defence. Grealish played out of his skin last year and yet we still just about stayed up. This year Smith and his coaching team have changed that defence to something extraordinary. You take Grealish out of that team now without replacing him (which isn’t going to happen-the not replacing him if he ever goes), we lose that something special that has us as genuine challengers at the top end of the table, but there is no way we are relegation fodder with a defence like that. For me Jack probably isn’t in the top two players of the season and is behind Martinez and Konsa.

Finally, One thing always missing from these discussions as well, I never saw Grealish play as well for Bruce, so maybe our progress has of course loads to do with Grealish, but maybe the progress of Grealish has loads to do with Smith.

Absolutely nail on the head mate

[Brend'Watkins]

Very good post RamboandBruno.

[tomd2103]

Different forms of the same thing?

Thought you were coming up with a third way?

it was in response to the Einstein quip,
But if we are looking for an alternative to trying to emulate Leicester or shit or bust then building on what we have means
1 retaining Grealish
2 securing Konsa Martinez Mings Watkins Cash Target
3 A couple of Young Milner quality recruitments
The rest is about solving our midfield structure, improving the players that are here and improving squad depth.
Nothing revolutionary but without solving 1 then everything else becomes more difficult.
The alternative being suggested is that we end up with no Jack and as soon as that happens the ambitious players will be vulnerable. Before you know it we are into a rebuilding job similar to what happened in our promotion season but without the core but lots of cash.
The question is from that situation how long it would take us to establish a potential Top 6 team or would that be even possible?

We have a serious opportunity to really push on because we have a once in a generation player, I just hope that the Club does everything to make it happen.

Agree with a lot of that CL, but just feel we are not really in control of the Grealish situation, for if an offer in the region of £100m comes in from a club he fancies moving to then it's going to be difficult to turn that down. 

Like you though, I think we have obviously got to do our best to keep and build the team around him.  I think the key is to continually be looking to improve and investing wisely to do that.  I think Wolves are probably an example of a club who haven't really  done that.  Had a couple of good seasons in the top flight, but we're very reliant on their starting XI, didn't invest in quality and are paying the price this season.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Wolves lost their star striker, Raul Jimenez early in the season. That's like us losing Jack for the season. They have a more than decent team but are toothless up front this season. Outside the bottom 3 only Burnley have scored less goals.