Dean Smith - Confirmed

[sickbeggar]

I'm interested, to know if anyone wants him sacked before the start of next season. My interpretation of some of the language used suggests so.

I don't deny our form hasn't been great recently but he has proven how good it can be. With better players as we'll surely buy in the summer we should be looking top 8 next season. If we don't buy a central midfielder and more creativity up front/on the wing I think we'll be hard pressed to improve.

I don't want him sacked right now, but if an exciting alternative became available I'd want to seriously consider it.

I'd absolutely love Smith to be a big long term success, but I am struggling to get over the fact that we've been poor for such long spells in both his seasons in the top flight.  I get that there are mitigating circumstances, but notwithstanding petty arguments over sematics, my eye test tells me we've been playing like a relegation team for a long time now.  If we start poorly next season I wouldn't be waiting long to pull the trigger.  I've got mixed feelings about giving him the summer if we're going to spend big, but given we have a recruitiment team leading the strategy it probably isn't too much of a problem.

I think I'm mainly just so frustrated about what a fantastic opportunity we've blown this season.  Yes we're staying up and yes I'd have taken 11th, but we only had to have an average second half of the season and we'd have put ourselves in a much stronger position to attract players, retain Jack and really kick on.  It's a reasonable placing, but feels like a failure.

Who is this exciting alternative though. I'm not saying that so you can pick a name and I can rubbish it. I just don't see one. The likes of the top managers are out of our reach, and the days of any foreign name being an automatic preferable option is long gone when you see how many have failed over here. I just don't see a long list of options. That's not to say they couldn't do better than Smith

[Brazilian Villain]

Who is this exciting alternative though. I'm not saying that so you can pick a name and I can rubbish it. I just don't see one. The likes of the top managers are out of our reach, and the days of any foreign name being an automatic preferable option is long gone when you see how many have failed over here. I just don't see a long list of options. That's not to say they couldn't do better than Smith

Isn't his name Dino Ferrari in Italian? Sounds more exciting already although maybe you're not a fan of Ferraris either.

[chrisw1]

I'm interested, to know if anyone wants him sacked before the start of next season. My interpretation of some of the language used suggests so.

I don't deny our form hasn't been great recently but he has proven how good it can be. With better players as we'll surely buy in the summer we should be looking top 8 next season. If we don't buy a central midfielder and more creativity up front/on the wing I think we'll be hard pressed to improve.

I don't want him sacked right now, but if an exciting alternative became available I'd want to seriously consider it.

I'd absolutely love Smith to be a big long term success, but I am struggling to get over the fact that we've been poor for such long spells in both his seasons in the top flight.  I get that there are mitigating circumstances, but notwithstanding petty arguments over sematics, my eye test tells me we've been playing like a relegation team for a long time now.  If we start poorly next season I wouldn't be waiting long to pull the trigger.  I've got mixed feelings about giving him the summer if we're going to spend big, but given we have a recruitiment team leading the strategy it probably isn't too much of a problem.

I think I'm mainly just so frustrated about what a fantastic opportunity we've blown this season.  Yes we're staying up and yes I'd have taken 11th, but we only had to have an average second half of the season and we'd have put ourselves in a much stronger position to attract players, retain Jack and really kick on.  It's a reasonable placing, but feels like a failure.

Who is this exciting alternative though. I'm not saying that so you can pick a name and I can rubbish it. I just don't see one. The likes of the top managers are out of our reach, and the days of any foreign name being an automatic preferable option is long gone when you see how many have failed over here. I just don't see a long list of options. That's not to say they couldn't do better than Smith

I agree.  I can't see any realistic alternatives right now.  With that said, it's not my job to scour the market for them.  But if, hypothetically, say Poch or Rodgers was available then yes I'd be tempted.

Hopefully we'll start next season on fire and all this worry will have proven pointless.

[Monty]

Dino Fabbro.

I do hate this British vs. 'Foreign' divide. How about how many succeed in England? Remind me how many English managers have won the Premier League?

[sickbeggar]

Who is this exciting alternative though. I'm not saying that so you can pick a name and I can rubbish it. I just don't see one. The likes of the top managers are out of our reach, and the days of any foreign name being an automatic preferable option is long gone when you see how many have failed over here. I just don't see a long list of options. That's not to say they couldn't do better than Smith

Isn't his name Dino Ferrari in Italian? Sounds more exciting already although maybe you're not a fan of Ferraris either.

I used to work not far from the Ferrari factory and one of our customer's perks was going round the Ferrari factory. meh, I prefer a car you can fit in.

[sickbeggar]

I'm interested, to know if anyone wants him sacked before the start of next season. My interpretation of some of the language used suggests so.

I don't deny our form hasn't been great recently but he has proven how good it can be. With better players as we'll surely buy in the summer we should be looking top 8 next season. If we don't buy a central midfielder and more creativity up front/on the wing I think we'll be hard pressed to improve.

I don't want him sacked right now, but if an exciting alternative became available I'd want to seriously consider it.

I'd absolutely love Smith to be a big long term success, but I am struggling to get over the fact that we've been poor for such long spells in both his seasons in the top flight.  I get that there are mitigating circumstances, but notwithstanding petty arguments over sematics, my eye test tells me we've been playing like a relegation team for a long time now.  If we start poorly next season I wouldn't be waiting long to pull the trigger.  I've got mixed feelings about giving him the summer if we're going to spend big, but given we have a recruitiment team leading the strategy it probably isn't too much of a problem.

I think I'm mainly just so frustrated about what a fantastic opportunity we've blown this season.  Yes we're staying up and yes I'd have taken 11th, but we only had to have an average second half of the season and we'd have put ourselves in a much stronger position to attract players, retain Jack and really kick on.  It's a reasonable placing, but feels like a failure.

Who is this exciting alternative though. I'm not saying that so you can pick a name and I can rubbish it. I just don't see one. The likes of the top managers are out of our reach, and the days of any foreign name being an automatic preferable option is long gone when you see how many have failed over here. I just don't see a long list of options. That's not to say they couldn't do better than Smith

I agree.  I can't see any realistic alternatives right now.  With that said, it's not my job to scour the market for them.  But if, hypothetically, say Poch or Rodgers was available then yes I'd be tempted.

Hopefully we'll start next season on fire and all this worry will have proven pointless.

yep and if we're struggling come December I think most people will say fair enough if he gets the push.

[Drummond]

I'm interested, to know if anyone wants him sacked before the start of next season. My interpretation of some of the language used suggests so.

I don't deny our form hasn't been great recently but he has proven how good it can be. With better players as we'll surely buy in the summer we should be looking top 8 next season. If we don't buy a central midfielder and more creativity up front/on the wing I think we'll be hard pressed to improve.

I don't want him sacked right now, but if an exciting alternative became available I'd want to seriously consider it.

I'd absolutely love Smith to be a big long term success, but I am struggling to get over the fact that we've been poor for such long spells in both his seasons in the top flight.  I get that there are mitigating circumstances, but notwithstanding petty arguments over sematics, my eye test tells me we've been playing like a relegation team for a long time now.  If we start poorly next season I wouldn't be waiting long to pull the trigger.  I've got mixed feelings about giving him the summer if we're going to spend big, but given we have a recruitiment team leading the strategy it probably isn't too much of a problem.

I think I'm mainly just so frustrated about what a fantastic opportunity we've blown this season.  Yes we're staying up and yes I'd have taken 11th, but we only had to have an average second half of the season and we'd have put ourselves in a much stronger position to attract players, retain Jack and really kick on.  It's a reasonable placing, but feels like a failure.

Who is this exciting alternative though. I'm not saying that so you can pick a name and I can rubbish it. I just don't see one. The likes of the top managers are out of our reach, and the days of any foreign name being an automatic preferable option is long gone when you see how many have failed over here. I just don't see a long list of options. That's not to say they couldn't do better than Smith

I agree.  I can't see any realistic alternatives right now.  With that said, it's not my job to scour the market for them.  But if, hypothetically, say Poch or Rodgers was available then yes I'd be tempted.

Hopefully we'll start next season on fire and all this worry will have proven pointless.

yep and if we're struggling come December I think most people will say fair enough if he gets the push.

I think you're right, and to be honest earlier than that.

[john e]

I'm interested, to know if anyone wants him sacked before the start of next season. My interpretation of some of the language used suggests so.

I don't deny our form hasn't been great recently but he has proven how good it can be. With better players as we'll surely buy in the summer we should be looking top 8 next season. If we don't buy a central midfielder and more creativity up front/on the wing I think we'll be hard pressed to improve.

It’s a very good question
And my answer is it all depends on who replaces him

At the moment who is available no one that I can see realistically
Most of the links we had at the end of last season I would rather stick with Dean Smith

But in my view we will need an elite manager (whatever that means ) to get us into the top six I don’t think that will be Dean Smith but others think he should get the chance and maybe he will so we’ll see

[SoccerHQ]

Heard Dean on the radio earlier.

Said there's no reason to downplay expectations for next season and we want to be finishing well in the top half.

Felt injuries to key players had disrupted us at key point this season which is why we've dropped out of top half.

Accepted we'd struggled to work out how to adapt to no Grealish for first 5-6 games of his injury. Said we'd been better in recent weeks and I agreed with him (although he used the expected goals metric....)

I think when the manager of the club is really bigging up next season then don't think people on here should get criticised too much for wanting 8th or 7th as that will be club target for next year by all accounts.

First 5 games after Jack's injury - 5 points
Next 9 games, inluding Jack being back for 2 of them as sub - 8 points

The bloke's an idiot.

I thought we looked properly clueless v Sheffield United, Newcastle and Wolves so those are 3 of the five games after Grealish injury. We were also really poor v Spurs who'd just had a comical european exit.

I think since then we've not been that bad...Fulham for first hour wasn' great to put it mildly but we stepped it up in last 20 to win, played alright at Liverpool second half and shouldn't have lost, great at Everton, looked good first half v Man. United before the predictable collapse and I thought we did fine at Palace first half and that was carbon copy of Burnley.

A mid table team in losing to many of the teams finishing 15-20 points ahead of them shock. 1 point v Sheffield United and Newcastle who barely had an attacking player out v us was far worse.

[Drummond]

It's interesting, people want a big manager, but there aren't any available, or that would likely leave the clubs they are at to come to us. I guess if they were told they had a couple of hundred million they might be persuaded but even then, with out structure, they wouldn't get final say on everything.

It reinforces to me that SMith is ok, but he has to learn and adapt a bit better. I think he can, and I hope, as I'm sure we do, that he does!

[SoccerHQ]

I want him in charge for next season.

I want him to go out and sign some exciting players during the summer. Sit them down in a room and get them to come play for us. And with the greatest will in the world that dosen't mean more Brentford players or Dwight McNeil. Some of those can come aswell but I want us to sign a player who'd give us all confidence we can break into top 6 at some point in next 2-3 years like signing Carew in January 2007 did.

To me a player like that would be Milenkovic-Savic at Lazio so does DS have the pull Ancelloti does to get a good standard european player to come to play for us? Think the owners will be keeping tabs on that if 200m budget really will be given to him.

I want him to do well next season. However I don't believe the annual 1 win in 12 should just be dismissed as one of those things if it hits us as always happens in a Smith season. We have to be better than that now unless say we've got a nightmare fixture list and we're playing those games without 3-4 of Jack, Martinez, Mings and Watkins. That is the get out pass, anything else would be a major disappointment and pretty much end top 10 bid unless we get off to another really good start so interested what owners and Purslow would do if we hit that form in November-December.

Decisions we make this summer will set things up for next 5 seasons I reckon so it's crucial we don't mess about.

[ChicagoLion]

I would definitely not do what Levi has done, get rid of the manager who their top player got on with and ended up looking a bit of a basket case.
No point in getting rid of Smith unless its a significant step forward.

[paul_e]

I want him in charge for next season.

I want him to go out and sign some exciting players during the summer. Sit them down in a room and get them to come play for us. And with the greatest will in the world that dosen't mean more Brentford players or Dwight McNeil. Some of those can come aswell but I want us to sign a player who'd give us all confidence we can break into top 6 at some point in next 2-3 years like signing Carew in January 2007 did.

To me a player like that would be Milenkovic-Savic at Lazio so does DS have the pull Ancelloti does to get a good standard european player to come to play for us? Think the owners will be keeping tabs on that if 200m budget really will be given to him.

I want him to do well next season. However I don't believe the annual 1 win in 12 should just be dismissed as one of those things if it hits us as always happens in a Smith season. We have to be better than that now unless say we've got a nightmare fixture list and we're playing those games without 3-4 of Jack, Martinez, Mings and Watkins. That is the get out pass, anything else would be a major disappointment and pretty much end top 10 bid unless we get off to another really good start so interested what owners and Purslow would do if we hit that form in November-December.

Decisions we make this summer will set things up for next 5 seasons I reckon so it's crucial we don't mess about.

I'm pretty much on the same page, Malen would be my 'statement of intent' signing this summer, he's wanted by a bunch of big clubs so going for him and convincing him to come would be massive. I think he'd fit in brilliantly as well.

[john e]

Graham Potters an interesting one
if he was doing the same job in Germany or Spain I get the feeling he would be seen as Naglesman or Tuchel like when they were early on

Your not going to win anything or get anywhere at BHA so it’s difficult to judge
but I still think they were one of the best teams we played at their place and we still came away with a point and from other games I’ve seen they look an exciting unit
there league position obviously means they have big flaws but it’s BHA on a budget same size as Brentford I would think

I don’t even know what I’m suggesting here but I think he will be an interesting watch in the future

[Mister E]

I'm interested, to know if anyone wants him sacked before the start of next season. My interpretation of some of the language used suggests so.
I don't deny our form hasn't been great recently but he has proven how good it can be. With better players as we'll surely buy in the summer we should be looking top 8 next season. If we don't buy a central midfielder and more creativity up front/on the wing I think we'll be hard pressed to improve.

I wouldn't get rid of him to bring in somebody like Dyche or Howe, no, but I'd love to see a big hitter appointed to really try to shift us forward more quickly.  Smith has been lucky to inherit a freak of nature like Grealish, but without him we seem completely devoid of ideas, and I don't think Smith is the bloke to attract the sort of big names we need.

I hope that the players we are going after would be able to flourish under a better manager should one be needed and/or appointed. For too long we bought players specific to the manager. The one thing I have been impressed with at Leicester is that players bought since they won the title have been for the most part quality footballers and now with a better manager they have improved further. With the likes of Martinez, Konsa, Watkins, Cash, Targett as examples they will do well with Smith or anyone else for that matter. We need to keep getting in players of that level and better to progress.

Isn't that the point of bringing in Lange and others (your point in bold): to create a platform that is not dependent on one specific manager. So, I agree.