Dean Smith - Confirmed

[Hockley Lion]

I imagine they'll be satisfied overall. At least a lot of the criticism aimed at Smith is doing worse without Grealish which is something a lot of managers would struggle with. People sometimes need to get some perspective. Guardiola is a managerial great I suppose but Smith hasn't fucked up as bad tactically this season like he did last night.

Indeed, if we'd played Chelsea in the final we'd probably have been more likely to win since Dean has better form against Tuchel recently than Pep.

No doubt there are mutterings amongst a section of Man City fans about Pep's fucking incompetence.

[SoccerHQ]

Were people satisfied last August? Yeah, we're satisfied with them now, they all look like hits. But there was plenty of 'we don't need a right back, we need a left back" & "Brentford have seen us coming again, will we never learn" at the time, along with widespread trepidation about the huge fees paid for a goalkeeper who'd spent a decade failing to oust anyone ahead of him, and yet another one footed lightweight winger from a "crap" league.

I honestly thought we'd overpaid for Ollie....but he's been worth every penny with what he's given us in final third. Night and day compared to the last one we signed from Brentford for a big fee.

Very good goals tally aswell in the end considering he was robbed of at least 3 by VAR in first half of the season and he can also improve his finishing when one v one as hesitates a bit too much.

Loved the Emi signing. I knew he'd be good but not quite as good as he's been.

Cash was also probably overpriced but again many fullbacks signed now from here and abroad are in the 10-15m range.

Now the challenge is this. To go from 11th to 6th is much much harder than 17th-11th.

I think that's what Purslow is alluding to. Our attacking stats were top half and our defensive stats were pretty much top 6 for whole season yet we finished 4 points off 10th in the end.

It was a freak season with points hauls but I agree we need to get out of mindset of thinking 11th is fine. It will do for now but eventually our key players will want to move on if we can't significantly improve on that in next 2-3 years.

Really interested what we do in the summer. If we can get this window as right as we did 12 months ago it can shape us for next 5 years I reckon.

Similar to us signing Carew and Young in January 2007 kept us ticking along nicely up to May 2010 so need to find two of those types this summer as we are strong in many areas of the first 11 now.

[SoccerHQ]

Think the manager will also have a decent say in the recruitment aswell again.

I mean last summer we decided to spend 25-30m on a forward and with all the data we have for players worldwide we decided to spend it on someone who'd just played 18 months under DS.

And he was right. Given the previous summer we spent 22m on a forward who was very raw for premier league and then the dodgy moves for Samatta and Borja Baston to keep us up in that January. So he had a right to stick his nose in that area and demand a greater say.

I'm not sure he's always too keen on players we bring in with little experience of the league. Kalinic played about 3 games and was never seen again although still on our books. Compared to Nyland who got countless chances. Gulibert looked like he had potential but him being loaned out dosen't bode well for returning next season imo. Engels got chances at the start but seems around xmas him and DS fell out and now he hasn't played in over a year and Sanson already has a feel of forgotten man about him although has been injured last two months.

Probably ties in with the more British based comments from DS given the likes to Buendia and McNeill so far although I'd still really love us to get in a top tier talent from the continent just to show we mean business e.g. something similar to Leicester signing Tielemans a couple of years ago when he was highly rated at Monaco and Leicester were about 12th in premier league.

[Allan C]

Think the manager will also have a decent say in the recruitment aswell again.

I mean last summer we decided to spend 25-30m on a forward and with all the data we have for players worldwide we decided to spend it on someone who'd just played 18 months under DS.

And he was right. Given the previous summer we spent 22m on a forward who was very raw for premier league and then the dodgy moves for Samatta and Borja Baston to keep us up in that January. So he had a right to stick his nose in that area and demand a greater say.

I'm not sure he's always too keen on players we bring in with little experience of the league. Kalinic played about 3 games and was never seen again although still on our books. Compared to Nyland who got countless chances. Gulibert looked like he had potential but him being loaned out dosen't bode well for returning next season imo. Engels got chances at the start but seems around xmas him and DS fell out and now he hasn't played in over a year and Sanson already has a feel of forgotten man about him although has been injured last two months.

Probably ties in with the more British based comments from DS given the likes to Buendia and McNeill so far although I'd still really love us to get in a top tier talent from the continent just to show we mean business e.g. something similar to Leicester signing Tielemans a couple of years ago when he was highly rated at Monaco and Leicester were about 12th in premier league.

Yes agree with this. The signings last summer were spot on for what we needed to get from relegation fodder to mid-table/top 8. In our position now we wouldn’t buy the same type of players. I believe we can look at more PL established talent rather than “buy and hope” players from lower leagues. That will IMO show real ambition to go the next step

[ArturFrost]

And it’s official!

[eamonn]

Bot alert.

[Demitri_C]

The reliable "football insider" thinks mendes has spoken to us about replacing Smith with nuno.

What uttee nonsense. Smith has had a bumpy 2021 but there is no way his job is on the line yet

[AV82EC]

The words “reliable” and “Football Insider” make up the worlds greatest Oxymoron surely.

[Monty]

Bullshit married with bullshit.

And let me say, if we were to replace Dean, no fucking way would I have Nuno come in, and I'm sure the owners feel the same.

[chrisw1]

Nuno's an excellent manager and one poor season where the club has sold Jota and Doherty and he's lost his most influential player to injury shouldn't take away from what he has achieved.

I'm not saying I'd swap him for Smith and yes he does play counter attacking football, but I'm amazed how quickly people are writing off a manager who would have been in the mix for any of the big jobs 12 months ago.   

[chrisw1]

Sounds like Ancelotti may be going to Real Madrid.  Shame for Everton.  Wonder if Nuno will go there?

[Risso]

Nuno's an excellent manager and one poor season where the club has sold Jota and Doherty and he's lost his most influential player to injury shouldn't take away from what he has achieved.

I'm not saying I'd swap him for Smith and yes he does play counter attacking football, but I'm amazed how quickly people are writing off a manager who would have been in the mix for any of the big jobs 12 months ago.   

Indeed. Our season pretty well collapsed in on itself when we lost Jack. They lost Jiminez, Jota, Doherty and to all intents Traore as well.

[Toronto Villa]

Some suggestions now that Nuno is favourite for the Palace job. Imagine dog head fans going from the lofty rarified air of feeling they should be competing for players with Real Madrid and Barcelona to find the most successful manager in their recent history walks out on them to join the mighty Crystal Palace. If that happens snot will come out of my nose with laughter.

[N'ZMAV]

I will piss my pants. Gladly.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Nuno's an excellent manager and one poor season where the club has sold Jota and Doherty and he's lost his most influential player to injury shouldn't take away from what he has achieved.

I'm not saying I'd swap him for Smith and yes he does play counter attacking football, but I'm amazed how quickly people are writing off a manager who would have been in the mix for any of the big jobs 12 months ago.   

Indeed. I was shocked The Plastics never went for him last summer, promotion champions in his first season and followed by two 7th place finishes at a club like Wolves. Fortunately they stuck with Ole.