Quote from: PaulTheVillan on September 12, 2021, 08:12:35 PMDecent first half. Chelsea taking their worst player off at HT improved them in the middle. I wish our manager spotted such things and acted as quick. Perhaps if our manager had the Uefa Player of the Year to come off the bench he might.
Decent first half. Chelsea taking their worst player off at HT improved them in the middle. I wish our manager spotted such things and acted as quick.
It must help that the Dad was a boxer. His three sons will have grown-up with discipline and dancers' feet.
Smith identified him really early on and had him training with the seniors not long after he became manager. Something I like about Smith is that he really does seem to have an eye for a player and he sees something often a long time before we do. Matt Targett is another example of that. Seemed pretty average at first, give a penalty away in the Sheffield United home game last season and everyone was writing him off and then was brilliant for the rest of the season.
Quote from: OCD on September 13, 2021, 11:22:17 AMSmith identified him really early on and had him training with the seniors not long after he became manager. Something I like about Smith is that he really does seem to have an eye for a player and he sees something often a long time before we do. Matt Targett is another example of that. Seemed pretty average at first, give a penalty away in the Sheffield United home game last season and everyone was writing him off and then was brilliant for the rest of the season. He’s very good at the coaching part, most players improve whilst playing for him. In fact, I can’t remember a villa manager that consistently improves players like Smith. I’m too young to remember whether this was a strength of BFR and Little and can’t think of anyone since (mainly because they rarely hang around long enough)..
Quote from: Dante Lavelli on September 13, 2021, 07:34:13 PMQuote from: OCD on September 13, 2021, 11:22:17 AMSmith identified him really early on and had him training with the seniors not long after he became manager. Something I like about Smith is that he really does seem to have an eye for a player and he sees something often a long time before we do. Matt Targett is another example of that. Seemed pretty average at first, give a penalty away in the Sheffield United home game last season and everyone was writing him off and then was brilliant for the rest of the season. He’s very good at the coaching part, most players improve whilst playing for him. In fact, I can’t remember a villa manager that consistently improves players like Smith. I’m too young to remember whether this was a strength of BFR and Little and can’t think of anyone since (mainly because they rarely hang around long enough).. I agree, most players in the squad have improved since they arrived and as a club we've clearly targeted signing players with the capacity to do so. I think this is the main reason why I get so frustrated with the people who can't wait to slag Smith off, I like what he's trying to do and I want us to succeed doing things this way. I want young players to join us knowing that if they meet their targets we won't be signing 27-28 year olds on huge fees to play in front of them because I think the satisfaction of seeing players like Ramsey and Chuk come through or Watkins step up is much better than flashing a chequebook to pick up the flavour of the month player every window.