Next Aston Villa Manager

[Nelly]

What wrankles with me is the fact that Smith’s Brentford played such good football (and they still do), yet despite a huge budget, he can’t seem to get a decent tune out of this lot on a regular basis.  Are him and Pitarch on the same page? I’m not sure they are. That said, he’s still got my backing to get it right.

He did us proud in his first year. Now he's into his second and is struggling. Isn't it time to support him rather than fuck him off?

This for me too. Sacking the manager is a gamble and it's what we tried numerous times when we were relegated. Personally I think Villa desperately need stability. We probably came up a season too soon in terms of a functioning squad. Unity, some faith and yeah probably a little luck too and we'll be right as rain.

[Big Dick Edwards]

This season was always going to be a very difficult one. We came up as the fifth best team in the Championship, one made up primarily of loans and older guys coming to the end of their shelf life. We had no choice other than to go down the recruiting road we have. The headlines may say we spent £120m but the reality of top level football life now is that isn't as big a sum of money in the premier League as it sounds and we had to virtually buy a new squad with that money, not add expensive finishing touches and quality.

I still have confidence we can get out of this but if the worst case scenario is relegation I'm equally prepared to go down, take the parachute money and go again. If we do so we'll have a much better squad than we had when we were last relegated, even without Jack, Tyrone and SJM. While it would be gutting to have to sell those three, FFP issues would be cleared in an instant and we'd still have a decent squad who would be more than competitive in the Championship. We have some good players in this squad who's flaw at the moment is that they're young and inexperienced at this level. By next season, young players like Guilbert, Targett, Konsa, Engels, Hause, Nakamba, Luiz and El Ghazi will have learned a lot, and we'll still have the experience of Heaton and Hourihane, and Jota, we know from his performances against us for Brentford, is a good player at Championship level.

Panicking and making wholesale changes to the management team is a road we've been down a lot in the last decade. Despite our success last season, we are still in recovery from the negligence of Lerner's later years and Xia's profligacy. We now need a period of continuity. We have to stay strong and continue to back Dean and the players.

[Risso]

Panicking and making wholesale changes to the management team is a road we've been down a lot in the last decade. Despite our success last season, we are still in recovery from the negligence of Lerner's later years and Xia's profligacy. We now need a period of continuity. We have to stay strong and continue to back Dean and the players.

Getting relegated is the sort of continuity we don't need.  Sacking Bruce gave us a manager that got us up, now we need to sack Smith, and find a manager that can keep us up.  There's no room for sentimentality in football any more, he's proving to be poor at this level, and needs to go.

[john e]

I don’t see any obvious credible name to come in at this time

and the only reason for sacking Smith would be if we had a better replacement lined up to come in
which we probably wouldn’t know about until it happened

I don’t count any old fashioned British manager as credible
if you do and that’s the road you want to go down that’s fair enough, but it’s not for me

[Demitri_C]

I don’t see any obvious credible name to come in at this time

and the only reason for sacking Smith would be if we had a better replacement lined up to come in
which we probably wouldn’t know about until it happened

I don’t count any old fashioned British manager as credible
if you do and that’s the road you want to go down that’s fair enough, but it’s not for me

This and the new contract are the reasons why i think smith is still here. Had some names been available a d we wouldnt have to pay smith massive compon he would be gone by now.

I think they will also think smith can get us straight back up again.

[Villafirst]

Pity the board didn't act earlier and got Pearson in. He's turned Watford's season around in 5 or so games - 4 wins and a draw.

[ASHTONVILLA]

I understand people don't think Smith is up to it, and I'd agree, at the moment, he's not. But, do we think he'll improve? Learn? Get better?

No I don't, hence I want him replaced. He is showing no capacity to learn and adapt whatsoever, and has now started making the same kind of desperate lame excuses we had from Sherwood, Bruce and O'Leary. The hallmarks of a manager that is out of their depth and not likely to improve.

[Big Dick Edwards]

Pity the board didn't act earlier and got Pearson in. He's turned Watford's season around in 5 or so games - 4 wins and a draw.

Easy to say in hindsight. I would think the number of Villa fans who would have supported a decision to appoint Pearson as a replacement for Smith would have been tiny at best.

[Chris Smith]

Pity the board didn't act earlier and got Pearson in. He's turned Watford's season around in 5 or so games - 4 wins and a draw.

Watford have an established PL squad, he would not have been able to perform the same trick with us. What has screwed us is injuries to important players and changing managers will not alter that.

[cdbearsfan]

We have been unlucky with injuries, but everyone in the world knew we needed an extra striker. Only signing Wesley was madness. That's not a hindsight thing, everyone said so at the time.

[john e]

Pity the board didn't act earlier and got Pearson in. He's turned Watford's season around in 5 or so games - 4 wins and a draw.

Watford have an established PL squad, he would not have been able to perform the same trick with us. What has screwed us is injuries to important players and changing managers will not alter that.

Agree with that about the Watford squad

[PeterWithe]

Yes, almost everyone flagged it up as a massive hurdle on here before the season. I'm not sure punishing the manager by sacking him will help matters now though.

[Ads]

They've also had a goal scorer return that's key to them.

It's been said to death, but a young player in Wesley, a younger one in Davis and a Championship player in Kodjia wasn't enough.

All 3 are out, along with our midfield heartbeat in McGinn.

Smith needs the recruitment team to pull a forward out the bag by Brighton.

[PaulWinch again]

They've also had a goal scorer return that's key to them.

It's been said to death, but a young player in Wesley, a younger one in Davis and a Championship player in Kodjia wasn't enough.

All 3 are out, along with our midfield heartbeat in McGinn.

Smith needs the recruitment team to pull a forward out the bag by Brighton.

Yes the recruitment of forwards in the summer was seriously deficient.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Pity the board didn't act earlier and got Pearson in. He's turned Watford's season around in 5 or so games - 4 wins and a draw.

Easy to say in hindsight. I would think the number of Villa fans who would have supported a decision to appoint Pearson as a replacement for Smith would have been tiny at best.

Ha! Indeed. This place would have imploded. Pearson was a smart move by Watford as they had nothing to lose and only hired him until the end of the season.