Dean Smith - reflection & appreciation

[Toronto Villa]

At Brentford he never just relied on one player. I never understood why he could never find a way to play without Jack. It was Jack or bust and without Jack it was almost always bust. And then he just became stubborn with certain players/systems. Especially the three at the back nonsense. It wasn't broken from the previous season yet he was doing things he didn't need to.

We can thank and appreciate him for what he gave us and all that he did, but in equal measure it ended in large part because of him. I wish him nothing but the best in the future.

[p_ad]

I think for a lot of us ( me included) Smith and Grealish being Villa fans, was a catalyst for us to reconnect with the club after some awful and shit players at the club.
  It really did feel like a rebirth a new togetherness fans, players, and manager all as one, I think that's what makes some of us a bit sad we couldn't take it a bit further.
 Having said that I'm delighted with how Gerrard has started, and I think we're on the cusp of great things

[Rory]

It's a shame it didn't work for him, but I kind of always knew it wouldn't. We were too haphazard, too unstable in our good phases under him. He was good at a lot, galvanised the team and gave us belief, but we never looked tactically in control of ourselves. These first few games with Gerrard (with the exception of Brentford) have really hammered that fact home for me - win or lose now we have a clear identity on the pitch.

I think it did work. He hit a ceiling, but he left us 20-odd places and a whole division higher than when he took over.

I was a little underwhelmed when he was appointed, but regardless of Grealish and the players we had on loan, if somebody had suggested he'd get us up that year, keep us up the year after, then improve our position the year after that, I would've said that would make him a resounding success.

I think it was almost certainly the right time for him to go, but he did the job we hired him for, and there aren't too many of our recent managers you can say that about.

I won't be following his career, I don't have a poster of him above my bed, but in his 37 months as our manager he did right by us.

[Sexual Ealing]

It's a shame it didn't work for him, but I kind of always knew it wouldn't. We were too haphazard, too unstable in our good phases under him. He was good at a lot, galvanised the team and gave us belief, but we never looked tactically in control of ourselves. These first few games with Gerrard (with the exception of Brentford) have really hammered that fact home for me - win or lose now we have a clear identity on the pitch.

I think it did work. He hit a ceiling, but he left us 20-odd places and a whole division higher than when he took over.

I was a little underwhelmed when he was appointed, but regardless of Grealish and the players we had on loan, if somebody had suggested he'd get us up that year, keep us up the year after, then improve our position the year after that, I would've said that would make him a resounding success.

I think it was almost certainly the right time for him to go, but he did the job we hired him for, and there aren't too many of our recent managers you can say that about.

I won't be following his career, I don't have a poster of him above my bed, but in his 37 months as our manager he did right by us.

Apart from the bit in bold, I agree with all this.

[Drummond]

Where's your poster then? ☺

[Fred Crump]

Where's your poster then? ☺

 “ I don't have a poster of him above my bed. “

 I don’t either. But at least Mrs Fred has finally taken that bloody Grealish one down.

[Brazilian Villain]

I think it did work. He hit a ceiling, but he left us 20-odd places and a whole division higher than when he took over.

I was a little underwhelmed when he was appointed, but regardless of Grealish and the players we had on loan, if somebody had suggested he'd get us up that year, keep us up the year after, then improve our position the year after that, I would've said that would make him a resounding success.

I think it was almost certainly the right time for him to go, but he did the job we hired him for, and there aren't too many of our recent managers you can say that about.

I won't be following his career, I don't have a poster of him above my bed, but in his 37 months as our manager he did right by us.

Apart from the bit in bold, I agree with all this.

Same here.

[Brazilian Villain]

Where's your poster then? ☺

There's no room as he has the Athena 'Tennis Girl' poster above his bed.

[algy]

Where's your poster then? ☺

Don't need one if you've got a lifesize cardboard cutout smiling down on you in the bedroom.

[Footy-Vill]

Unless we go on a Dean Smith like record breaking run I don't think we'll be much improvement from last year's positions and given the time to turn around it be so similar to where Smith would have finished if the great man remained.
It's actually going to be a real challenge to get to 10th places. It's in our hands though and that's fair enough to see now.
I certainly think have quality to do so and of course even more so with Coutinho.

It's gone now that we never know what Deano would have achieved but I think the timing was wrong.
That as in much as close season or end of this season.
Making such big changes mid season makes it all transitional and made only small sense to me.
With patience I truly think Dean Smith and the squad once players settled and fit as well as pathway players were going in right direction. Yes 5 defeats but DS knows how to reset and get us going.

Anyway it is such a shame and takes me a lot longer to accept because of everything Deano stands for but I support the new coach with reservations and hope DS gets the appreciation he deserves for rest of his managing career as well as being rightfully serenaded when Norwich come to play.
I get the argument that 5 defeats and some aspects of the football were failing and not as great as once were.
Villa were 4pts of top spot this season and due to bad luck and some poor play we fell away.
We're miles off that now even if we have enhanced the playing squad
It won't be till next season where we make a strong challenge for European places anyway.
If we miraculous make a move towards higher places this season we can only realistically make Europe Conference league which does really find favour even though it's 'european competition'.

I think it seems there's a real mixture of people who wanted Dean to stay on and were upset and many who thought his time was up and taken as far as he could. That's fair enough based on his last 5 games yes however over the course of his tenure he improved every season and I just hope he gets the chance to progress Norwich next season in likely that they arr championship.

Meanwhile I only see us progressing but that's a combination of things and SG is best wise to keep the crux of the playing squad though seems more changes are in the offing.

The most satisfying is the signing of upgraded players in positions and I very much hope we can all remember Dean fondly overall and not just that it was 5 straight defeats and he relied on Grealish as to me that is unfair to say as his legacy

[Toronto Villa]

It's actually going to be a real challenge to get to 10th places. It's in our hands though and that's fair enough to see now.

What are you on about? We are two points off 10th place at the start of today's games with 18 games to go.

[Risso]

Jesus Christ, if he means that much to you, go and post on the Norwich forums.

[Footy-Vill]

It's actually going to be a real challenge to get to 10th places. It's in our hands though and that's fair enough to see now.

What are you on about? We are two points off 10th place at the start of today's games with 18 games to go.

Context
Actually as it stands 3pts off
Leicester are 10th with a game in hand and if win there's a further gap
Brentford are above us right now because they are drawing

Then comes the question who of the current top 10 are going to fall out of those positions and the places to catch
8 Wolves 9 Brighton 10 Leicester

Not to mention improving teams below us a point behind  Leeds 1pt behind us and improving again with players coming back
Everton have sacked Rafael Benítez and expected go improve.

In between us and 10th places it's not just points it's other clubs too. Palace , Southampton, Brentford are teams Villa expect to finish above but as it stands they are all a point ahead of us.

The real beauty of course is that it's in our hands even if we aren't in pole position.

So I conclude it's very challenges and maybe get ahead of Palace Brentford and Southampton but it's the next step that is still proving problematic

[VILLA MOLE]

Jesus Christ, if he means that much to you, go and post on the Norwich forums.

take carrots as peacemakers

[Beard82]

I think its probably still early to make any sweeping statements about whether we reached a ceiling under Dean.

The amount of work we are doing this window shows the lack of balance in the squad.  I think over the next 7 games we will get a much clearer view.  We have 7 winable games - if we come out of those with less than 12 - 15 points it suggests the problems run deeper.

For my money, were still less than the sum of our parts.  Dont get me wrong, the last 5 games with Dean were awful but think SG still has a lot to do to prove hes an upgrade.