Well, yesterday’s post almost seems prophetic doesn’t it?
Not that it gives me the slightest amount of pleasure in saying that.
Along with all Villa fans, I’m now filled with trepidation over who the next manager might be.
And along with all Villa fans, I fully realise we may have made a massive mistake.
We’ve had a terrible record of appointing managers ever since O’Neil left in 2010. You could possibly say Houllier was a good appointment, but even he didn’t work out for us, unfortunately.
I think seven managers since June 2011 says it all, especially when you consider Smith had just over three years under his belt.
But mistake or not, it’s a risk we had to take.
The situation as it was just wasn’t good enough.
I accept that some fans think he would have turned it round, given time, but I’m sorry, I just don’t think he would have, at all.
If I thought it was just down to issues on the pitch, I might have been able to agree with that viewpoint. But I think there’s a lot more going on at the Villa than we realise.
There are simply loads of areas where things just don’t seem right, from Terry and O’Kelly leaving, Injuries, talk of dissent, poor tactics and suspected total lack of belief/confidence amongst the players.
When we look back at things, I wonder if we might actually come to the conclusion that it’s surprising we actually kept Smith as long as we did, with all the problems going on.
Slight aside, but I wonder, was that note that got passed round the players possibly saying that the decision had been taken or was notice of a big meeting or something? It wouldn’t surprise me, but I’m guessing. Many fans thought after the game that the players knew Smith was gone, after all.
Anyway, now we have actually made the choice and it’s probably the best time to do it. Knowing how the Villa work, I suspect that the club haven’t done what many had suggested and start the hunt last week. And the hierarchy now have the international break to source a manager and at least give him a few days to have a chance to try and assess what he’s going to be playing with.
And let’s face it, even with our bunch of injuries, it’s a pretty good squad that is better than many other Premier league clubs’ and ought to be in a better position than we currently are.
If you think we’ve made a massive mistake, just think about that for a second.
Think about some of the players we have.
Let’s go through them;
We have Martinez, who’s currently rated one of the best goalies in the world. Cash has just got an immediate call up for Poland. Mings is an England international. Hey , I don’t agree with that, but he is. Konsa is rated by us Villa fans as better than Mings. Targett has been poor, but there were calls for him to get a call up too, last year, remember.
McGinn, Luiz, Trezeguet, Nakamba and Buendia are all internationals, as are Watkins, Traore and Bailey.
Now whatever you think of them individually, it doesn’t matter. Many managers would be drooling at the thought of moulding those players into a unit that can actually play together in a coherent fashion, with a plan and a proper setup that makes the best use of them. The job will involve having a plan B too.
The decision to sack Smith must have been a tough one, given how likeable the man is on the face of things.
I suspect some of it may have been about saving Purslow’s behind as much as anything and I wonder what will happen immediately?
Will Shakespeare and the rest of the coaches go too?
There’s no mention of that and we all know Shakey has played the role of caretaker on more than one occasion. It probably makes sense that we keep him on for a little continuity.
It would be nice to think we’ve done the same as Middlesborough and replaced Warnock the next day, but that isn’t going to happen. They wouldn’t want to make it obvious they’d gone behind Smith’s back and Warnock was hired on the understanding that it was only a temporary thing anyway. He’ll have got a nice fat payoff.
As will Smith, who still has two years of his contract outstanding, let’s not forget. I don’t have a clue what wages he was on and knowing Purslow, it won’t have been top tier, but let’s guess at £35k a week. It adds up to a nice tidy penny and he certainly won’t be worrying about his retirement and old age.
Not that I begrudge him that in the slightest. He gave us some very good times and I for one, appreciate it.
And where does Smith’s sacking leave Lange?
Is he absolved of any blame purely because he was the one who merely got the players in? And it’s not his fault they don’t do a job as a team?
That’s a tough one for me. If he signed Ings, for example, you have to seriously wonder how he would ever fit into a Smith setup. But then, I’ve said before that I believe Ings was purely a distraction from Grealish’s sale; no more, no less. Hence he was probably under orders to make it happen.
Lange is absolved from blame, I suppose. Some of the signings on an individual basis have been pretty good, after all.
So now the big question is who comes in?
I have a name in my head who I think will be able to use our team to at least something approaching the best of it’s ability.
Now he isn’t the ultimate top tier manager, but I don’t think for one minute we’re going to be able to attract one.
Who’s available? We’d have to poach one from another club and I don’t see that at all. We need to be in a better position first.
Which leaves all what the younger fans call the dinosaurs. That definitely isn’t going to happen either.
Or the young bucks such as Lampard and Gerrard. I like Gerrard, but it’s too soon, for me.
No, there’s one obvious candidate for me. He has previous Premier league experience. He knows how to use the counter, that we have been decent at. He can change it up, if needed. Heck, he even knows the area and is available.
Step foward, Nuno Espirito Santo.
I think he’ll be a name we haven’t even thought of…Just not Bob Bradley.
2 things.
1 Who has the better managerial cv
Gerrard or smith
2 purslows head on the block now if gerrard comes and fails
I think Purslow’s head will be on the block if they fail, whoever it is.
Or at least it should be.
Mind you, Spurs hold on to Levy, don’t they?
My bet now is Gerrard, discussion is McAlister and his coaching staff,.
Everyone keeps saying that Gerard is using villa as a stepping stone to Liverpool.
Well why not cut out the middle man and go for klopp instead
That would show how ambitious our owner’s are and make a big statement.
I’ve been reading up about Gerard and a lot of his success is down to Michael Beale (not from EastEnders)
So unless his staff come as well forget him. McAlister was not bad with houllier either and knows a bit about the club though it’s changed a lot since he was here.
I’ve been weighing it all up in my head for a few days now and the more I see the Gerrard links, the more i’m liking it. IMO (I know not everyone will have this opinion) He is probably one of the best options for us that we can realistically get. Yes, we have money to burn but people like Klopp, Pep, Simeone, Pochettino, Ten Haag, the top managers at the top clubs. We have no chance of getting because we are nowhere near good enough and money alone isn’t enough to tempt them. Our manager job is a bit of a poison chalice too lets be honest. If Gerrard wants it then happy days, He has done brilliant in Scotland, and Rangers are also doing well in Europe so he has enough experience for me. If he can get his die hard attitude across from his playing days to our soft as sh1t players then great. I dont care if he uses us as a stepping stone to Liverpool, because if he gets that job in a few years time it will mean for one we are still in the prem and two, fighting for the top 6 places. I just hope our board get something sorted fast because the longer this drags on the more laughable the Smith sacking looks.
Test
I certainly don’t see the Scottish Premier league as any real indicator of how good Gerard really might be as a manager (and I’ve never really been a fan of the “Scouse Stevie” persona either!) , but I do agree with some of Adam’s comments earlier: we haven’t much chance of tempting any manager currently with a Champions League club any more than we could get any of the top players from those clubs – perhaps short of offering them really stupid-money.
Personally I wouldn’t be keen on any of the international-team managers being mentioned (Martinez, etc) since I believe there’s a huge difference between managing international teams and the week-in/week-out pressure of the Premier League.
My own choice would be Graham Potter, because I think he’s doing a brilliant job at Brighton & would do the same at Villa Park; but I wouldn’t be averse to John Terry coming back either – think that might be a big gamble but might pay-off big – time!
Almost as an aside, I’ve been really pi**ed-off reading comments in various media from some some ‘pundits’ essentially describing us as nothing more than relegation-fodder again, as if that was supposed to be the normal order.
IMO we’ve actually got a much better squad than anyone is acknowledging, and while Dean Smith was a bit unlucky in not being able to get them playing together as a team because of injuries, etc., some of the problems seem to have been developing for a large part of this calendar year – such as the basic defensive mistakes that we’d apparently eliminated in the first half of last season. Surely that’s down to coaching as much as individual errors?
While DS will always remain a legend at Villa for what he did in his 3 years there, I do think that for much of this season he looked as if he had run out of ideas, and his players were looking for some new inspiration that never seemed to come from either him or Craig Shakespeare. The end may have been brutal, but the signs had been there since August…
Nice to have you back on the site, Ardent.
John Percy has posted this and we all know he’s usually on the money;
“Steven Gerrard is on the verge of taking over at Aston Villa after Rangers cleared him for talks with the Premier League club.”
“It is understood Villa have paid around £3 million to ‘sign’ Gerrard and his team, with the appointment driven by chief executive Christian Purslow and fully approved by owners Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens, plus sporting director Johan Lange.”
“Gerrard’s highly-regarded assistants Gary McAllister, who has previously worked at Villa under Gerard Houllier, and Michael Beale will both be joining, while other members of staff including set-piece specialist Tom Culshaw and Head of Performance Jordan Milsom could also be included in the compensation deal.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2021/11/10/steven-gerrard-verge-joining-aston-villa-manager-rangers-allow/
If they’re going to bring Culshaw in, I presume that would mean Austin MacPhee will be leaving soon.
Yep, the whole previous team will be gone, you’d think.
It’ll be interesting to see how many of those team up with Smith in his next role.
The most interesting part will be to see whether Richard O’Kelly comes out of retirement to join DS at Norwich, or wherever.
Very true. I suspect not, personally.
Big aside, but have the Premier league suddenly developed some morals?
One industry expert told Telegraph Sport: “Newcastle will find it hard to buy players from some Premier League clubs in January because they would rather see them relegated than take their cash. Some clubs just won’t sell to them.”
Blimey!
Nope, can’t see any morals in football.
Suspect they might just squeeze even more money out of them, knowing that the Saudis have the loot.
At the end of the day if a player wants to go there (£’s) and Toon pay the money (££’s) then the agents will make a move happen (£££’s) – like a certain Mr Grealish went to Mancs…
I’m warming to the idea of Gerrard coming in with his whole team, particularly McAllister, who is a very good number two and has previous experience with Villa under Houllier.
I assume (and hope) MacPhee will go; he doesn’t seem to have added anything and may well have contributed to Smith’s downfall considering our woeful recent record in defending set pieces.
I hope Neil Cutler keeps his job; it seems he’s highly regarded as a GK coach and it’s hard to see where he’s failed in his role.
Should Gerrard come, there will be those demeaning the quality of Scottish football but he’s been managing a massive club with enormous expectations and has taken them back to the top of the pile, repeatedly beating Celtic in the process. He also has good experience in Europe which was / is missing from Smith’s CV (that’s not a criticism of Smith – purely an observation).
Given the way the media operate, Gerrard will also raise our profile and, I believe, help to attract top players to the club.
Probably appoint someone else now I’ve writhe all that 🙂
You know what Ardent, I’ll be following Deano where ever he goes.
I have so much respect for the guy. If he does go to Norwich, I’d love it if he kept them up.
It sounds like Stevie G for us then…Don’t know what I think about that to be honest.
I like Dean Smith.
As I wrote earler, I think he’ll be a legend at Villa for what he did in his time here.
I just believe that his time at Villa was already coming to an end, and it just happened to end last Sunday (-or Friday night) rather than at the end of November, or December.
As for Gerrard, I’ve never particularly liked him (however good he was as a player) or for that matter partticulalrly disliked him either! If he’s appointed then I hope it works out well.
One further point.
Gerrard has been linked with a number of managerial posts – it will be quite a coup if we can persuade him to join us.
UTV
Funny some here thinking we’re not good enough to attract a top tier manager. Jose was still a top rated manger when he went to Spuds and they’re no better than us. Spuds had Kane. We had Jack.
Jose ?
The one who left ManU under a cloud, who was already well past his pomp and out of a job when Spurs came knocking?
And hadn’t they just reached the CL finals a few months before he joined?
Exactly. He, along with Benitez are yesterday’s men. Another reason why Gerrard would be an excellent signing. His star is rising and he could well prove to be one of the top managers in a few years – reminds me a bit of Rogers about a decade a go. Very very high standards is where it starts. I believe he has them and will set them for the Villa squad, raising the standard of what is in place currently.
How does one define ‘a top tier manager’ ?
Regular CL experience and won at least one title, in my opinion, Hitch.
Good answer that BFR, that’s been our nemesis all these years. I like Hitch warming to Gerrard as we move on, thing is its not too late changing now with reverse fixtures coming soon but we must now get behind our new manager, according to the media our owners will throw money in for experience players, thing is will they come, that pay cap gone out of the window and money talks.
Looking forwards to our new regime that’s if it comes..
Bill, as I said earlier, I think Gerrard (if it’s going to be him) will have ‘pulling power’ and backed by NSWE’s money can persuade good players to join us.
January, not the time to invest heavily but we may have to.
Let’s hope we’re in a happier position by then and can plan for the summer transfer window.
UTV
Nice piece about Cash on the BBC web site
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/59200794
He’s one player we can always rely on.
And this update from Sky Sports. Looks like Gerrard’s a done deal.
https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/12465235/steven-gerrard-rangers-manager-set-to-join-aston-villa-on-two-and-a-half-year-deal
Villa announce Gerard as new manager with McAllister.
Welcome to Villa Mr. Gerrard UTV
Gerrard confirmed.
Welcome to VP Stevie G. All fans need to get behind him now. I know that we are a stepping stone to Anfield in his dreams. He will however need to be successful with us to achieve this.