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.
Comments
119 responses to “Smith sacked; Will we come to regret this decision?”
Haha, I think I need to get a grip and calm down a bit 🙂
I don’t know why I’m getting so wound up about it really.
Que sera, sera etc.
It’s probably the fear of us messing it up, although that’s not really logical as the hierarchy did make a good appointment in Smith.
Yes, I think his job description was head coach, Hitch, which makes his sacking even more understandable when you look at it from that point of view.
And yes, I’m convinced that at least some of our signings were not wanted by Smith.
Ok, me being me again let’s define manager and head coach .my take is a manager is in control of his department, a head coach is in control of activities, is that right?so in Dean Smith’s time at Villa he was head coach and in charge of training and not managing. So why does people take on jobs that mean nothing in being someone. I’m lost . Sod it I’ll just be a old git.
Bill, broadly I reckon you’re absolutely right. Managerial decisions were not in Smith’s remit so I’m really not sure how much say he had in who we bought – that, I think, ultimately fell to Lange to decide as it did Suso before him.
I really don’t see how that can work other than if Lange only buys the players Smith recommends. However Suso was removed for a poor record in transfer dealings!? Clear as mud!
I’m joining you in the grumpy old git brigade Bill 🙂
Howe gone to Newcastle
What as Hitch, Head coach or Manager? It now means your the gaffer or do as I say . Bloody rediculas now all this who’s who.
Head Coach – it’s all the rage these days 🙂
What about Owen Patterson? He’s free as of last week?
But he’s lost his lobbying potential 🙂
Sounds like he likes the odd brown envelope…allegedly…
I don’t buy this head coach nonsense. Who gets the first tin-tack for duff results?
That man is the team manager, call him what you like. Any man in that role needs to have a veto over who comes in. Obviously it is not his money so if he puts forward a player the club cannot afford, the manager has to work with the existing players and a budget.
It follows that a Director of Football or other fancy title may be able to veto a manager’s wish list, and force through a sale of a player the manager wants to retain. That is the reality and a manager can only resign if he feels undermined.
What the director of football should not be able to do is buy a player the manager does not want. I don’t think that happened at Villa.
Coaching staff is another story. The Director of football may oblige the manager to accept a specialist assistant, or fire one, against the manager’s wishes. That may well have happened at Villa.
Certainly this site seems to back you up OLL;
https://jobs4football.com/what-does-a-director-of-football-do/
The coach generally gives the director a list of players. But they have to be on the same page. And even then, I’m sure Purslow could have over-ridden both of them.
It’s believed that we kept Ings holed up in a hotel until it was the right time to announce him.
Add that to “do you think Ings was a good fit in a two for us?” and then you can decide if Smith wanted him.
I personally don’t think he did and I believe he was bought as a deflection, as I’ve said.
If Smith did want to play him as he did, well that’s something else he got wrong, I guess.
The only thing wrong with Danny Ings is his propensity for injury. That was true at Southampton and we don’t seem to have cured him. The fact that he does not gel with Watkins as a pair is entirely the fault of Watkins. Ings passes to Watkins but Watkins does not pass to Ings. Which is a problem because Villa’s hoof-balls upfield always go to Watkins.
We bought Ings to improve our chance to shot on target conversion rate, something at which McGinn, Traore, Treseguet and Davis were poor.
At least we have something to talk about now during another pointless international break.
With all the names passed around there is one not mentioned who I think would be a good fit for villa and be able to take us to the next level plus use and improve our youth players.
It’s pochettino I know he’s at PSG but if you want to succeed you have to try for the best you can.
Better still try getting pep apart from winning the champions League he’s done everything with man c. It’s about time he had a new challenge 😂 plus it would piss grealish off😂
Roy, I agree in principle but that ship has sailed. I recall saying several times that Poch was available when Smith was struggling badly in his first season in the PL around Christmas time when people were calling for his head; it was about the time of the horrendous defeat at Watford when we looked dead and buried; the board chose not to go for it. Now he’s out of out league. The same could happen when Gerrard rocks up at another PL club and smashes it.
Badger, I’ve just read that Shakespeare has gone and might join Watford as assistant to Ranieri,
The Sun (OK it’s the Sun 🙂 ) have Gerrard as our number one target but ‘quote’ Martinez as being interested in the role.
Telegraph saying that Norwich May shift their focus from Lampard to Smith following his sacking.
It’s the managerial (sorry Head Coach) merry musical chairs season 🙂
Think Badger did mention he had gone Hitch and not surprised, its telling me they know who’s coming .
That’s my feeling as well Bill. No mention of anyone taking the reigns ‘in the interim’
I’ve come to the conclusion that the media do not have the slightest clue who will be coming in.
My guess is we will not have an appointment this working week and it will not be Gerrard.
I don’t know why, I just feel it in my water 🙂
that’s just a urinary infection, badger
🙂
Graham potty it is then
ThirdGen, Steve, I like it 🙂
The media might not but i bet the club does, you wait and see.
I suspect they have a list but I don’t think they’ve decided yet Bill.
So you think it’ll be sorted quickly?
I hope you’re right, as it’ll give the new man more time to assess.
Kasper Hjulmand has ruled himself out.
Which is totally uninteresting because he was only ever ruled in by the press!
I’ve been closely looking at Sky Sports and it was interviewing someone from Rangers, they asked if Villa have approached Rangers!! The reply was no…
I’m sorry the more time goes on, the more names that are thrown around, I can’t help but think we’ve made a huge mistake.
The thought of smith potentially taking over at Norwich makes you realise just how much of a quality manager he is.
Yes he has his faults but one thing I think we can all say for sure is he never lost the players respect. They came out fighting after every crap 1st half.
It’s such a shame players don’t get sacked and moved on like the managers do.
My boss could have me removed fairly swiftly if he wanted, so why can’t football managers have that hold over players.
“They came out fighting after every crap 1st half.”
Let’s not forget it was those crap 1st halfs that were the problem, Tom.
Perhaps we have made a mistake. It’s the Villa, after all.
But we were going nowhere as it was, imo.
Roberta Martinez flying into Birmingham saying the Birminham Mail ..
It’s ok , ( they are playing Wales)
It would be ironis if smith norwich up and we go down
Sorry just found my glasses ironic and kept
Wasn’t solskjaer on a plane to birmingham once and 1/11 with the bookies to be our manager. 99.9% of the talk is just BS.
We’ll just have wait like the ITKs !!
Indeed he was, Steve.
You have to laugh.
I like Hitch’s approach; how many will we be linked with?
The bloody Evening Mail is amongst the worst of the lot.
Even the Rangers’ sites seem to have accepted Gerrard is already gone.
They know nothing, but it’s loads of stories for them.
Roberta Mancini? His missus????
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.