Dean Smith what a disappointment…..

[Ken Hairy 3,772]

You've only got to look at Villas improvement since he left to have alarm bells ringing. If he couldn't get a much better Villa squad playing well, then he's got **** all chance here. 

Decent bloke, sure, but bang average manager at best. 

[Canary dwarf 221]

10 minutes ago, Ken Hairy said:

You've only got to look at Villas improvement since he left to have alarm bells ringing. If he couldn't get a much better Villa squad playing well, then he's got **** all chance here. 

Decent bloke, sure, but bang average manager at best. 

Harsh it's not his side , he signed none of these players . Did you think he was gonna make sarge  a goal machine ?😚

[Indy 3,298]

5 minutes ago, Canary dwarf said:

Harsh it's not his side , he signed none of these players . Did you think he was gonna make sarge  a goal machine ?😚

Steven Gerrard didn’t buy any of the Villa players but looks to have turned them around into a decent side! Not sure what arguments you can have about squads, Smith took a 190 million squad and was sacked, Gerrard bought in to improve their performances and has. Smith hasn’t here,if he was any good he’d still beat Villa!

Edited December 26, 2021 by Indy

[Canary dwarf 221]

1 minute ago, Indy said:

Steven Gerrard didn’t buy any of the Villa players but looks to have turned them around into a decent side! Not sure what arguments you can have about squads, Smith took a 190 million squad and was sacked, Gerrard bought in to improve their performances and has. Smith hasn’t here!

Good point villa have certainly improved under Gerrard .😄

[TheGunnShow 5,940]

Haven't Villa had a fair few players come back from injury though?

[Indy 3,298]

6 minutes ago, Canary dwarf said:

Good point villa have certainly improved under Gerrard .😄

Indeed they have 5 wins since Smith departed!

[Ken Hairy 3,772]

15 minutes ago, Canary dwarf said:

Harsh it's not his side , he signed none of these players . Did you think he was gonna make sarge  a goal machine ?😚

We're the Villa players he couldn't get playing, which led to his sacking "not his players" either?? 🙄

[Samwam27 527]

It could simply be Gerrard is a good manager and will continue to be so.

smith took villa up then kept them in Premiership for 2 seasons.

atm we look bang average and none of these players were playing well under farke, and same for smith, so you cant blame him for unheriting this lot

[Ken Hairy 3,772]

1 minute ago, Samwam27 said:

It could simply be Gerrard is a good manager 

Kind of undone your own argument there, this suggests Smith then is not. 

[Canary dwarf 221]

1 minute ago, Ken Hairy said:

Kind of undone your own argument there, this suggests Smith then is not. 

Time will tell but the last two performances have been shocking , but with Farke wee was deffo going down , Webber decided to roll the dice and we'll see what happens.😚

[orsen456 12]

4 hours ago, keelansgrandad said:

Speculation is fine but not proof. We really need to stick to facts.

Okay here are the facts.  This team stunk under the old guy and they stink under the new guy.  

[Indy 3,298]

8 minutes ago, Samwam27 said:

It could simply be Gerrard is a good manager and will continue to be so.

smith took villa up then kept them in Premiership for 2 seasons.

atm we look bang average and none of these players were playing well under farke, and same for smith, so you cant blame him for unheriting this lot

So Villa trade up and we’ve not! Exactly what we’re saying…. Smith is bang average and Webber said when he became available there was no other choices in his mind! That’s sad for us!

[Canary dwarf 221]

1 minute ago, orsen456 said:

Okay here are the facts.  This team stunk under the old guy and they stink under the new guy.  

I think everyone privately knows that , but people want too be optimistic and look for green shoots of recovery.😆

[canarydan23 4,060]

5 minutes ago, Samwam27 said:

smith took villa up then kept them in Premiership for 2 seasons.

Given the money at his disposal, wouldn't keeping them in the Premier for two seasons be the absolute minimum?

Put it this way, if we had £120 million to spend at the start of 19/20, how do you think Farke would have done with us? Survival easily.

Smith is no better than Farke, you can see that from the fact that Villa were just two points behind us in the Championship wben he took over and from that point on couldn't cope with us and wound up miles behind. It took Tanzania's deficit of a transfer budget and the ability to pay treble us on wages that allowed him to get ahead.

Was sacking Farke wrong? I'm not convinced the Brentford game wasn't a turning of a corner that would have preceded a good run of favourable fixtures (home v Saints and Wolves and away v Newcastle) that made our season. But I am open-minded to the idea he couldn't hack it at this level.

So say it was correct, was getting Smith in to replace him sensible? I thought no at the time and after 7 games that's changed to hell no.

[birchfest 397]

Give a top Chef bad ingredients and they will struggle to make a good meal. You have to feel a little for Farke to be honest, we know he's a good manager but really he's now had two goes at the top flight with teams not good enough.

 

It's as simple as that, we don't have enough players that are top flight quality; Krul, Normann and Pukki (and in form Aarons) everyone else is either playing well under their potential, like Todd, or probably the maximum of their potential like Hanley but just aren't good enough to be a solid mid table Prem player which is what we need them to be.

 

Hard to dig out Smith. Had no part in the transfer market that has built this squad, heck we can either say we know he likes Buendia! He's got a team that is currently 20th on merit. I hate to say it, I love the club and I want the players to succeed, but that is where we are.

[Herman 9,756]

16 minutes ago, orsen456 said:

Okay here are the facts.  This team stunk under the old guy and they stink under the new guy.  

Facts are simple and facts are straight...👍

[Mullet 293]

4 hours ago, Herman said:

No, not happy at all. I thought the appointment was a good one but we have gone nowhere other than backwards. Shame really.

I think DS is a better manager than Farke. Points per game prove that so far. Farke's points per game in the PL was 0.5, Smiths is higher at 0.7. Over the course of the season that is an additional 8 points.

I think the biggest problem here is buying players not at the required level and hoping they step up. In hind sight the club should have bought good championship players. 

[kingsway 94]

Things needed to change, try something else, Farke was getting very samey, so he had to go. I don't blame him for all the failings this season cause Webbers recruitment at top flight level is factually very poor.

 

Dean Smith wouldn't have come here in a million years if he hadn't been sacked by Villa, but he done a half decent job there and at Brentford before that and has an experienced bloke with him in Shakespeare.

 

But like I said earlier, you can't polish a turd, the squads not anywhere near good enough and thats when fully fit let alone when missing 4 players who'd be 1st choice picks!

Edited December 26, 2021 by kingsway

[Alex 26]

32 minutes ago, Samwam27 said:

It could simply be Gerrard is a good manager and will continue to be so.

smith took villa up then kept them in Premiership for 2 seasons.

atm we look bang average and none of these players were playing well under farke, and same for smith, so you cant blame him for unheriting this lot

He had 330 million to spend since Villa come up and he had Grealish to his disposal. Villa would have been relegated in their first season if it wasn't for the goal line technology incident.

Edited December 26, 2021 by Alex

[Bournemouth Mafiosa 0]

One can only assume that Sorensen was not 100% fit as I believe he should be the first name on the team sheet along with a fit Byram, Omabamidele and Normann as 2nd 3rd and 4th. Otherwise we seem to have a below par squad lacking resilience and desire. Whether it’s Dean Smith or Farke, working with the snowflakes we have ain’t gonna result in much. Webber has been found out, question is, who can pick up the baton?

[Rock The Boat 1,330]

I feel quite angry that Webber sacked Farke when the main cause of our failure to compete has been the poor quality signings. Webber should have done the honourable thing and fallen on his sword. Instead he took the cowardly way out and sacked the man under him.

Smith is a good manager with a proven level of success, ditto his assistant Shakespeare. But both these guys cannot get a tune out of these players.

The problem is that Webber is in an almost untouchable position. He has total power over other members of staff and our owners have a hands off approach when it comes to CEO/Sporting Director level. Webber, like McNally runs the club as he sees fit. In the end, McNally basically sacked himself after getting on Twitter one drunken evening, and offering up his resignation. we need our owners to toughen up and get rid of Webber and let Smith take charge of January signings to prepare us for the championship next season as there is no telling what Webber might do. 

[Petriix 2,835]

42 minutes ago, Mullet said:

I think DS is a better manager than Farke. Points per game prove that so far. Farke's points per game in the PL was 0.5, Smiths is higher at 0.7. Over the course of the season that is an additional 8 points.

I think the biggest problem here is buying players not at the required level and hoping they step up. In hind sight the club should have bought good championship players. 

It's only reasonable to judge that over a similar time frame. Their results over each of their last 7 matches are basically identical. Smith is no improvement over Farke.

[Kenny Foggo 1,116]

4 minutes ago, Petriix said:

It's only reasonable to judge that over a similar time frame. Their results over each of their last 7 matches are basically identical. Smith is no improvement over Farke.

Wow... I believe Farke was poor in his first season in a poorer division. 

Smith is not the problem our business model and / or those responsible for it are...

[Yellowhammer 86]

Could be the shortest manager in post in history looks pretty useless that’s why villa got rid and lampard did not want the job , smith was desperate to get another job 

[kingsway 94]

Smith took Villa from mid table Championship to mid table Premier League and started the snowball effect at little Brentford who are playing some of the best football in their history in recent years. At Villa like with Farke here he had reached his sell by date.

 

Probably the best option we had. As for Lampard, just a name! 

Edited December 27, 2021 by kingsway

[Midlands Yellow 3,980]

If there’s a cheap option going we’re always first in the queue. 

[kingsway 94]

Players aren't good enough for this level regardless of whos in charge!

Edited December 27, 2021 by kingsway

[Duncan Edwards 2,231]

I’m neither going to pan Smith, clamour for Farke or hammer Webber for the recruitment.

Probably bits of it are all true. I’m not sure we can hammer recruitment when we have suffered injuries and illness. I know other clubs also experience it, but you would have to be ignoring the obvious if you think it doesn’t affect the smaller clubs worse. Less depth.

Farke. We were poor. Really poor. I liked him a lot, great guy. He had a rough start to this season and some might think it was harsh to sack him on the back of a win. Perhaps. But I’m not sure we were all that good and maybe nicked one, but if you work on a results based ethic, he may have been fortunate to be in charge. That said, if we’re really forward thinking, would sacking the guy that has taken us to two championship wins sensible? Had we already seen enough? Possibly.

Yet, the consensus was that perhaps we weren’t being coached to the players potential. We had a new manager “bounce” that took in an undeserved win against Southampton (their keeper dived over two headers and they could have been out of sight at half time) and two 0-0 draws. If you take the United “fight” out, we’ve been bloody awful.

It has to be said that we’ve lost players like Normann and Rashica just as they looked like they were finding their feet and showing some form. We can’t put out a full strength side and the mystery of Cantwell remains, but we’ve been so bad.

First half against Southampton, Villa as a whole, today…

There is mitigation but we’ve been just as abject under Smith as we were under Farke.

Utterly depressing. Yeah, we’ve been “unlucky”, but there is no spark, no creation, no guile, no cuteness. We’re predictable, slow and way too easy to play against. We don’t have a single player that a defender would be worrying about the night before the game. Pukki? If he got in behind, maybe. But who can open that lock? Other than that, are defenders spending their nights worrying about Sargent, Placheta and Dowell? Are they bollox. Pipe and slippers stuff for defenders.

Smith deserves a chance with our “weapons” available and to see what he can do with them, but God, this is depressing. 
 

Merry Xmas everyone. 

[CDMullins 436]

Biggest issue for me, is that we are unable to put out a starting 11 that is better than the starting 11 we had last season.

Oli/Emi are not easy to replace but we've spent plenty enough dough.

Your manager can have all the tactics, systems and philosophies in the world but if your players aren't upto it, you've no chance.

You don't stay in the Premier League with a team of Hanley, Gibson, McClean, PLM, Placheta, Pukki (with absolutely no backup/alternative)

We've wasted so much money, our commitment to buy Dimi/Gibson were rediculous. We can't afford to have a £7M left back on bench (He absolutely should be first choice btw, that's another story) and a £10M wonder kid in Tzolis whose "one for another day". Sentimental signing of Gunn for decent money to sit on the bench 

And Josh Sargent, Josh f**king Sargent.

[City 2nd 191]

You simply cannot purchase other sides ‘cast offs’, and those with long term injury history,  yet alone hope that inexperienced youngsters (purchased to sell on to keep this club afloat as per emi)  free transfers and loanees  will form a team to compete at this level. There has to be a new transfer policy and new DofF as well as new owners for NCFC to be anywhere near competitive at this level of English football.

I have said it many many times…….

‘no one can make a silk purse from a pigs ear,’ although the expectancy of Stuart Webber, Delia Smith, Michael Wynn-Jones and Daniel Farke is that you can! Unfortunately two of those listed are ‘yes’ men, and now Dean Smith and his team are facing up to that reality. 
 

it is no joke when the DofF suggests that he previously sent a manager into battle with one hand tied behind his back, so what about this campaign Mr Webber! You sold our best player before the season started, yet  It’s so much worse and you alone carry the can!

Edited December 27, 2021 by City 2nd