I saw an article on Saturday night that mentioned Wolves manager, Nuno Espirito Santo as possibly someone Villa might be sniffing around as a replacement for Dean Smith.
I was contemplating posting something about that straight after, because it’s an interesting thought, but got side-tracked and forgot all about it, as you do.
But it’s been mentioned again today, which has reminded me. Plus I’ve been asked to post a poll asking if Smith should stay or go.
It makes perfect sense to post the two subjects combined.
I like Nuno. He plays football the right way. Or at least did last season.
From what I’ve seen, Wolves have been quite a bit more cautious this season and it seems his concern was that they would be found out. Hence they’re not quite the swashbuckling team they were previously.
And it’s something that’s been demonstrated in the results, as they’re not flying as high as they were.
I think the reasoning that some fans want him is that he is tactically astute and he could do even better than he has at a club with Villa’s resources. I can’t say Wolves have shown that they won’t spend, but that’s not something I’ve looked into at all.
Whatever, if Smith were to get sacked (and I’m not advocating that at all) I think I’d be reasonably happy to see Nuno come in.
But obviously there are options.
I can’t think who they are, but Rafa Benitez is available isn’t he? I like him too. He takes his job seriously and sets incredibly high standards by all accounts.
Given that he left his last club because of Covid, it might just be a case of good timing too, at the end of the season.
Or perhaps there’s someone else you have in mind?
Post them up, if so, as it will at least make for discussion.
Meanwhile, I’m interested to see how this poll goes.
I don’t think I need to explain anything really, but the points for and against Smith are pretty obvious.
FOR He’s the one who’s got us where we are and we’re on target for where we wanted to be. The players seem to like him. His football can be entertaining. We had a top 6 first half of the season.
AGAINST He’s spent a fortune. He doesn’t seem to be able to manage games very well. He seems to have favourites. His football can be awful. We had a relegation second half of the season. We could have done so much better.
I suspect it’ll be “he stays” at this point.
I voted stay.
For now.
I really don’t know ,spoke to lots of Villa fans for and against and its made me think like you . I’ll still argue the fact his picking of the team and substitutions are somewhat strange. Another thing I’m clocking in his teams we have the same type of play week in and week out, other clubs know our play and catch us out time and time again. We need another striker that moves and plays like Grealish think like he does, being able to move forwards and less of passing back, seeing that Chukeuwaka makes me think why have we not given him a go, and that makes me think Smith hasn’t a clue or his coaches don’t. I’ve not voted because I’m not sure.
I voted stay too. He has done very little wrong since he walked through the door in Oct 2018.
There’s a very accurate saying that applies to football “be careful what you wish for…”
Smith and Purslow are building the club back up, let’s not forget it’s only just over 2 years ago that we were losing 3-0 away at Wigan in the Championship!
Bill, yes, the play is often limited, agreed.
But I think we have to fair and consider that the options on the bench are even more limited.
I’m willing to see him get a few more players in so he can mix it up a little. With more competition you’d expect better performances too.
Steve, wise words.
Stay. He’s earned the right for at least one more season. But he’s far too cautious for my tastes. A little more daring and adventure. Earlier substitutions. Use more kids – if they are good enough they are old enough. But I agree with an earlier poster – be careful what you wish for. The grass is not always greener.
My problem with Smith is that I feel the team lacks self belief. Too many times we are on the back foot to ordinary sides. I feel we could get more out of the current squad. I don’t agree with him picking the same side when players haven’t performed and excludes some players almost completely, doesn’t change things when it’s clear we need to, and has ignored the chance to give a couple of the youngsters a bit of pitch time.
The owners will have discussed Smiths position. It really depends on how patient they are and what level of trust they have in him to deliver what they expect. I’m of the opinion that the time for a new manager isn’t 10 games into next season, but at the end of this one. I would expect a top manager to have some input into recruitment so why wait until he can’t affect that. Add to that it will be much harder to recruit one the season is under way. I like Smith and would like him to succeed but I have doubts that he will, at least to the level that fans and the owners will demand.
I’ve no idea who that manager should be though.
I have voted stay till at least 8 – 10 games next season. I think Smith has achieved the targets set for each season so far and deserves another opportunity to push on next season. He will have a huge transfer kitty available to him so the pressure on him will intensify to challenge for a top 8 minimum. We will have to overtake the likes of Leeds, Everton and West Ham and anything less won’t be accepted by the owners or the fans. He is still learning himself in terms of premier league experience so hopefully the things that he needs to improve on will be rectified next season.
Slightly contradicting myself with the thought that if we do wait for 8 – 10 games next season and we have a rubbish start, do we risk missing out on a top quality manager? We probably would end up with Terry or Shakespeare being given caretaker role!
That’s the thing isn’t it?
There’s loads who ask for Terry and I despair at that.
Lampard sacked, Rooney will be too soon and Gerrard has done ok in a two horse race.
Do me a favour.
It has to be kids, who think it’s the thing to do, who are asking for that.
Where’s the evidence that these “never done it before” managers are any good?
I would like to think our owners/Purslow have a plan B in place.
And there won’t be a caretaker for long.
If Smith does get sacked. And I’m not convinced he will.
Stay – another Villa roller coaster season but we’ve seen that there is the foundations of a very decent team here.
Lack of experience and depth of quality in the squad continues to be a factor and for all of us asking Smith to play the kids let’s remember we already have the lowest average age squad in the league. As an aside, Palace have the oldest and that extra experience (including at managerial level) showed on Sunday.
Losing Grealish for a third of the season and the Covid outbreak must also have affected our results in 2021, as have injuries to key players such as Cash and Barkley has been a shadow of the player since his hamstring injury – something not right there.
The run of great results in 2020 coincided with Smith being able to play the same 11 every week; I recall a consensus view at the time that we were being lucky with (no) injuries.
If I have a gripe with Smith it’s – why keep playing Ramsey, yet leave Nakamba on the bench?
So it’s all now down to the summer transfer window as next season is the key to our future trajectory.
And appointing either Terry (even less experience than Smith) or Shakespeare (always going to be an assistant manager) would be a disaster.
Fortunately I believe if Smith goes our owners will go for an established, experienced name and we now have the financial clout to attract someone like Benitez who would demand a substantial transfer budget.
Very hard vote, there’s no doubt villa have overall achieved their target. But I wouldn’t say over achieved in a way.
I think Terry could be pinched before next season to manager his own team and I personally hope he does. He’s know doubt be somewhat of a positive influence but I think he’s a character that walks a fine line at times and could change the tides if not happy.
I’m going to put my neck on the line here but I actually think Now’s the time to let Grealish move on if he wants to! And I stress if he wants to! No new contract as he has just received one.
The reason I suggest this is I honestly believe we have seen the best of him in the premier league.
I also have so many frustrations with how we are seen without Grealish and how is put on a pedestal above all when talking of our squad.
He’s fantastic there’s no doubt, but other players in this squad are capable of achieving equal success.
Martinez, Konsa, McGinn, Luiz, Watkins and don’t get me started on the youth.
Did anybody see Watkins win a clearance in the middle of the pitch and with a chance to catch palace in the break. El ghazi was a better option on the right, clearer run and already running at pace, Grealish was almost just of from a stand still in the left with a man or two in front but however an also promising situation. Watkins made the pass the Grealish, the pass intercepted and end of threat. It’s these moments of imbalance and how we view ourselves that really tick me off!
So for me if he stays great and add balance but if his hearts somewhere else cash in and build around what we have left.
I think West Ham was the beginning of the end for Grealish fairy tale.
Sorry!
I voted to stay,so far he’s making improvements every year while also learning and remember villa are year’s behind the other top team’s in premier League due to mismanagement and years in the championship. It takes time and money to catch up.
Leeds had several years to build a solid foundation in the championship. In a way villa got promoted to early maybe another year in championship to set up the way we wanted to play and players getting to know each other better with less pressure.
I may be wrong but last year should have been the year we got promoted.
Build year on year for sustainable development.
What about an old head like the palace manager in to help Smith you must remember he’s still learning himself in the premier League against some of the best managers around. Just a thought ☺️
I voted stay too. But like others have said i have my reservations about Smith and how far he can take us. If you could offer me Benitez now and a £200m transfer kitty for him then i would be very very tempted to say time to change.
Tom makes a point about letting Grealish go if he wants to leave which will be tested during the summer break if he links up with England squad. As much as I love watching Jack play when he is at his best, there is a concern we are one dimensional with him in the team. There were signs before his injury that teams like West Ham found a way to stop him and ultimately the whole team. Maybe if we can get somewhere around £100m for him that it would benefit us overall if money reinvested. If he stays then we must look at ways of attacking which doesn’t purely flow through him.
Interesting stat I read that El Ghazi has scored more premier league goals than the following:-
Jesus, Foden, Werner, Raphina, Mount, Ferran Torres, De Bruyne and James Rodriguez! Maybe we have been too critical. If he can improve on his tracking back and getting his head up for a pass when shooting is not the best option, then maybe he can become a world class player. The Dutch obviously see potential in him.
Holte, I’ve consistently been a fan of El Ghazi. He’s got 10/goals this season; only Watkins has scored more. He can play anywhere along the front line and has a great shot and eye for goal. He’s also a decent crosser of the ball.
Defending isn’t his forte but then there are plenty of world class players that aren’t expected to ‘track back’ in order to justify their place in a team.
Smith has to build a team that works as a unit playing to strengths and covering weaknesses.
We keep on about buying a striker and playing a front two – well why not El Ghazi and Watkins – they have 25 goals between them – are we missing something?
That argument falls apart when you use the term “world class”. I think if El Ghazi played like Messi we wouldn’t have much complaint.
Probably got carried away with the ‘world class’ reference. 😏
Another thing to consider if a big offer comes in for Grealish is the possibility that he has long term injury issues that need managing. This season and our final championship season he has missed a third of games played. He is constantly kicked when he plays and it must affect him over a period of time. I get the feeling that he calls it when he wants to play or not. I’m getting a bit annoyed with the fact that we are becoming Jack Grealish FC when listening to commentary on Sky or whatever. Not Jacks fault but it’s a state the club has gotten itself into.
Turning to tomorrow nights game – actually I’d rather not.
Our recent record against Spurs is worse than dismal – it’s scandalous. We’ve lost 12 of the last 13 and lost 5 on the bounce. The only time we don’t lose to Spurs is when we’re in the Championship.
It gets worse – Kane has scored 7 goals against us in the last 6 meetings.
Spurs are on a run of 13 undefeated Wednesday night games (w12) whereas we’ve contrived to lose all 5 of ours this season.
Easy prediction then Villa to win 0-1
I really must stop smoking this stuff 🙂
They will be up for it Hitch. Maybe Kane’s last home game with fans back. It could be a mauling! Possibly Mings back will add some leadership to the defence. Traore needs to be dropped because they will overrun Elmo like Palace did.
Play Nakamba and Luiz central in a defensive midfield with McGinn, Grealish and El Ghazi behind Watkins. Thoughts?
To be honest, Smith has not had a single bad season at Villa, if we are still in this form by Christmas I’d be shocked to see him stay, especially if we do spend £260 Million as projected. If we make the right signings I actually wouldn’t be shocked to see a consistent Europe push this season, but if not then we seriously need to take a look at things.
We’ve had an overall good season but goals do change, long term goals have been achieved, but short term wise we didn’t because our goal was to push for Europe and we can’t back out and deny that goal now just because we disappointingly didn’t achieve it.
Next season should be exciting though, hopefully not a toxic Villa Park like last season and a bit more positive energy, trust me the fans give such an advantage, I’ve noticed it with a lot of the games I have watched this week.
On that basis, Smith in.
Alfie, just a small point.
That £260 million has been misread.
It was poorly written in the Birmingham Mail. Where it said “Smith has been handed”, it should have said “Smith has already been handed”.
That’s an interesting shout about Villa Park.
I listened to a fan tonight on WM. He reckoned that Smith would have come in for major stick from the fans since Xmas.
Hause retains his place, Konsa moves to RB instead of Elmo and Mings back in the side. Nakamba in for Luiz and Grealish starts alongside El Ghazi and Traore. Watkins up front.
Well we’ve been asking for Nakamba to be given an opportunity….
I quite like the look of that line up – not that it will change the result 🙂
Does that mean we are going three at the back?
More like five at the back.
Smith has talked about not giving Spurs as many chances as we gave Palace.
Then again, no. Standard 4.
It shows the lack of options when Traore stays in.
He’ll probably play a blinder now I’ve said that lol
Aston Villa: Martinez, Targett, Mings, Konsa, Hause, McGinn, Traoré, Nakamba, Grealish, El Ghazi, Watkins.
Subs: Steer, Taylor, Elmohamady, Luiz, Chukwuemeka, Wesley, Barkley, Philogene-Bidace, Ramsey.