THE BOARD WILL HAVE A DECISION TO MAKE!!!

[AstonThriller]

Alright lads, been away for quite awhile because I've just gotten so board and disillusioned with Villa In recent months. It just seems that we're stuck In an never ending cycle of hope followed by despair. We've been taken over three times, spent a shit ton of money, seen quality player after quality player come in (Gana, Veretout, Adama, Bolasie, Abraham, Terry, Snodgrass, Ayew etc have all been at this club over the last four years for example), switched managers five times and STILL, here we are languishing In mid-table of the championship. I mean who the f#ck has it come to this?

Dean Smith, bless him, looks a little out of his depth right now tbh. I wasn't overly excited when others were calling for him to get the job because anyone who has followed the Brentford story knows they are a club that rely more on their structure/philosophy than who the coach is. This is why they are starting to turn it around now because they have a clear direction that they follow and everyone knows their roles. To his credit he started off very well and the football we played against the likes of Derby and Boro was outstanding, but the value of a decent manager is to get results even when you're missing a few tools In the tool box. Leeds appointed Paul Heckingbottom In February last season and In sixteen games he won four and lost eight. They sacked him at the end of the season and appointed a proven, big name in Bielsa. Then we can look at Wolves, they let Lambert go and got in a champions league manager In Nuno and look what happened? Benitez also breezed through the championship as well.

Then you can look at the other side of the coin. David Wagner pulled off miracles at Huddersfield and Slavisa Jokanovich has TWO promotions from the Championship with two different clubs. What happens between now and the end of the season remains to be seen. BUT, If the club are really serious about achieving promotion from this McGrath forsaken league, then they are gonna have to think long and hard about what direction they wanna go In In the summer. Big names rarely come In this division and fail, and then you have proven managers also waiting on the market. Smith might be "one of us", but the bottom line is results at the end of the day.

[DelboyVilla]

The main issue is going to be what will be our strategy for next season and will this be dictated by FFP or have our new owners and CEO got a clever way around these rules? One thing is for sure we will likely have a huge change of personnel in the summer as many contracts are up but we are still stuck with a couple of expensive failures as well (McCormack and Hogan). Grealish I am sure will be allowed to leave for the right offer and this may be our major source of funds for rebuilding along with a few others like Kodija and Adomah? Now if we are going to follow the Brentford model then we may as well keep Smith as so far the new players in for January seem good and have performed well thus far.
When you look at the current top 4 in the Championship you have a real mixture of managers and Bielsa is not exactly running away with the league? In fact Farke is top, a relative unknown quantity in the mould of a Wagner type manager, Chris Wilder is second, an unfashionable British manager at a club he has an affiliation too, a Smith type manager, the Bielsa third spot, the biggest name in the top 4 and Darren Moore in 4th, a first time manager.
Therefore I don't think that there is an argument for a 'big name' for every Nuno Santos there is a Sean Dyche and for every Rafa Benitez there is a Eddie Howe?
Our biggest problem seems to be handling the expectation of managing the Mighty Aston Villa and this is a problem for both managers, players and owners?
Our set up seems to have improved behind the scenes but I do worry about having a Spanish DOF and a close relationship with Mendes as we are yet to see either of these be of benefit yet?
We are clearly a Premier League club based on ground, set up and fanbase but unfortunately replace the small clubs in the Premier League is not easy because of the money issue. The likes of Bournemouth, Southampton, Huddersfield, Burnley, Brighton, Watford, Fulham, Leicester and Cardiff can all out spend us.
We some how need a change of luck and we cannot let our knuckle-dragging neighbours finish above us this year!

[deadbuzz]

Managers like Dyche, Howe, Wagner, Wilder, Moore, and others are doing it, or have it done it, at club's with far less expectation than you get at Villa... Plus how long did it take for those clubs to find those managers, and how long did they stay out of the top flight in the meantime? The answer is a long time. I don't think we can afford to keep giving our managerial job to coaches with potential, in the hope that eventually one of them turns out to be the next Eddie Howe.

Eventually we're going to have to give the job to someone with the least amount of risk as possible, rather than keep taking chances on managers who might come good for us, because they've done it at smaller clubs, or in lesser leagues.

What happens with Smith I'm not sure, but he's going to have to improve between now and the end of the season, as two wins in fourteen, and one in nine at Villa Park is just dreadful, and if that form continues, then I don't think the owners will have much choice but to get rid. Going into next season, we have to be as sure as possible that we've got the right man, we don't want find ourselves ten game in having to sack Smith, and then playing catch up yet again, and with a limited number of managers that we can go for to replace him.

Our season is over, but next month could be a big one for Smith.

[big ming]

Not going to happen unless he fails to get a good start next season. The Board have only just overseen his recruitment in an "exhaustive" process so they would look pretty stupid having to sack him. He is Head Coach not Manager. He has had to deal with a bunch of highly paid but technically incompetent players who he would not have chosen.
After a clear out, he will have a squad that he has approved as part of the recruitment process and they will be chosen for attitude as well as skill.
I'm as disappointed as anyone that the excellent Derby and Middlesbrough performances have not been matched recently but he has had to cope with the loss of key players and had no choice but to play some poor replacements. Give him time and I think he will come good.

[Dions_Bald_Head]

I'm sure that the board are disappointed that we're not going up this season, but I'm not so sure that they'll be thinking about changing the manager yet. They're almost as new to the club as Smith is so, unlike us, they have the benefit of not having sat through over half a dozen seasons of frustrations, disappointments & crushed hopes - that'll make them a little more patient.

[deadbuzz]

Pretty much every time a club appoints a new manager or head coach, they trot out the line of it being an 'exhaustive process', or words to that affect, if Smith isn't doing what's expected, they aren't going to stick with him, just because they might look a bit stupid, they'd look a lot worse if they stuck with him, and he continued to fail, which is pretty much the mistake that our previous owners and board made with Bruce.

Also Smith having injuries to deal with, and not having his own players, is only an acceptable excuse to a degree, it doesn't excuse the run of form that we've been on, when you look at our available players they're better than two wins in fifteen.

I think our form will improve before the season's over with the return of Grealish, and Tuanzebe, and also Carroll coming into the side, which will should be enough for the board to give a chance, but if things don't improve, then I can see them getting rid, no question. We can't go into another season being unsure about a manager, and saying if he's not good enough we'll just bring in a new coach after ten games, we'll be playing catch up yet again, and chances are we will have wasted yet another season, if Smith stays on, we have to be as sure as possible that he's the right man.

And don't forget that we've got Garcia Pitarch in place as Sporting Director, with the idea being that if we ever need to change head-coach, it won't cause too much disruption, it's he who's running the football side of things at our club, so it won't be Smith rebuilding the club in the summer, he'll have a say to some degree, but Pitarch will be the main man for recruitment.

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