Peter Griffin

Who is our pen taker today if we get one? Bailey?

I assume the logic is that if we lose a few more games then Dean will be sacked and it is going through the pain now and we will be better for it in the future. I am not quite there yet, I really hope we get 3 points today but I understand the perspective.

It will work in 6 months time

I wanted him dropped but i am surprised he has actually been dropped

Its a pity Ings is injured, I really wanted to see Deano make the decision to drop one of Ings and Ollie as opposed to injury forcing the decision

Doesn't have to be a fall out. Deano is clearly under massive pressure and it is great to see him react

If we play like we did for the 20 mins Bailey was on the pitch then it may not be a bad thing

Its such a pity he was not a pundit for the Liverpool game. It would have been good viewing

I like Smith and I like having a Villa fan that is a nice guy as our manager but obviously Villa comes first and I have no issue with Dean (or any player) leaving. Change is always an opportunity to improve imo

I keep saying to myself that Norwich must win a game at some stage and thinking that I will put a bet on them. Maybe tomorrow is the day to put a few quid on Norwich to beat Leeds and do us a little favour

He will deserve to be gone by Jan if he continues with something that is clearly not working. I expect him to change it though. We will find out tomorrow afternoon

I have to say, Vieira is really impressing me. This season is a genuine rebuild for Palace, 9 new players and 12 left and a new manager. If Arteta wasn't on a good run I expect Arsenal would be talking to him

Smith is under immense pressure imo. The results today really didn't help him

It is looking a very very dicey situation for Dean. He will be under real pressure. The timing of the international break could could against him too. If we have a 2 week break and are on the back of 6 losses it could be the opportune time to make changes

I agree, it is not a job that appeals to the better managers. Also, they will be somewhat limited in their spending in Jan as they will have to take into account relegation and that will reduce their FFP loss allowance. Relegation will no doubt make them loss making next season, if they add a few high wages to the club, including manager, and some big transfers they could get into trouble with FFP. Relegation will definitely put theirs plans back by quite a few years. It would be quite funny if the Saudis got pissed off and sold the club back to Ashley next year accepting a loss of about 150m

How is it discrediting what we have done. It is looking at it objectively. On one hand it is said we played a weakened team but we can't acknowledge when a the opposition do that?

How difficult is it to comprehend that looking at the facts and the weaknesses does not mean u are not a Smith supporter. Blinding yourself to reality is not a great idea, it tends to end in disappointment.

Okay, if u want the fielding weakened side as it was not an important game and maybe the performance wasn't great does that also include Arsenal when we beat them in the league (2nd last game of the season) which was necessary for our survival a few weeks before they played the FA Cup final and there was nothing for them to play for in the league, were they trying their best to beat us or does that argument only count when it suits the narrative? Edit: 2nd last game of the season before last when we survived relegation by 1 point, not 2nd last game of last season

Weakened team is a BS excuse, they were league Champions and the better team. So we got a point from the last 2 games and still only finished 3 clear of 7th. I am not sure what point you are making, you appear to be arguing that we didn't need the 10 wins, I conceded we only needed 9 wins. How many are you saying we need from the 10 games?

Okay we may not have need 10 wins but the two games to spare which we lost I believe but we finished 3 points above 7th so maybe we needed 9 wins out of 10. We could go into GD but then we need to look at the teams we played and if we lost the wrong game then other teams could have finished above us as they would have got another 3 points

I can't answer that as I was over the moon when we appointed Smith, it was a great choice by CP and NSWE

I agree with a lot of what u are saying but there is a limit to how much time we can give him for each bad run / dip in form and as we spend more money and the longer he is in the job the amount of time he is given will, and rightly so, be reduced. There is no doubt that if/when Dean does leave Villa that he will have left us in a better position than when he joined. But that was determined about 8 months after he joined us as he won promotion for us. Thanks Deano, loads of credit for it, I am. not discounting what u achieved etc etc. But he was never going to keep the job after spending 144m on players if he was relegated. I agree 15th and he will be gone and for the recored, I believe that would be the correct decision. A couple of places above that and he may keep his job but it will be up for discussion. I do believe the expectation of NSWE is for top 10 and a push for Europe (Europa). I agree, if he stays he will be given significant funds but the following season he will be judged very harshly. If after 9 games we are in the same position as we are now he will be gone. It is not good enough this season, but his previous 3 years is keeping him in the job, next season that won't count for credit in the bank

It is not claiming that the 12 games were good, it is the recognition of the 10 game winning streak without reference / acknowledgement of the previous 12 games. How many comments have said he went on a 10 game winning streak to win us promotion. Yes, this is true but he wouldn't have needed to if he had won more than 2 of the previous 12. I like Smith but the discussions on here have huge difficulty recognising his weaknesses and discussing these and discussing whether Smith is actually improving these weaknesses

Kenneth?

100% agree