Dean Smith

[Eastie]

6 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

Well yes, wolves clearly have better recruitment and a better manager. They also have a super agent which has allowed them to bring in quality players that clubs like wolves usually don't sign. 

Nothing you've said matters. In the previous 10 years we have finished in the top half of the Premier league twice. We have spent the last 3 years in the championship and without a miracle run of games, would still be in there. 

You can spout ambition and where you think we should be but it means nothing. Your ridiculous expectations are more of a problem than the manager. We are a newly promoted team. The aim should be to survive this year and build from there. 

If the CEO expected better then he and his team should have done a better job in the transfer window last summer. We have built a squad barely good enough for this league. Your ambition means nothing compared to that. 

Maybe the ceo expected his manager to get more from the players at his disposal . 
As the season progressed we got worse rather than better . 

[DCJonah]

1 minute ago, Eastie said:

May I ask How long you’ve followed the club ? Maybe the older fan base have different levels of expectation to the younger followers who have seen years of struggle  and toil . 

I'm 39 and have followed us since being a kid. 

I said back in the summer (ill try and find the post) that for this season, as a club we need to change our mentality. We need to accept that we are a newly promoted team and survival is the only goal. Thats how I felt then and still do. 

Now if we stay up, then the expectations get raised and we need to build something. But this year I think its ridiculous to expect us to be anything more than a team fighting for survival right till the final game. 

[DCJonah]

1 minute ago, Eastie said:

Maybe the ceo expected his manager to get more from the players at his disposal . 
As the season progressed we got worse rather than better . 

Then his scouting is awful because these players don't look capable or more. 

And he should have sacked him way back if his expectations were higher than just surviving. 

[Eastie]

1 minute ago, DCJonah said:

I'm 39 and have followed us since being a kid. 

I said back in the summer (ill try and find the post) that for this season, as a club we need to change our mentality. We need to accept that we are a newly promoted team and survival is the only goal. Thats how I felt then and still do. 

Now if we stay up, then the expectations get raised and we need to build something. But this year I think its ridiculous to expect us to be anything more than a team fighting for survival right till the final game. 

Fair enough - I thought 12th to 14th would have been realistic target this season , and then kick on from there but now I’d happily take 17th . 

[DCJonah]

1 minute ago, Eastie said:

Fair enough - I thought 12th to 14th would have been realistic target this season , and then kick on from there but now I’d happily take 17th . 

I thought we might be able to do more than just survive but it soon became clear that our recruitment was going to limit that. 

Only signing one attacker in wesley, luiz and nakamba struggling with the pace. Engels looking like he is running in water, trezeguet with no pace and no brain. I mean the list goes on with regards to our summer signings. 

If we can survive then I think we can build something. I'd expect us to be clear of relegation next year and then build again. For me though we just didn't do enough in the summer. 

[Demitri_C]

5 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

I'm 39 and have followed us since being a kid. 

I said back in the summer (ill try and find the post) that for this season, as a club we need to change our mentality. We need to accept that we are a newly promoted team and survival is the only goal. Thats how I felt then and still do. 

Now if we stay up, then the expectations get raised and we need to build something. But this year I think its ridiculous to expect us to be anything more than a team fighting for survival right till the final game. 

But its not just our expectations its the manner in which we perform and lose games. I cant speak for everyone else but i am sick to death losing games from a winning position.  I dont recall a manager doing this as often as smith does.

 

[Eastie]

8 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

Then his scouting is awful because these players don't look capable or more. 

And he should have sacked him way back if his expectations were higher than just surviving. 

Purslow in  the summer - 

Our ambition is to surprise people. Outside of Birmingham there will be people who don’t follow these things closely, who think we are just another promoted team, who will struggle and likely go straight back down. 

“No-one, not least me and (boss) Dean Smith, believes that is the case. I could not be more confident in the team. I think we are going to have a fantastic season.”
 

https://www.expressandstar.com/sport/football/aston-villa/2019/07/18/aston-villa-target-two-or-three-more-signings-with-summer-spree-set-to-continue/

[DCJonah]

2 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

But its not just our expectations its the manner in which we perform and lose games. I cant speak for everyone else but i am sick to death losing games from a winning position.  I dont recall a manager doing this as often as smith does.

 

Again I agree. But for me, and only for this year, surviving is all that matters. If we don't then Smith and the club have failed. But if we do, I really dont care how ugly and bad its all been. 

That stuff I'll care about next year when we start to build something. Right now its not priority. Smith is not doing a great job, he's not my dream manager and he doesn't get a free pass. But in his time here he has exceeded my expectations and is 3 points away from meeting it for this year. I just can't turn on him when that's the case. 

[DCJonah]

Just now, Eastie said:

Purslow in  the summer - 

Our ambition is to surprise people. Outside of Birmingham there will be people who don’t follow these things closely, who think we are just another promoted team, who will struggle and likely go straight back down. 

“No-one, not least me and (boss) Dean Smith, believes that is the case. I could not be more confident in the team. I think we are going to have a fantastic season.”
 

https://www.expressandstar.com/sport/football/aston-villa/2019/07/18/aston-villa-target-two-or-three-more-signings-with-summer-spree-set-to-continue/

Its a quote I'd expect him to make publicly. But if he thought our summer business meant we were going to have a fantastic season then he's deluded. 

[DCJonah]

6 minutes ago, Eastie said:

Purslow in  the summer - 

Our ambition is to surprise people. Outside of Birmingham there will be people who don’t follow these things closely, who think we are just another promoted team, who will struggle and likely go straight back down. 

“No-one, not least me and (boss) Dean Smith, believes that is the case. I could not be more confident in the team. I think we are going to have a fantastic season.”
 

https://www.expressandstar.com/sport/football/aston-villa/2019/07/18/aston-villa-target-two-or-three-more-signings-with-summer-spree-set-to-continue/

This quote.

Discussing the club’s transfer strategy with supporters during Villa’s pre-season trip to the USA, Purslow said: “We have signed players who are known, who have been watched and tracked. It is highly strategic. I think that will stand us in good stead.

Really shines a bad light on our scouting and recruitment team. 

[Eastie]

4 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

Its a quote I'd expect him to make publicly. But if he thought our summer business meant we were going to have a fantastic season then he's deluded. 

Not sure what he meant by fantastic but he certainly did not target 17th as success - I spoke to him in sept and got the impression he was looking at maybe top 10 - clearly smith was not told 17 th was the target . 

[Eastie]

4 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

This quote.

Discussing the club’s transfer strategy with supporters during Villa’s pre-season trip to the USA, Purslow said: “We have signed players who are known, who have been watched and tracked. It is highly strategic. I think that will stand us in good stead.

Really shines a bad light on our scouting and recruitment team. 

I agree questions must be asked by the owners of purslow and Suso too - not just smith . 

Edited June 22, 2020 by Eastie

[thabucks]

46 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

I agree. I don't think Smith is doing a great job, I'm not defending him because I think he has been brilliant this year. 

This is what I expected. A relegation fight right till the end. 17th was our league title this season. Its been uglier than I thought it would and there have been some lows, but overall my mindset all year has been we are a newly promoted team fighting to stay in this league. 

I think claiming this season is a disaster and its all appalling is just so over the top. 

I was of a similar train of thought in regards to expectations In terms of final league position. That said I expected as a minimum clear team evolution as the season progressed, a defined style of play to be implemented and learning from our mistakes. All I can see is regression with no discernible approach to the game, poor tactics and in game management with a stubbornness and failure to learn from mistakes. I just don’t see Smith changing his approach as a manager sufficiently and I believe he has breached his ceiling in terms of capability. 

[lexicon]

51 minutes ago, TRO said:

There was enough players around Giroud, it wasn't like it was an open goal.....in fact he was swamped by our players.

we just ball watched and true to form..........just ALLOWED him to do his thing.

This team of ours has a deep rooted flaw of passiveness.

Not really, Hourihane has gone to block it and it took a big deflection. The moments leading up were a good, fast move from Chelsea - unless of course you think their players are incapable of getting things right from time to time. 

First goal for me was forum favourite McGinn's fault. He's closest to Pulisic but didn't drop back to help out defensively and we were overloaded. 

[rodders0223]

6 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

This quote.

Discussing the club’s transfer strategy with supporters during Villa’s pre-season trip to the USA, Purslow said: “We have signed players who are known, who have been watched and tracked. It is highly strategic. I think that will stand us in good stead.

Really shines a bad light on our scouting and recruitment team. 

...or the management that is failing these players? They are not all horrific players. They all very capable of passing the ball in a triangle to each other.

 

 

 

 

 

Trezeguet aside 

[thabucks]

8 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

This quote.

Discussing the club’s transfer strategy with supporters during Villa’s pre-season trip to the USA, Purslow said: “We have signed players who are known, who have been watched and tracked. It is highly strategic. I think that will stand us in good stead.

Really shines a bad light on our scouting and recruitment team. 

Or how they are being utilised ? Why is recruitment solely to blame and not smiths management abilities ?

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

35 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

Its a quote I'd expect him to make publicly. But if he thought our summer business meant we were going to have a fantastic season then he's deluded. 

Nah I think you might be deluded if you think this is ALL down to the players if I'm honest.

As I always say, truth is usually somewhere closer to the middle.

Even if the players are as garbage as you suggest they all are, a decent manager should be able to have the basics in place to allow us to at least compete.

He has shown ZERO creativity or proactivity, we are the most predictable team to play against, Opposing managers probably even know our subs and sub timings at this point. (Extremely disappointed based on what we were sold, and the way we started with him)

I'm sure there are ways we could utilise this crop of players much more effectively then they have been.

These players look confused alot of the time and show little to no desire way too often.

This would appear to be a trickle down effect, they are either unhappy, not being trained correctly or not on board with whatever the "vision" is.

Fans wouldn't be so upset if we even showed the basics.

 

Edited June 22, 2020 by JAMAICAN-VILLAN

[Eastie]

6 minutes ago, thabucks said:

I was of a similar train of thought in regards to expectations In terms of final league position. That said I expected as a minimum clear team evolution as the season progressed, a defined style of play to be implemented and learning from our mistakes. All I can see is regression with no discernible approach to the game, poor tactics and in game management with a stubbornness and failure to learn from mistakes. I just don’t see Smith changing his approach as a manager sufficiently and I believe he has breached his ceiling in terms of capability. 

Seems to me he has changed from having a go earlier in the season and matching some top teams at times to going into a defensive shell where we look like frightened rabbits .

we are far too negative in our play and look a really poor side now - I thought as the season progressed the more we would gel as a team and improve but we look at far worse team now than we did in September . 

[DCJonah]

2 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Nah I think you might be deluded if you think this is ALL down to the players if I'm honest.

As I always say, truth is usually somewhere closer to the middle.

Even if the players are as garbage as you suggest they all are, a decent manager should be able to have the basics in place to allow us to at least compete.

He has shown ZERO creativity or proactivity, we are the most predictable team to play against, Opposing managers probably even know our subs and sub timings at this point. (Extremely disappointed based on what we were sold, and the way we started with him)

I'm sure there are ways we could utilise this crop of players much more effectively then they have been.

These players look confused alot of the time and show little to know desire way too often.

This would appear to be a trickle down effect, they are either unhappy, not being trained correctly or not on board with whatever the "vision" is.

Fans wouldn't be so upset if we even showed the basics.

 

I don't think its all down to the players. I don't think Smith is doing a very good job. 

We have competed. Hence 3 points off safety. A few individual mistakes cut out at the end of 2 or 3 games and we'd be sitting 16th. 

 

[DCJonah]

6 minutes ago, thabucks said:

Or how they are being utilised ? Why is recruitment solely to blame and not smiths management abilities ?

Sorry, I agree with this. Its a combination of both. I do feel these players aren't up to much better than this.