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“Divine Intervention” – A Defence For Dean Smith, But Not Excuses

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With plenty of Aston Villa fans giving their thoughts following Watford’s unfortunate victory over Norwich City on Tuesday evening, and the resulting impact on our own slim survival hopes, forum member goode9 offered up his thoughts and they are worthy of a wider audience.

Vital Villa’s Relegation forum thread.

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So much has happened since I last posted which I think was last time we got relegated, that pathetic team that whimpered to relegation under Eric Black after the Remi Garde debacle. I wanted Tim Sherwood to be the man to restore the glory days, then I so wanted it to be Dean Smith. Bruce, in my opinion, was always there to serve a purpose, settle us down after a succession of failed Managers and upheaval.

That final whistle at Wembley last May felt like a new beginning and a wave of optimism followed throughout an exciting summer. Unfortunately, life as a Villa fan is never that simple. All we crave or the vast majority of fans I associate with crave, is a team we can be proud of. Win, Lose or Draw a team that gives its all. I don’t hold Smith completely accountable for this season, I think the man has been hamstrung by another ‘new way’ that stinks of Tom Fox and Paddy Reilly. That being said decisions tactically have been weak and I do believe he needs to reinvent himself.

We were promised a ‘go for it’ brand of football but for that you need players who have completely bought into a Managers philosophy. You need fit players and players that are hungry and we haven’t got that. What we got are more lads who think they’ve made it the minute they sign on the dotted line at Bodymoor. How many of these have we seen in the last decade?

For me it was simple, lose Tammy and Axel you replace them with someone capable of banging in 15-20 goals a and someone quick alongside Mings who is a pure defender. We did neither.

I don’t think a LB was a priority, Hause for the money we got him for competing with Taylor and Hutton, who I’d of kept for a season would have been fine. In my opinion, it was criminal not signing the two Brentford lads Maupay and Benrahma. They were so key to the aggressive attacking style Smith wanted. So much money wasted, Again I shudder.

We are a team bereft of ideas other than give the ball to Jack. I think last night (Tuesday) the fact that we were depending on Norwich to get us a result tells us everything we need to know.

So frustrating and so disappointing the ”GO” we’ve had at it. These five games we have left in my opinion are the biggest five games in our recent history and the worst thing is we can’t be there to support.

I just pray we somehow get a divine intervention.

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Savo Milosevic arrived at Villa Park in the summer of 1995, which club did we sign him from?

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2 comments

  • DJFRANCE says:

    I agree with most comments in a very good article. Not sure about the ” wasted money ” as ( apart from Trezeguet ) I can see the reason behind most of them. One point which, in my opinion, has been overlooked is JG. He is a fantastic talent – I did all I could to try to keep him at Villa in a very modest way – but he is also one of the reasons we have had problems this year. He is not a captain and he does – either by poor tactics or his own wish to help – play out of his position all the time. He has to stay upfield just behind our ‘ striker(s) ‘ where he can most benefit the team. Going back deep to pick up the ball is not the answer and he needs a real captain ( Mortimer/Petrov/ Vic Crowe etc ) to tell him so. Additional problem is that, unfortunately we do not have leaders in the squad – apart from perhaps Mings & Heaton.

    • Andy5759 says:

      I have noticed a few online articles referencing Douglas Luiz’s leadership qualities. Maybe he and we are being prepped for his captaincy. It’s not often the best player who makes the best captain, it’s not often that a forward player does either. Jack needs someone to tell him where to be, that someone should be behind where he needs to be, as he’s looking forwards. Mings and Heaton fit that bill, being behind play, but neither play in such a way as to affect forward moves very much. If Jack leaves, my money would be on Luiz to be our next captain and I don’t envy him the task. UTV, wherever we play.

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