Supporters Have Given Him Massive Slack As One Of Our Own

It was suggested in the forum thread for Dean Smith, before the sacking just announced, that Smith was getting a rough ride.

I posted the opposite in response:

I’d argue against that. I think the support in the general fanbase, here, social media (not so sure, I am avoiding these days) and at games is very generous towards Dean Smith.

As usual, there are some who have never taken to a manager, that always happens (me with Lambert is one example for myself) but I think the support he has had, some of it well deserved, has been very high.

But you look at this and same as you, I’m not out out out, I’m not in in in, but you have to wonder.
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Bonker then put a very good post in on the situation. And although times have now changed with the removal of our manager, I think it is worthy of reading. Smith should be going with our thanks.

I check out the twitterati vibe every now and again and it seemed to turn very heavily against DS a couple of weeks ago, it wasn’t anything like that a month ago.

The problem with the “one of us” back-slapping support is that you inevitably end up with Gabby running the team rather than a top, experienced, professional manager.

These things always end up polarised – “one of us” can very quickly turn into “local, inexperienced, chancer more concerned with his golf game and what’s turning his nose red than what’s happening on the pitch”, in the eyes of the working class masses at least, and that’s a problem.

The 2021 form* is something I’ve mentioned before but there’s more to it than just that stat.

*we have lost the most games in 2021, within the Premier League….

We can all play the mitigating circumstances card re Grealish going but the reality is that we had insight into how that would be early in the year when he was out for half a dozen games and we crumbled.

Buying players to help replace his influence ***and who would fit into the current team/squad*** shouldn’t have been that much of a challenge having seen how badly it went without him during that period and having worked with the squad for three years already.

Interrupted pre-season, international games etc, all taken on-board in mitigation but we’re officially the worst team in the PL both before and after those buys and we’ve dropped >£300m on it now.

I actually like the three players we bought, Buendia, Ings & Bailey – the first two are undeniably proven at this level ***in the right team/style of play***. Bailey was always going to be a wild card but we’ve seen what he’s capable of, same with Buendia in fleeting moments but no player is going to look good under these disorganised, non-team circumstances.

Teams are built by linking complementary parts together on the pitch whilst managing games as they’re happening – DS appears to be unable to do any of that. We must have round pegs in round holes all over the pitch and someone capable of realising that it’s going wrong 15 minutes into a game, not after 75 minutes, and capable of doing something effective about it there and then.

An acceptable level of mitigation for me would be mid-table but we’re plummeting. Ultimately, we’re three years into this, we’ve dropped an enormous sum of money and we’re destined for the Championship again for sure.

That can’t be allowed to stand, Dean Smith and/or Purslow have to swing for it and very soon