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| We will miss you Dean. We will never forget what you did for Villa. |
Today my favorite football club Aston Villa fired their manager Dean Smith. The team has lost five matches in a row so the owners (Milwaukee Bucks owner Wes Edens and Egyptian billionaire Nassef Sawiris) decided to pull the plug in order to shake things up. It's a bold move that will definitely come with mixed reactions from the fanbase.
For me, it came as pretty devastating news. Smith was a boyhood fan of Aston Villa - his dad worked at the stadium when Dean was young so he spent his childhood going to matches. He also orchestrated Villa's miraculous rise back to the Premier League back in 2019 when he first took over as gaffer. There was a lot to love about the connection Dean and the club had and now, on the heals of the worst stretch in his managerial career, that connection has been severed.
A major reason why I fell in love with Aston Villa was their unique position within English football. They have rich history, major trophies in their case, and - at the time - a manager and a captain that were local boys and fans of the team. It was all so cool and Hollywood - Jack Grealish was the youth academy darling who grew up in Birmingham and Dean Smith was the Midlander who was making his father proud. Fairy tale stuff.
But, alas, the business of football came knocking on the door this year and the book was shut. Grealish left to go play for Manchester City - a place where he'll be coached by the best in the game and paid top dollar. And Villa, sitting in 16th place in the EPL table, have shown Smith the door and now find themselves in a relegation battle. All that pride that swelled from the fanbase being able to boast about their gaffer and captain being "their own" is now gone. Brutal.
Ultimately this latest decision's grade is pending, as the owners have yet to name Dean's replacement. That will be the biggest tell of all in terms of what Edens and Sawiris truly want to do with this club. If they want to make it to Europe in the next five years like they say, they'll need to go and get a big-name manager with pedigree. Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Kasper Hjulmand, and Paulo Fonseca are names I've seen that could be potential upgrades. I've seen other names like Ralph Hassenhuttl, John Terry, and Graham Potter that feel less inspiring. I'd say more than half those names don't jump out as instant needle-movers. Maybe Gerrard or Lampard, but the rest are unproven in the English game (I guess Terry but he's never been a manager).
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| Jacky Boy in his new Man City gear...gutted |
Sadly The Villans are now lumped with the rest as the rollercoaster tosses and turns. They no longer have their local dream boy and they no longer have their loyal manager. It's a bummer to see the real world/business side of things beat out the fanatic storybook side of sports, but that's the way it goes at the very top. I'd happily sacrifice Grealish and Smith if it meant Europe in a few years and perennial top half table results for the next decade plus. But nothing in this game is guaranteed - it could just as easily be relegation this year and a decade plus of stagnation. That's the horrific beauty of sports, and European football specifically - that razor thin edge between glory and oblivion.
Let's hope AV bring in a legit replacement, I'm hoping they make an announcement soon so the new gaff can get a couple weeks with the lads during international break. For now, the Villan Army waits with bated breath.
UTV.
- ZB James
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