Ok - I live near the West Mids and have friends who are Villa ticket holders

Mainly love for Dean Smith. A straightforward honest and good manager. Did well at Walsall and Brentford and most Villa fans did not want him sacked and felt Villa had a tough start through injuries etc and would have ended midtable. Like DF he had credit in the bank from the 3 previous seasons and (sadly) it was the only the clubs wealthy Far Eastern owners who wanted immediate results otherwise he would have been given time. Credited with improving Grealish, Mings, McGinn, Watkins etc. Did not want Grealish sold (allegedly Grealish now thinks it was a mistake to leave Villa) but 100 million is 100 million....

He is seen as a manager who will do a good job for us, will steady the ship and if/when we do go down we have a good chance of coming back under his management. If he wants to come to us which Frank did not then that is to his credit. He is a proper manager.

Obviously the issue is that he was clearly not our planned choice as he was sacked the day after DF. That said anyone who wants to come to us (and it seems others do not or could not) is good by me.

Two other points - as others have noted his assistant Craig Shakespeare is disliked by Villa fans. Fact is Villa did do better when John Terry was assistant. I suspect Shakespeare will come as part of the deal but frankly would prefer he didn't and another assistant was sourced. And two - Emi has not been a success - seen as a bit of a waste of money and usually on the bench. As a result he has lost his place in the Argentina squad as not playing enough first team.

Posted By: Saucerer, Nov 13, 12:00:45