Sold-out Villa Park to roar welcome to Dean Smith

With 42,000 tickets snapped up for the clash with Swansea, it will be an atmosphere of both celebration and remembrance as they welcome their new boss and pay respect with a minute’s silence for the passing of their legendary former chairman.

Villa fan Smith, who grew up in Great Barr, is prepared for an emotional entrance when he walks out onto the pitch ahead of his first game in charge.

The 47-year-old said: “Walking out at Villa Park on Saturday will be the emotional part.

“Then I’ll get my game head on. My family are almost waiting for that emotion – I’ve got people coming over from as far as the U.S. to watch my first game in charge.”

Fans will have to wait what changes he will make to the Villa side which played under former manager Steve Bruce.

Fans will, however, be keeping a particularly keen eye on how Smith sets up his side, with supporters desperate for Villa to get on the front foot and take the game to their opposition – the biggest issue under Steve Bruce.

And key to that will be how Smith employs playmaker Jack Grealish, pushed out wide in the last few games under the former boss – with the 23-year-old’s influence on proceedings subsequently diminished from his more usual central role.

Another area of change could be the captaincy. At Brentford Smith changed his skipper on a weekly basis with the players having their say on who would wear the armband.

Club skipper James Chester is back in contention following a one-match-suspension and Smith said: “At Brentford I made the decision to go week-to-week with captains.

“We had different captains every week and the players chose them. The idea behind it was I have been captain at every club I played for – but I didn’t go in as captain.

“I was never any different, whether I was captain or not. Sometimes by naming a captain you end up missing people who can take responsibility and have leadership qualities you don’t tap into.

“You have your captain and end up speaking to him and trying to relate to players.

“I don’t want a team of players. I want a team that are all leaders. If you only have one or two leaders then all you’re going to create is followers. I want players to take responsibility and become leaders as a group. But James Chester is captain of the club!”

Almost a side issue has been the oppostion, such has been the elation at Smith arrival. Swansea, in 11th place, sit three places and one point ahead of Villa. The Swans are without a win in two games but Smith’s focus in obviously on his own side. And his key message to his players is, quite simply, this: ‘perform’.

He said: “Performance is everything for me. If they can go and perform then you usually get the result that goes with it. And also the other word I always use is togetherness. You can’t go and win a game on your own. There’s a group of players that work together to win the ball back and use the ball and the patterns we want to go and score a goal.”