Matt Maher: Dean Smith was the best thing to happen to Aston Villa in years
Appointing Dean Smith was Villa's best decision for years.
Though his achievements were not perhaps quite enough to earn the status of an all-time great, he will proudly sit in the pantheon of former Villa managers just beneath the likes of Saunders, Barton and major trophy winners, alongside Vic Crowe as a man who helped breathe new life into the club.
Comfortably the best appointment for more than a decade, during three years at the helm he restored excitement and hope to a place becoming riddled with apathy and despair.
When Smith arrived Villa were in the bottom half of the Championship. He got them up, kept them up and stabilised them in the Premier League, creating countless memories along the way, from a club record 10 league wins in a row and promotion at Wembley to the Great Escape from relegation and the 7-2 thrashing of Liverpool. With Smith at the wheel, the ride was rarely less than thrilling.
Yet amid the unforgettable highs there were also lows and Smith’s reign has been brought to an end primarily by a sudden and unexpected fall from which he was unable to recover. Five straight Premier League defeats have left Villa hovering just above the relegation zone and - more importantly in the eyes of the club’s hierarchy – further adrift of the top eight finish they believe is a realistic target.
Smith, who through a decade-long managerial career has proven time and again his ability to dig his way out of a hole, was convinced he would have righted the ship again once key players – including summer signing Danny Ings – were back fit.
There are many who will agree with that view, this writer among them. But the club’s billionaire owners Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens are thought to have viewed the club’s results across the whole of 2021, which has seen them lost 18 out of 35 Premier League matches, as indication of longer-term regression.
Attention now turns to chief executive Christian Purslow and sporting director Johan Lange, the men tasked with finding Smith’s replacement. Bold though Villa’s ambition might be, their position in the league is precarious. They simply cannot afford to get their next move wrong.
Smith was a resounding success yet the circumstances which led to his appointment in October 2018 are a reminder how selecting a manager often requires an element of fortune. Had Monaco not been a more attractive option to Thierry Henry, it is likely the Frenchman would have been hired by Purslow as Steve Bruce’s successor.
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Smith’s background as a lifelong Villa supporter made him instantly popular with supporters but it was success in the dugout which made him loved. He quickly built on the work of Bruce, who had halted the club’s decline but not quite possessed the necessary magic to get it flying. For the first time since the height of Martin O’Neill’s reign more than a decade previously, watching Villa was fun again, the connection between fans and players, once so badly broken the latter used to fear home matches, fully restored.
Since March 2019, Villa Park has been sold out for every match supporters were able to attend, while there are more than 20,000 on the season ticket waiting list. The demand is unprecedented in the club’s history and much of it down to the work of Smith.
It wasn’t only among supporters he restored belief. Players too benefited from his coaching and man-management. Sawiris and Edens have invested heavily since he took charge but the majority of those signed are worth more than they were bought for.
Unquestionably Smith’s best work was with Jack Grealish, an immensely talented player with whom he quickly forged a close bond. It was Smith who got Grealish playing the best football of his career, the decision to make him captain ranking among the most effective of his reign. Much has been made of the disparity in results during periods when Grealish was not available but the accusation Villa were a one-man team, fair or not, ignored Smith’s work in improving that man.
Still, moving on without Grealish was always going to be the big challenge this season and Villa’s record of seven defeats in 11 matches makes grim reading.
Yet Smith would argue his efforts to rebuild were hindered by a slew of injuries, illnesses and international call-ups which prevented him from ever fielding a consistent starting XI. Already, Matty Cash is Villa’s only ever-present in the Premier League.
Even the longer-term record requires context. Villa might have lost more matches in 2021 than any other top flight club but they have also played more, following the January Covid-19 outbreak which ripped through Bodymoor Heath and left them playing virtually the final two-thirds of last term in the space of four months.
Though Smith was not short of fortune during his reign – the outbreak of the pandemic occurring just when he appeared to be on the brink of the sack in March last year – he could argue with some justification that over the past 10 months luck has rarely been on his side.
Clearly, the club came to the conclusion he was no longer the man for the long-term but it is questionable whether they had to act now. Smith still had the support of his players and the likelihood was that, when injury concerns inevitably settled down, Villa would have begun climbing the table. Pulling the trigger is not without risk.
For Smith, who never sought to play down his love for the club, the first dismissal of his managerial career will be the most painful. Yet he leaves with his reputation considerably enhanced, having succeeded in a post in which many others have so miserably failed.
Villa supporters should and always will be grateful for his outstanding work. The challenge facing the club now, in appointing his successor, is to ensure it does not go to waste.
