I’ll get Scott hot
SMITH OUT TO REVIVE HOGAN
NEW Aston Villa boss Dean Smith has promised to try to get £12m flop Scott Hogan firing again.
Smith, 44, will face a sell-out
41,000 crowd for his first game in charge against Swansea today.
Local lad Smith, a lifelong fan, will have a tingle down his spine as a packed Villa Park welcomes him home.
And he will tell Hogan – and all his players – to lap up the atmosphere and get a taste of what could be.
The 26-year-old was a prolific scorer for Smith at Brentford before his bigmoneCyAmPTovIOeN1:8emugonths ago. Butehrcei’lsiqduisaatpepuegaarietd off the rfgakdjadrkafjnkdghjdisf oklgdjkboksjfsgis determined to get to the bottom of it. Smith said: “He will figure like everyone else. I’ve worked with Scott. I know what he’s about.
“He obviously hasn’t hit the ground running here but he certainly has the potential to do it.
“But so has Tammy Abraham and Jonathan Kodjia.
Work
“I will be treating everyone the same and with the respect they deserve.”
Smith is desperate to get Hogan back among the goals and firing Villa towards the play-off places.
He added: “When I sit down with Scott, I will ask him why he thinks it hasn’t gone so well since he has been here. He knows how I work. He also knows he will have to work hard.
“I will be respectful to him as long as I am getting the work on the pitch.
“It is a big football club to come into.
“He came in as No.9 and probably didn’t get the goals he needed to get him going. That is our job now.”
Smith says his last message to his players as they step out will be quite simple.
He said: “Perform. Performance is everything for me. If they can go and do that, then you usually get the result that goes with it.
“The other word I always use is togetherness. You can’t go and win a game on your own. But I can’t wait, it should be brilliant.”