Smith wants to see Villa become part of a ‘Big 10

ASTON VILLA boss Dean Smith would love the Premier League’s Big Six to become a Big 10 in the future.

But, In the meantime, Smith’s sole focus is on his high-fliers gatecrashing this season’s Champions League places – or, at the very least, securing a Europa League spot.

Villa can take another significant step towards that immediate goal with victory over Leicester this afternoon.

The Foxes, third in the table, are where Smith’s team wants to be in terms of overall development at their club. Smith admitted as much while discussing the race for Europe – and Villa’s short and long-term dreams.

Ahead of the King Power showdown, Smith said: “This is a progressive club, with the owners we have here.

“They want us to be challenging in the higher echelons of the Premier League. My job is to design a team that can go and compete in the top six.

“It will take time because of the headstart a lot of the big clubs have got over us – with us having had three years in the Championship.”

Villa could move to within a point of

Brendan Rodgers’ side if they take all three today – and win their two games in hand on their Midlands rivals.

Which brings the thorny topic of a European Super League into serious question. Asked whether such a prospect would kill the competitive ambitions of clubs like Villa and Leicester, Smith’s response was cautious yet emphatic.

Smith (right) said: “That’s what sport is about. You want teams to go and break the mould of the Big Six. I believe that Leicester are there already. They’re a top four club.

“We want to become one of those clubs and make it a more competitive league, a Big 10.

“The quality of the teams this season shows what it could become.”

Smith is full of praise for the job opposite number Rodgers has done. “I did my Pro Licence with Brendan many moons ago. He was Chelsea B team coach at the time and has progressed extremely well,” he said. “As a British coach, he’s been outstanding.”

MIKEL ARTETA knows comparisons between him and his mentor Pep Guardiola will last for as long as he’s a football manager.

But the Arsenal boss (left) also knows those comparisons are unfair because there is no symmetry whatsoever between the situations they find themselves in.

Guardiola, 11 years Arteta’s senior, was handed the reins at Barcelona after a short but successful spell in charge of the Catalan club’s B team.

He inherited a stable of thoroughbreds at the Nou Camp, with Lionel Messi, Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Carles Puyol chief among them.

Guardiola still needed to work his magic to help that group hit the heights they hit and in doing so he made them one of the most compelling sides the game has seen. His achievements there set him on a course that took him to the biggest and richest club in Germany, and then on to Manchester City, the wealthiest side in the wealthiest division in the game.

Arteta is hardly at the other end of the spectrum – Arsenal are, after all, a wealthy club too. But they don’t have anything like the resources City have.

Nor did the Spaniard inherit a dressing-room with a winning ethos already instilled as his old mate has at each of his clubs. Arteta, who spent three-and-a-half years as Guardiola’s assistant at the Etihad, said: “You cannot compare his situation to the situation at the moment with us. They are very different.

“You can share some values and some ideas. The way we were raised and educated in football is very similar because we had the same background.

“The fact that we worked together united us a lot to get that chemistry and those ideas together to make it work.

“How do you make it work and what do you need to make it work the way you need? You need some time, sometimes you need a lot of investment, sometimes there is a group of players that can already provide that.

“You have to keep evolving and finding a way because there is not one formula that works.

“You cannot try to follow that because you will fail.”