CAN DILIGENT DEAN PLAY GREAT FOOTBALL – AND WIN MORE?

I WORKED alongside Dean Smith, left, whilst we both studied for our A Licences many years ago. He’s three years younger than me. I liked Dean. He was a quiet, thoughtful and intelligent person. He had his ideas. He listened and he learned. At the time, Dean was working in the academy at Walsall. He subsequently went on to manage Walsall, then Brentford and now Aston Villa. Along the way, Dean has earned himself a reputation as a progressive manager. He believes in an attacking, possessionbased brand of football and that is vogue in 2018, for sure. With the advent of the England DNA, the direction of academies in that mould and the production line of possession-taught talent, there is no other philosophy that will be viable in the near future. People do not want to watch defensive football, even if they do still occasionally admire it, and players just don’t want to know the defensive game. They really don’t. The challenge for Dean is that Aston Villa will demand more from him and he will have to respond to that. In 403 games as a manager, he has won 141 games at 35 per cent. That win record will not be enough for a club of Villa’s size. So he’ll have to challenge himself to both play great football AND to win more often. THAT is the most difficult balance to find. My first two games as a manager both ended in 4-4 draws. I gave the lads freedom, we opened up the football, flow was free and entertainment was plentiful. But two points from two games wasn’t enough. So we evolved. We added structure. We never drew 4-4 again. I love seeing guys I know rise through the game and earn the big jobs. Hopefully, Villa will give Dean the time and patience that he will need to learn how to adjust his philosophy so that he can create the win percentage that a big club requires. Having John Terry in town can only be brilliant in supporting that learning process. That appointment could very well be a masterstroke. A true ‘match made in heaven’.