Dean Smith admits he takes no notice whatsoever of his Aston Villa critics, insisting his side are “making massive progression”. The boss came in for some serious flak after Sunday’s 3-2 defeat at Crystal Palace with Villa collapsing once again having gone 1-0 and 2-1 ahead.
Dean Smith said “I just don’t read it so no (I haven’t seen it). Listen, I do the job to the best of my ability as I always have done and will continue to do that. I believe we’re making massive progression as a football club. I try and get better every day.”
Villa’s alarming slide has seen them drop from European contention to the bottom half with an 11th-placed finish appearing likely when the season concludes this upcoming weekend. Given Villa’s exploits during the first half of the season, Smith was asked about the level of expectation amongst supporters knowing European football is the aim.
Dean Smith said: “It is something I am not looking to dampen, either. Those ambitions are our ambitions. We knew it would be tough to compete for Europe this season but I think we have been up and around there probably for the last five or six games, which shows a massive progression as a club. We are disappointed we have dropped off but that has coincided with Jack coming out of the team and he has been our biggest chance creator in the last few years. He is a top player. We have been in positions where we had games in hand over the teams above us. But we have always known those games in hand have been Manchester City, Tottenham and Everton, so they were never gimmes. But we feel there has been great progression as a team and a squad this season. It is very rare a team goes from staying up on the last day of the season to challenging for Champions League places. While our ambitions are still to be there and we have been disappointed with the last 16 to 17 games, we certainly note that progression.”
The head coach was also asked about Villa’s potential to flex their financial muscle this summer given the wealth of owners Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens, with the pair worth a combined $10.4 billion which puts them behind Man City’s Sheikh Mansour ($22 billion) and Roman Abramovich ($14.5 billion).
Smith has spent £260 million on transfers in his two Premier League campaigns, and said ahead of this summer: “I don’t believe we have to do that much in the market this summer. With Jack coming out of the team we have lacked a little bit of creativity and that is something that we need to improve on.
Dean Smith said “You look at the whole of the season, Emi Martinez has come in and done brilliantly, Matt Targett has improved no end, Tyrone Mings, Ezri Konsa as improved, Matt Cash has done brilliantly, Ollie Watkins, John McGinn, Douglas Luiz, Bertrand Traore, Anwar El Ghazi has got nine goals, Bertrand has got six, Jack six or seven. We’ve got a really good team but because the stand-out has been that our creativity has dropped off probably since New Year, that’s something we need to improve.”
Smith’s Villa have chucked away 19 points from leading positions since the turn of 2021, with Villa supporters online and on football phone-ins questioning Smith’s in-game management and credentials. The boss, however, dispelled his team’s habit of blowing leads in the immediate aftermath on Sunday and instead pointed out that losing football games is part and parcel of the Premier League. Ahead of Spurs on Wednesday,
