Dean Smith to Brentford

[DH84]

According to The Telegraph, Dean Smith is poised to take over at Brentford in the next few days if talks go smoothly.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...-negotiations-with-Pep-Clotet-break-down.html

 

[WFC]

Fuck off,

Thanks

 

[SaddlerJonny]

Don't fuck the first great season in a while up Brentford!

 

[Saddlerrad]

It was only a matter of time, but if he does leave then you can almost guarantee that the players he has moulded, Bradshaw, Sawyers, Henry, Mantom etc will be off at the first opportunity.

This day unfortunately, marks the return to Walsall being shit, in my mind anyway.

 

[WFC]

If it happens that is, far from a done deal ala Rotherham. Hopefully he stays put.

And If those players do go, we will be in for some major cash, especially from Rico Henry.

Shit happens, like you say it really is only a matter of time, he's done brilliantly so far this season with an OK but certainly not top six budget. The real test will be how we react if smith does depart.

 

[mpmbee]

He would be a good appointment for us then? Walsall always seem to play good football on a limited budget so I would be pretty happy with Smith.

 

[SaddlerJonny]

He would be a good appointment for us then? Walsall always seem to play good football on a limited budget so I would be pretty happy with Smith.

Maybe, he's more of a project manager. If a player doesn't fit his philosophy or personality he will try to get rid, you would have to give him time to build a squad that was his. He is very good at making a team play nice football on the ground, his recruitment is generally very good. He's very big on having a squad that are happy together, loves to have a settled and happy dressing room.

But what he makes up for in his team building he lacks in his in game management, seems reluctant to make changes based on the way the game is going with very, very predictable substitutions that he will consistently make every game.

 

[WFC]

He would be a good appointment for us then? Walsall always seem to play good football on a limited budget so I would be pretty happy with Smith.

Depends how much freedom he has regarding signings and such, oh and I'd say he will most probably need some time to sort his shit out.

We have had utter dross under Smith, many calling for a change last season as bar a great JPT run and Wembley final, we really were shite, a good finish to the season saw us climb the table but in reality it wasn't good enough to suit what should be WFC's expectations in League One.

The club have been very patient and thankfully it looks like it's all finally paying off.

 

[Dave-Vale]

Depends how much freedom he has regarding signings and such, oh and I'd say he will most probably need some time to sort his shit out.

We have had utter dross under Smith, many calling for a change last season as bar a great JPT run and Wembley final, we really were shite, a good finish to the season saw us climb the table but in reality it wasn't good enough to suit what should be WFC's expectations in League One.

The club have been very patient and thankfully it looks like it's all finally paying off.

Except the fact he's leaving for Brentford..

 

[Saddlerrad]

He will go with my best wishes.

It hasn't always been great, but after years of struggling against relegation Smith has finally given us a philosophy from top to bottom that we can stick to. Even during the darkest runs you always felt like a big result wasn't too far around the corner and it never was. Sure Smith has his flaws. He is overally loyal to players that don't cut it. He is very one dimensional in that it's pure football and there isn't a change up in that at any cost. But you can always look at the bigger picture and see that for a club of our size/fan base/wage structure that he is really doing the best he can to produce on the pitch.

He has a handy ability of taking players with potential or players who weren't very good at one club and getting them to score goals. See Jon Macken, Jabo Ibehre, Will Grigg, Craig Westcarr and now Tom Bradshaw. He will always get you a striker that can score 15-20 goals, but most importantly he always builds a very, very solid defensive unit that looks organised, capable of keeping cleansheets and that combination will never see you in real deep, deep relegation shit. His work with the youth team has been exceptional and we have many promising young players.

There's no doubt about it, Smith's done a very good job and in my mind he would be silly to refuse this opportunity from a professional standpoint.

A) Huge wage rise

B) Practically unlimited funds to bring in players he wishes

C) Brentford have a rich fan owner and are shortly moving into a new 20,000 ground.

D) They are only 2 points off the play-offs, it's not like he is taking over a critical mess. They could be in the Preimer League next season.

E) Smith has always had his best players snatched from under him, either due to being sold, having better offers from bigger clubs or them just not wanting to play for a pittance. He knows that if we continue to do well, there is only so long we will keep Bradshaw, Sawyers, Henry, Lalkovic etc. Come the end of January, we may have sold a couple of them and Smith knows our season will fall away (it probably will anyway when other teams spend big in the transfer window) and what happens if we do finish 10th etc? He loses most of his very high stock and the opportunity might never come around for him again if things go wrong thereafter.

He's all but gone IMO, good luck to him he deserves it - he's done one of the best jobs in the football league.

However, I can't help but be scared about what this means for us. It just casts a huge shadow of doubt over the club, the season, the philosophy, the direction of us, our best players etc. You can't help but think that if we don't appoint properly that we could easily be that side that flirts with League 2 every season and eventually drops never to be seen again.

 

[mpmbee]

Sounds like he is on his way, sounds pretty promising from the above posts. We are playing Bolton tonight so he will probably be in the stands for it.

 

[AFCB_Mark]

He will go with my best wishes.

It hasn't always been great, but after years of struggling against relegation Smith has finally given us a philosophy from top to bottom that we can stick to. Even during the darkest runs you always felt like a big result wasn't too far around the corner and it never was. Sure Smith has his flaws. He is overally loyal to players that don't cut it. He is very one dimensional in that it's pure football and there isn't a change up in that at any cost. But you can always look at the bigger picture and see that for a club of our size/fan base/wage structure that he is really doing the best he can to produce on the pitch.

He has a handy ability of taking players with potential or players who weren't very good at one club and getting them to score goals. See Jon Macken, Jabo Ibehre, Will Grigg, Craig Westcarr and now Tom Bradshaw. He will always get you a striker that can score 15-20 goals, but most importantly he always builds a very, very solid defensive unit that looks organised, capable of keeping cleansheets and that combination will never see you in real deep, deep relegation shit. His work with the youth team has been exceptional and we have many promising young players.

There's no doubt about it, Smith's done a very good job and in my mind he would be silly to refuse this opportunity from a professional standpoint.

A) Huge wage rise

B) Practically unlimited funds to bring in players he wishes

C) Brentford have a rich fan owner and are shortly moving into a new 20,000 ground.

D) They are only 2 points off the play-offs, it's not like he is taking over a critical mess. They could be in the Preimer League next season.

E) Smith has always had his best players snatched from under him, either due to being sold, having better offers from bigger clubs or them just not wanting to play for a pittance. He knows that if we continue to do well, there is only so long we will keep Bradshaw, Sawyers, Henry, Lalkovic etc. Come the end of January, we may have sold a couple of them and Smith knows our season will fall away (it probably will anyway when other teams spend big in the transfer window) and what happens if we do finish 10th etc? He loses most of his very high stock and the opportunity might never come around for him again if things go wrong thereafter.

He's all but gone IMO, good luck to him he deserves it - he's done one of the best jobs in the football league.

However, I can't help but be scared about what this means for us. It just casts a huge shadow of doubt over the club, the season, the philosophy, the direction of us, our best players etc. You can't help but think that if we don't appoint properly that we could easily be that side that flirts with League 2 every season and eventually drops never to be seen again.

A very considered review.

The leaving of a respected manager who has done a solid job is of course a worrying time. But it sounds like some foundations are in place, and so it must be a decent prospective job. There's the bonus of some job security, because you lot have stuck with Dean through some uncertain times in which other clubs would have pulled the trigger. Any potential applicant will respect that.

Sean O'Driscoll is out of a job, worth asking.

 

[toshj]

He will go with my best wishes.

It hasn't always been great, but after years of struggling against relegation Smith has finally given us a philosophy from top to bottom that we can stick to. Even during the darkest runs you always felt like a big result wasn't too far around the corner and it never was. Sure Smith has his flaws. He is overally loyal to players that don't cut it. He is very one dimensional in that it's pure football and there isn't a change up in that at any cost. But you can always look at the bigger picture and see that for a club of our size/fan base/wage structure that he is really doing the best he can to produce on the pitch.

He has a handy ability of taking players with potential or players who weren't very good at one club and getting them to score goals. See Jon Macken, Jabo Ibehre, Will Grigg, Craig Westcarr and now Tom Bradshaw. He will always get you a striker that can score 15-20 goals, but most importantly he always builds a very, very solid defensive unit that looks organised, capable of keeping cleansheets and that combination will never see you in real deep, deep relegation shit. His work with the youth team has been exceptional and we have many promising young players.

There's no doubt about it, Smith's done a very good job and in my mind he would be silly to refuse this opportunity from a professional standpoint.

A) Huge wage rise

B) Practically unlimited funds to bring in players he wishes

C) Brentford have a rich fan owner and are shortly moving into a new 20,000 ground.

D) They are only 2 points off the play-offs, it's not like he is taking over a critical mess. They could be in the Preimer League next season.

E) Smith has always had his best players snatched from under him, either due to being sold, having better offers from bigger clubs or them just not wanting to play for a pittance. He knows that if we continue to do well, there is only so long we will keep Bradshaw, Sawyers, Henry, Lalkovic etc. Come the end of January, we may have sold a couple of them and Smith knows our season will fall away (it probably will anyway when other teams spend big in the transfer window) and what happens if we do finish 10th etc? He loses most of his very high stock and the opportunity might never come around for him again if things go wrong thereafter.

He's all but gone IMO, good luck to him he deserves it - he's done one of the best jobs in the football league.

However, I can't help but be scared about what this means for us. It just casts a huge shadow of doubt over the club, the season, the philosophy, the direction of us, our best players etc. You can't help but think that if we don't appoint properly that we could easily be that side that flirts with League 2 every season and eventually drops never to be seen again.

A good post, and quite contrasting to the stuff on UTS with regards to your fans' opinions of Brentford.

Most of those points are correct (we're 4 points off the play-offs), but he won't get unlimited funds unfortunately - we'd have likely failed FFP if we hadn't sold Andre Gray, and we have one of, if not the smallest turnover in the division, so he'll have to abide by our value investing approach to player acquisition. However, we're a vastly different club to the one of four or so seasons ago; developing level 2 academy, diverse coaching staff, attractive footballing philosophy, access to the most sophisticated football data around, etc.

I'm looking forward to seeing how we do under him if he joins, and am particularly satisfied that he seems to be our number one choice.

Going to be interesting to see how the Walsall board responds to losing him.

 

[Saddlerrad]

A very considered review.

The leaving of a respected manager who has done a solid job is of course a worrying time. But it sounds like some foundations are in place, and so it must be a decent prospective job. There's the bonus of some job security, because you lot have stuck with Dean through some uncertain times in which other clubs would have pulled the trigger. Any potential applicant will respect that.

Sean O'Driscoll is out of a job, worth asking.

We have Jon Ward on our coaching staff (working with kids) and Richard O'Kelly is Smith's assistant, depending on whether he goes then I suspect O'Driscoll would be a good shout considering he's worked with both of them before. I think we will probably appoint Ward until the end of the season or make an internal appointment, we are in a brillant position so it would be best if someone with some knowledge about the 1st team stays and works with them - both for the players and the new manager.

Smith's all but gone, the journo for the Walsall advertiser said he has already left this and the deal was done Saturday with Smith telling the players then.

 

[Saddlerrad]

Announcement at 1pm we believe - confirming Smith has left the club.

 

[DH84]

http://www.expressandstar.com/sport...eaking-news-dean-smith-walsall-exit-imminent/

Deal done

 

[TomPNE94]

Sean O'Driscoll is out of a job, worth asking.

He's currently Assistant Manager at Liverpool.

 

[Saddlerrad]

The slump towards mid-lower table begins today. Hope we make a decent appointment.

 

[Saddlerrad]

He's currently Assistant Manager at Liverpool.

He left when Rodgers got the sack didn't he?

 

[TomPNE94]

He left when Rodgers got the sack didn't he?

oh maybe

 

[valefan16]

Shame for Walsall but cant blame Smith for going (although after the way Warburton was treated maybe not totally secure move)

Big time for Walsall now, we were flying at the top when Adams left first time at Xmas and ended up sliding down in chaos after what appeared a great appointment in Gannon (not taking into account he had totally lost the plot). Hopefully they make a wise appointment, maybe wouldn't be the worst idea keeping Ward and O'Kelly in charge and trying to keep the status quo rather than bring a new man with new ideas who may upset the apple cart.

 

[mpmbee]

Some extremely bitter comments on the Walsall messageboard, don't quite know what their problem with Brentford is.

 

[Saddlerrad]

Some extremely bitter comments on the Walsall messageboard, don't quite know what their problem with Brentford is.

Some helmets on there, don't worry about it. They are just being emotional and frustrated at this leaving our season in a mess, although some aren't fans of Brentford after the Grigg saga (including Mr Smith who wasn't complementary of the Brentford negotiating tactics for that). Don't take it personally. Not everyone focuses on the ins and outs of other clubs. I know how it's going at Brentford and have posted my thoughts under the name 'Sadders'.

Twitter reporting that O'Kelly is leaving with him now. Which is shit as that means we will lose both 1st team coaches.

Also means O'Driscoll is less likely to take over.

I hope Bonser has negotiated a bomb for the contracts. Smith only signed a 1 year rolling deal a couple of weeks ago. I suspect that will have been a higher paid contract incase of a scenario like this, so the club would get a decent payday and it wouldn't expose us by giving Smith a huge deal on higher wages if things went quickly wrong.

If that's the case, then I'd absolutely love it if Bonser opened his eyes, realised the opportunity infront of him and threw most of what he's received for Smith and Co at Tisdale down at Exeter.

Fucking ruined the season this has.

 

[Saddlerrad]

Sky sports just reported it as 'almost done' and he will be appointed at some point today.

 

[SaddlerJonny]

Good manager, one of the best we've had, local and a nice person - i've defended him a lot on message boards as well, stuck up for him on a lot of issues under his regime. I understand why he is going, so good luck to him...

But even then I can't help but feel betrayed in a way, it feels like he's jumped ship at the first opportunity and abandoned the club, the community, the fans, his staff that he won't rip from us and the players.

 

[SaddlerJonny]

Some extremely bitter comments on the Walsall messageboard, don't quite know what their problem with Brentford is.

It's because whenever we get a little bit of success or start enjoying ourselves we get it ripped away by other clubs, twice in recent times by Brentford. It's just a little fucking annoying. But that's football as a Walsall fan.

I don't mind Brentford myself, but it does get frustrating.

 

[Saddlerrad]

Hmmm, it seems like we are digging our heels in over compensation. Interesting.

 

[SaddlerJonny]

Hmmm, it seems like we are digging our heels in over compensation. Interesting.

Jeff wants 2 monster munch.

 

[Saddlerrad]

Jeff wants 2 monster munch.

Don't forget the packet of mars bars.

 

[AnotherSaddler]

Some extremely bitter comments on the Walsall messageboard, don't quite know what their problem with Brentford is.

You bunch of Bastards...

Seriously, I'm disappointed that Smith has gone, awful timing from our point of view.
Unlike some of our fans, I don't blame him for leaving though, he's probably got the best part of £200k a year pay rise.
I wonder how many of our bitter fans would turn that down themselves.

Edit, I hope Brentford do well and go on to promotion, because I bet our owner, Jeff Bonser, has put an add-on clause in the compensation package relating to Brentford making the prem!