Aston Villa turns to Dean Smith to revitalize promotion chances

Brentford manager Dean Smith left his post as the Bees’ boss to become the newest manager of Aston Villa Football Club. Smith, a lifelong Villa supporter, replaces Steve Bruce, who was fired last week.

47-year old former Brentford and Walsall manager Dean Smith is the newest Head Coach at Aston Villa.

Late Wednesday evening, the official Aston Villa social accounts broke news that Smith would be taking over the claret and blues with immediate effect. Also included, was confirmation that former captain John Terry is, in fact, arriving as an assistant manager. Former Valencia executive Jesus Garcia Pitarch takes over as Sporting Director as well. It’s expected that Smith will retain some or much of his additional backroom staff from Brentford.

These three appointments represent a new era at Aston Villa:

Dean Smith is a highly-qualified hire for Chief Executive Officer Christian Purslow and Co. After some combination of Paulo Fonseca, Thierry Henry, and Rui Faria rejected Villa’s advances, the search committee pivoted to a safe, but also proactive candidate. Smith’s track record of exciting football and over-performance is everything Steve Bruce wasn’t. There is no doubt, now, that Smith can get this squad firing across the board. Far too many first-team members found themselves far less effective under Bruce than they had with different clubs in years past. Much of that has to do with a play style predicated on weird long-ball tactics.

Scott Hogan basically admitted as much:

Aston Villa is Smith’s third post since becoming a manager in 2011. He spent 4.5 years as Walsall boss before taking over at Brentford in November 2015. He went 84-96-80 at Walsall and 57-35-51 with the Bees. As an unashamed lifelong Villa supporter, he has to be absolutely thrilled to take over what is probably his dream job.

UTV.