Sort of agree, but the timing was completely wrong especially in the context of the board must have known we had no money in January.
Agree (about the second half, I’ve no idea what the list was like - god help us if it seriously had Lampard top).
Agree he’s a good coach. Disagree he’s necessarily more adaptable - I have not seen evidence of that. He’s got his own style, he struggled to mix it up at Villa when it went wrong.
There are contradictions here. I am not sure people would generally equate attractive authors getting the ball forward quickly, and I am not sure I agree this is obviously his style. I’d say he certainly hasn’t implemented unattractive football at Brentford and Villa, but it’s not traditionally attractive in the free-flowing golden age Arsenal sense. I also haven’t seen much sign of this high press - his Vill team tended to have a forward pressing high, but not usually en masse up high and certainly not all the time. This sounds to me less like how Smith has actually set up and more like a slightly contradictory bundle of wishes as to how we would play rather than a real design of a footballing philosophy and style.
Agreed on time and acquisitions, albeit possibly youth development in it given how it briefly looked like he worked out a way to get the best out of Idah. As for style, I’m not convinced we are there yet given your post above. Saying it “will be much better” is dangerous to the point of stupid - it might be, I have high hopes that it would be, it makes no sense to say it will be as the proof just isn’t there.
Strongly disagree. Every season out of the Premier League is more fraught with risk than one where we are in it, even if we don’t stay up. Such is the sad way of moneyball. Gone are the days where you could implement dynasty and long term success, unless you start lower down the leagues afresh and in any event get significant investment (Brentford, Bournemouth etc the list goes on).
