Three successive losses have changed the mood music as the manager struggles with his post-Grealish tactics
Amid the cacophony surrounding Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s future, or apparent lack thereof, as Manchester United manager, chatter regarding his Aston Villa counterpart, Dean Smith, has barely registered on the football decibel scale. Speculating on the bookmakers’ sack race market might seem ghoulish but a small investment on Smith being handed his P45 before the white-hot Norwegian favourite may not constitute the world’s worst wager at double-digit odds.
His team go into Sunday’s home game against in-form West Ham on the back of three successive defeats, the most recent a surprisingly feeble capitulation at Arsenal. Despite taking the scalps of Newcastle, Everton and Manchester United this season, it has been reported that Villa’s position of 13th in the Premier League does not come close to matching the expectations of the chief executive, Christian Purslow, or his billionaire bosses, Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens.
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