There are loads of Rimmers up the road from me in Southport. In fact I’m sure our own Stuart Rimmer was from Southport. Always thought it was to do with fishing in small boats. But might be wrong in which case I’ll go with your version!!
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Blazing, you are right, of course. I had forgotten about Dobson, though I doubt many will forget the Northampton goal!
I was being a bit pedantic, forgive me, it’s not usually my nature, a very early morning wake up by the kids is my excuse.
That being said, Dobbo seems to be easily forgot. I thought he was a player of real talent, a lot of it was still potential. He appeared to be very much a confidence player, and tried a little too hard when things weren’t going well. Was always looking for a forwards pass. Think back to earlier this season just gone, how we passed sideways and backwards so much. Not in the same class as the George you mentioned mind, Evans was real quality, The thing is, we had a real good reputation for looking after loan players and often improving them when Smith was manager. All that seems a long long time ago now.
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Kenny Mower would have cut grass and Ian Roper would have made ropes. We’ve had a couple of Coopers before my time, and mustn’t forget Alfie Carter. Jimmy Walker? Is that an occupation? Andrew Barrowman was presumably someone who would have sold or collected goods with a barrow. He should have stuck to that.
We’ve had a few Wrights.
Jeff King must have had at least one important ancestor.
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No problem at all.
I think fans are beginning to realize what a good manager Dean Smith was for Walsall. He’s excellent man manager, who knows how to get the best out of his players. He loved the fans and they loved him back.
I’m not a huge Villa fan, but were delighted they avoided relegation, forDean’s sake.
Owners these days have very little patience for mediocrity, going on long winless streaks is likely end up badly for the manager.
As we all know, Deano needs time with a squad, a squad capable of a promotion challenge takes 2,3 or 4 seasons. I hope the Villa regime gives him that time.
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Smith did a great job at Walsall, even if I was highly critical of him at certain points during his reign, he changed such a lot of things for the better, whilst having his budget chopped constantly. He is the only manager for some years that had a clear plan of what he wanted to do. Getting the time to complete it was always going to be the challenge, and he must have been close to the sack at several points. Such a shame he couldn’t have stayed another 6 months and finished the job, which I have no doubt he would have. The role Richard O’Kelly played shouldn’t be under estimated either, a lot of the signings came from his contacts, and I have no doubt he had a huge input in the style of play Smith chose to use. We were so good at keeping the ball, teams were often worn out in the last 20 minutes of games from just chasing shadows.
That said, I feel he is a little bit out of his depth (right now) New pressures come when you spend a lot of money, which he has at Villa, and he has been tactically outdone a lot this season from what I have seen. He is still a relatively young manager though. I’m not sure Villa will be so patient if they are in such a bad position next season. Fair play though, that was some escape, they looked doomed at one point needing 7 points from 4 games to even stand a chance. There aren’t many managers who manage Walsall who go on to do what he has done so far.
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I think it was telling that the Villa potted the head of recruitment and not the head coach which I think tells is where the board feel the problem was last season.
I agree that Smith was out of his depth but unlike many Walsall fans I wish him nothing but success and hope he has learned a lot. Thoroughly decent human being and like Chris Wilder and Sean Dyche testament to the fact that you can have a pretty unremarkable playing career and yet as a young English manager, still mix it at the very top level against the best in the world.
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He probably was a kittle out of his depth last season, but he survived and will be the better for it starting next month.
He did spend a lot of money for little to no return, the board will demand that he spends more wisely this coming season.
Is kittle an Americanism David…
A kittle is wot yow boil water in to make a pot of tay
Oh,so it’s a New Zealand word then…
used to have a great relationship with there fans in the 80s 
Thing is, to my point above, he didn’t spend it. The bloke that did was sacked as soon as the season ended.
I think Smith sets out the criteria in terms of positions and type of player and then the recruitment department finds them and signs them. Idea being that the Head Coach can then concentrate on coaching, tactics etc.
Certainly not the traditional English model but there is some logic there. I think the thing with Smith is that he has always looked at the person as well as the player so I’m not sure how happy he would be with that model.
I listened to a show on five live about a year ago I think it was. They had the guy from Norwich on who did the head of recruitment job. Was a really interesting listen on how it worked (at Norwich at least) There is far more goes in to it than you would probably imagine. Not just a case of putting a list of players together that can play particular positions. For example Pukki was one of three targets that were specifically targeted because they scored a certain type of goal, that fell in line with the kind of chances Norwich created (at the time) Hours up on hours of studying data and trawling the world to find the right kind of targets to fit the criteria.
I’m not sure many managers are altogether comfortable with it, it’s not really how it has worked in England. Smith at Walsall at least, liked to sign players who were comfortable on the ball, to suit the style of play he wanted to play. I’m not sure his head of recruitment has done him justice, probably why he has gone. Plus, being good at keeping the ball in League 1 is one thing, having a team that can do it in the Premier League is another. If you think about how Liverpool press, so intense, and there are plenty of teams that do it. I watched Southampton a few times recently they were awesome. I think he needs to add a few more weapons to his Arsenal to become a really top manager, a quick counter attacking style may be the way to go, but when I have watched them, they have been the ones getting caught out by counter attacks, after spells of dominance. I also wish him well (although not at Villa preferably 
)