Did Dean Smith’s Aston Villa overachieve last season? Well, it is arguable that Dean Smith set a bar of expectation too high for himself with the heroics of his Aston Villa team. Jumping up the table as far as Europa League spots, the odds were enticing from the best global bookmakers on liontips.com for Dean Smith to propel Aston Villa into contention for titles in the 2021/2022 season.
Dean Smith built shoes too big for himself
Of course, this doesn’t look too much of a big ask when the season began. Yes, their homeboy hero, in the person of Jack Grealish, had packed his bags and jumped off to Man City. But it was not necessarily an acrimonious divorce as Aston Villa pocketed a hefty £100 million in return.
Punters jumped on liontips.ng to cash in on beautiful odds from their favourite bookies for Aston Villa to comfortably clinch a mid-table position after Aston Villa went on a shopping spree with £100 million in their wallet. The likes of Danny Ings and Emi Buendia were brought in.
Well, the story took an unpredictable twist. Today, Dean Smith has been kicked out after a miserable run of five consecutive defeats.
With fans incinerated, Aston Villa executives flew to Scotland. No, they didn’t go to enjoy Scotland’s renowned Whisky or admire her historic castles. They came for Steven Gerrard, and yes, they left with him!
Gerrard, as a player, needs no introduction. But as a manager, it would be flattery to call him the most qualified for the Aston Villa hot seat.
Aye, Gerrard had excelled at Rangers, landing a Mike-Tyson uppercut on Celtic, leaving the latter sprawling on the ground and giving up their dominance of the Scottish league.
Gerrard presided over 196 games at Rangers, winning about 125 of them. Mathematically, this sums up into a 64% win rate, landing Rangers their first taste of the Scottish league title in over 10 years.
Not bad for a coach, eh?
On November 11, Steven Gerrard – braving the media inferno from the disgust of Scottish faithful – became Aston Villa’s coach.
How well has Gerrard fared at Villa Park?
Take it from us: saying Gerrard has underperformed (or even performed averagely) at Aston Villa is a prosecutable offence!
Yes, since Gerrard took over, the psychological atmosphere at Villa has been dramatically transformed. Yes, a significant slice of that transformation can be traced to the enormity of Gerrard’s legendary status in the Premier League.
But the fascinating upturn in results has contributed to the resurgence in morale. Gerrard has been barely two months old in Aston Villa. He has presided over just ten premier league games.
Of this, he has won five, lost four, and drawn one. Oh, you would say four losses is woeful. But then we would quickly remind that these losses were against impregnable sides like Man City and Liverpool.
And it was not like Aston Villa fell flat on their face from the beginning of the contests against these sides. Liverpool had it very hot from Gerrard’s men.
Klopp’s men only managed to sneak away with all three points when Mohammed Salah scored late for the Reds.
Ignoring the memorable 2-2 draw Gerrard’s men masterminded against Manchester United would be unjust.
Down 2-0 and apparently coasting away with victory, Man United fans are yet reeling from the shock of the magical turnaround that followed Coutinho’s introduction.
A goal and an assist from the former Barcelona maestro condemned Man United to another draw, exposing Ralf Ragnick’s men to a barrage of missiles from an unforgiving press.
Gerrard’s star power gives Aston Villa the edge in the transfer market
Aston Villa performed a football miracle when they landed Philippe Coutinho from Barcelona. It is not every day that players leave Barcelona for Aston Villa – at least not such a pricey acquisition that cost Barcelona north of £140 million.
Gerrard’s influence was central to this move. Coutinho trusts the Englishman as the best man to resurrect his ailing career. Gerrard has done more than pull in Coutinho.
The Liverpool hero pulled another smart one, wriggling Lucas Digne from Everton to Aston Villa. To seal this move, Gerrard’s Aston Villa had to beat off contenders like Chelsea, who desperately needed the Frenchman to cover for Ben Chilwell.
This was followed by the acquisition of Robin Olsen and then a stunning move for Callum Chambers from Arsenal. With each piece falling into place, we can’t deny that Gerrard is progressively moulding Aston Villa into a team after his image.
The future is once against bright for Aston Villa – at least till Gerrard finishes his “internship” there before graduating to the Liverpool position when Jurgen Klopp leaves.
Inevitably, we all know Liverpool is where Gerrard will end up, don’t we?
Modupe Gbadeyanka 
Dipo Olowookere