Dean Smith to succeed Steve Bruce at Aston Villa

Just when news of Villa’s attention turning to Dean Smith breaks - it then breaks that he’s taking over the damn job. Barring any incredibly late drama, Smith will shortly be announced as the new Aston Villa manager following successful negotiations with Brentford. The club announced this on their social media channels.

Smith joins Villa after a successful spell at Brentford, where he played a part in the London clubs rise, and instalment, as the Championship’s great entertainers. It is widely thought that Villa will give Smith the backing he needs to transform Villa into a Premier League club, despite the squad currently enjoying a large reserve of attacking wealth and midfield depth. The less said about the defence, the better.

John Terry will be installed as a part of Smith’s coaching staff. While that wasn’t necessary to any deal, Villa were keen to involve Terry in the setup. For whatever reason. It seems Smith has agreed to that condition. Jesus Garcia Pitarch, formerly of Valencia. will join as Director of Football.

Negotiations with Smith and Brentford were clearly quick and fruitful - and will largely flip the story of Villa’s manager search on the head. After rejection by Thierry Henry and ‘rejection’ by Rui Faria - Smith was brought in within a day of edging out Faria as favourite in the ironically fluid odds listings. I fonder if Sky made any money on that? Still, it’s hard to paint Villa as an incompetent football club today and for now, at least.