It’s always strange when a manager is sacked just for the assistant to take over – what can they suddenly bring to the team that they couldn’t in their assistant role?
Dean Smith took a lot of plaudits last season at Aston Villa, but it’s starting to look like his time is done at Villa Park, and that will only lead to speculation about his successor.
Villa currently have that magic combination of struggling to score while conceding easily and often at the other end, which tends to spell relegation. Those kind of performances can also lead to calls for Sam Allardyce to make an appearance to try and save things.
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That may not be the case for Villa, after a report from Football Insider via The Express has suggested that John Terry could be in line to take over.
Ironically it’s suggested that Villa’s home game against Chelsea is the last chance for Smith to save himself, so a heavy loss to Chelsea could actually give Terry his first big chance as a manager.
He’s been the assistant for a couple of years now but it’s impossible to say if he would be a good manager in his own right. Clearly he’s a highly decorated player, but turning round this side in a relegation battle could be a huge ask.
It’s still not clear if he would definitely land the job, but it does seem like Smith needs a win on Saturday or he could be gone.