Aston Villa manager Dean Smith has led his side to the play off final this season.
Dean Smith has inadvertently exposed Aston Villa’s big problem in his final interview before the play off final.
Smith was talking to the Guardian, when he suggested that Villa were not a one-man team.
The claret and blues boss claims that Jack Grealish is not the only player at Villa Park with exceptional quality.
“It is not about one person or pressure, it is about the team,” Smith insisted.
“If players perform as a team you have more chance. It is not down to Jack Grealish. Yes, Jack Grealish has got that little bit of brilliance but so has John McGinn and Tammy Abraham, [Anwar] El Ghazi and Tyrone Mings.”
It is hard to argue with the comments, as Villa have shown brilliant form towards the back end of the season.
However, the big concern is that over half of the players Smith has mentioned are key don’t actually belong to the club.
Villa face the prospect of losing Tyrone Mings, Tammy Abraham and Anwar El Ghazi if they fail to earn promotion to the Premier League, which would leave a giant hole of their squad.
Villa may feel confident of keeping the trio of loanees if they do go up, but if they lose to Derby County at Wembley on Monday then signing any of the three would be very tough.
A defeat for Villa at Wembley would also likely equate to Grealish leaving.
With those departures, Villa would be facing an uphill struggle to remain competitive next term, even if they do have money to spend.
And it just shows the pressure that Smith’s side are under to earn promotion this year, otherwise their brilliant squad could be torn apart for next term.
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