Dean Smith replaced Steve Bruce as Aston Villa manager last week and took training for the first time at the Championship club on Tuesday.
Dean Smith took training for the first time as Aston Villa manager on Tuesday. And it seems that some supporters have already spotted a difference between the 47-year-old and his Villa Park predecessor Steve Bruce.
Alongside new assistants Richard O’Kelly and John Terry, the latter resplendent in gleaming white boots, Smith rocked up in claret and blue and put his new players through their paces, although many were absent due to international duty.
And many Aston Villa supporters believe that Smith’s presence at Bodymoor Heath is a positive sign, suggesting that he is keen to instil his new ideas as soon as possible by taking on a more active role in training than his Bruce did.
It will take time for Aston Villa to transition from the sluggish, rather pragmatic approach emblematic of the Bruce tenure towards the fast, free-flowing attacking football that Brentford came to embody under Smith.
But the 47-year-old appears to have the ideal tools at his disposal, the likes of Callum O’Hare, Jack Grealish and Anwar El-Ghazi resembling the intelligent and creative talents who thrived under Smith at Griffin Park.
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