Aston Villa managed to lure Neil Cutler away from West Bromwich Albion earlier this month.
Aston Villa took another giant step forward under new boss Dean Smith on Saturday afternoon, hammering Derby County 3-0 away from home in a superb display.
Villa have now won three and lost two of Smith’s five games in charge, showing some progress after the dismal end to Steve Bruce’s reign as Villa boss.
Smith will be looking to build on a decent start after the international break, and he has been able to make a key addition to his backroom staff this month.
Smith arrived at Villa Park alongside his former Brentford ally Richard O’Kelly, whilst assistant coach John Terry and new director of football Jesus Garcia Pitarch arrived alongside Smith too.
However, with goalkeeping coach Gary Walsh leaving alongside Bruce last month, Villa needed to land a replacement – and Smith managed to raid a local rival to do it.
Villa brought in Neil Cutler from West Bromwich Albion earlier this month, as Smith reunited with his former Walsall goalkeeping coach – even though he had only joined West Brom earlier this year.
Raiding West Brom for Cutler – who did play one game for Villa in the 1999-2000 season – is an important move for Smith, as he will be charged with the task of getting the best out of struggling stopper Orjan Nyland.
Now, Cutler has explained the reason for his move, and has been quoted by the Birmingham Mail as saying that he wanted to leave West Brom for Villa because of the chance to reunite with Smith – and simply couldn’t turn down a club of Villa’s size and stature.
“Mainly Dean Smith, I’ve worked with him before,” said Cutler. “We had a great working relationship where we did really well together at Walsall, and with Richard O’Kelly as well.”
“So the pull of working with Dean again was huge for me. This is a massive club and the pull of working at a club of this size was something I just couldn’t turn down in the end,” he added.
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