Express & Star journalist Luke Hatfield believes that Aston Villa manager Dean Smith has got the owners’ full backing.
After a summer which saw Jack Grealish depart Villa Park for Manchester City, for a British record £100m fee, Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens allowed Smith to reinvest the funds and bring in some more high-quality players to the football club.
This summer saw the arrivals of Leon Bailey, Emi Buendia, Ashley Young, Danny Ings and Axel Tuanzebe to Villa Park, with Villa breaking their transfer record spend on one player, as Buendia signed from Norwich City for a fee that could rise to £38m according to Sky Sports.
Where will Aston Villa finish in the Premier League this season?
Top Four
5th-10th
11th-16th
17th-20th
Hatfield believes Smith has been fully supported by his superiors, telling This is Futbol: “I think you can see that he has been backed by the owners. He’s got their full backing for sure, because of the money that they’ve been willing to spend with him in charge.
“He’s obviously worked really, really hard to get this team playing to a level which is exciting to not only Villa fans but just your generic football fans.”
Aston Villa headed into the international break in tenth position in the Premier League table, with ten points.
Their record reads three wins, one draw and three defeats, with two of those victories coming in their last three matches, as they handed Everton their first defeat of the season at Villa Park 3-0, before going to Old Trafford and beating Manchester United 1-0, which was also the Red Devils’ sole defeat of the campaign so far.