Watch Tottenham vs Aston Villa on Saturday, August 10 on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Premier League; Kick-off is at 5.30pm
Friday 9 August 2019 17:11, UK
Dean Smith is enjoying the biggest moment of his 30-year career in the game by leading his beloved Aston Villa back into the Premier League this season. But, as Greg Whelan discovered, fate hasn't always been kind to him.
"There's a lot of luck in football and I haven't been lucky enough yet to be in a successful team," Smith, the then-captain of Leyton Orient, told Sky Sports in 2002 in an interview about his playing career. "Hopefully it will come and when it does I'll welcome it with open arms."
Spent almost entirely in the lower leagues, his playing days were defined more by lowlights than highs. Spells with Walsall, Hereford, Leyton Orient, Sheffield Wednesday and Port Vale brought injuries, relegations and play-off heartbreaks. In May 1997 his Hereford side crashed out of the Football League altogether.
This week, as Villa prepared for their first season back in the Premier League, their head coach looked back on how his playing days prepared him for his future career.
"It was a great grounding," he says. "I captained every club that I played for. Whichever coaches I played under and learnt from they obviously saw some leadership attributes in me. The ups and downs that you have, not just in football but in life, were the ones that shape you as a person."
Since hanging up his boots in 2005 Smith's fortunes have improved. In various roles at Leyton Orient and Walsall he built a reputation as one of the more progressive young coaches in the lower divisions.
"I've learnt an awful lot through each club I've been at," he says. "At Walsall I was a charge of everything - recruitment, the budgets, the training structure, the technical programme. Everything to do with Walsall was me."
Always eager to embrace new ideas and technology he helped to keep Brentford competitive in the Championship. His team played attractive, attacking football on a limited budget.
"That was a different kettle of fish," he says. "It was a Championship team with two sporting directors. They controlled budgetary matters. I was in control of the training ground and coaching. I always believe that every day is a school day and I can certainly vouch for that."
It was a valuable education for the bigger challenge to come - getting Villa, the team he had supported as a boy, back into the Premier League.
"It was only tweaks that we made in training just in terms of intensity, pressing a bit higher up the pitch and winning the ball back," he says, reflecting upon the form which swept Villa to promotion last season.
"We went on an unbelievable run at the end of the season. Sitting here now I'm a record breaker already at Aston Villa by winning 10 matches on the spin and I just knew that we'd win the Play-Off final. Fortunately we can now carry that momentum into the new season in the Premier League."
Villa have recruited heavily this summer - and at significant expense - in preparation. More than £140m has been invested in a dozen signings. Several, including Tyrone Mings, Jota, Ezri Konza and Anwar El Ghazi have worked with Smith before, either on loan at the club last season or at Brentford.
"People can talk about a gamble but it wasn't a gamble to us - it was a necessity," Smith says. "We had a squad of nine players left at the end of last season and we had to build on that.
"We know that being a Premier League team means that you've got to get some quality in. We've added quality but there's always been a bit of a connection with those players as well. It was integral that we kept the core of the team together."
As a young fan during the glory days of the early 1980s when Villa won the league title and the European Cup Smith is well aware of the expectation that surrounds the club. Not since the Martin O'Neill era does there appear to have been such positivity around Villa Park. Over 30,000 season tickets have already been sold for the season ahead.
"There's definitely a hunger to prove ourselves," he says. "Now we can challenge and have a hunger and drive to become a really competitive team in the Premier League, which is what our aim is."
Aston Villa are back in the Premier League and determined to show that they belong at this level. No one will relish the challenge more than their head coach Dean Smith, upon whom fate finally seems to be smiling.
Watch Tottenham vs Aston Villa on Saturday, August 10 on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Premier League; Kick-off is at 5.30pm
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