Sports Gazette

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Aston Villa appoint former Brentford manager Dean Smith

Aston Villa name former Brentford manager Dean Smith as their new head coach following the departure of Steve Bruce.

Smith leaves the Bees with an exemplary record, guiding the club to a top-ten finish in the Championship in each of his three seasons at Griffin Park.

Oli Stein heads into Brentford to gather fan reaction to Dean Smith’s move.

The 47-year-old takes over from former manager Bruce, who was sacked after a run of one win in nine league games despite leading the Villans to last season’s play-off final.

Smith is a lifelong Villa fan himself and joins the club from a team three points and eight places above them in the table.

The new head coach’s first game in charge will be against Swansea City on 20 October and he’ll hope to kick off his tenure with a win to kickstart this year’s promotion push.

Featured photograph/Oli Stein

Author

  • Oli Stein

    Oli, 24, is currently co-editor of the Sports Gazette. Prior to starting his MA at St Mary's University, Twickenham, Oli was the football editor at RealSport, a sports media company based in north London, and he accumulated a total of 3.3 million personal views from 2016 to 2018. He also has work experience with Hayters Teamwork, Soccer AM and most recently with Sky Sports News. Outside of work, Oli has been a sports fanatic his entire life, falling into a long lineage of Tottenham Hotspur fans. He can regularly be found refusing to leave their new stadium or playing American football for the Hertfordshire Cheetahs. You can follow Oli on Twitter: @steinoliver_

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