Inside the meeting between Christian Purslow and Dean Smith as Aston Villa interviews set to begin
Rangers boss Steven Gerrard and Denmark coach Kasper Hjulmand are amongst the top of Aston Villa's shortlist with interviews set to commence this week
It proved to be all on Friday's game at Southampton then as Dean Smith was relieved of his duties during a meeting with Christian Purslow at Bodymoor Heath on Sunday.
The final call was made less than 24 hours after Villa's defeat at St Mary's with Nassef Sawiris, Wes Edens, Purslow and Johan Lange all getting together to plan ahead for Smith's replacement to be in the Villa Park dugout for Brighton on November 20.
Steven Gerrard and Kasper Hjulmand are both high on Villa's list, with the pair having close connections with Purslow and Lange respectively.
As for Smith, the 50-year-old was understandably gutted as he walked back to his car before driving the short distance back to his home in Sutton Coldfield.
The former head coach took Purslow's critique on board and, being the Villa man he is, admitted the recent run was nowhere near good enough for Aston Villa, especially given the constant, multi-million pound backing from the owners.
Smith did, though, make the point that his £95million trio of Emi Buendia, Leon Bailey and Danny Ings had only been on the pitch together for what was 35 minutes in games against Watford and, lastly, Arsenal.
The demise, of course, started as soon as Jack Grealish picked up that strange shin injury last season before he jumped ship.
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Purslow, in a Villa TV at the end of last term, spoke of his disappointment at Villa falling short of the European places when it all seemed possible.
"I'm pretty pleased with the way things went," he said, a little over five months ago. "But there's a little bit of regret that 11th doesn't quite reflect where we were for most of the season and, for a large part of the season, it looked like it was possible we were pushing for entry into Europe and we missed out on that. It was good but tinged with a little bit of regret."
The start to the season just hasn't cut it regardless of constant disruption with key injuries and international call-ups, and we now head into this two-week international break with Villa set to conduct a series of interviews with Gerrard and Hjulmand both set for talks. Ralph Hasenhuttl, according to the Daily Telegraph, is also well-liked, while free agent Paulo Fonseca is said to be under consideration.
Purslow, if you remember, came close to hiring Thierry Henry prior to Smith getting it with the former instead opting to take the Monaco job. Villa's list will have some of Europe's big-hitters amongst it with the job an attractive one knowing the next man will be backed by the Premier League's fourth-richest owners.
Smith's shoes, though, will be big ones to fill given how far he took his boyhood club in just 37 months knowing only three clubs have climbed higher amongst English football's 92 teams. However, it can't get much worse than this season with Villa just two points above the drop and, with big players set to return in a fortnight, there's every chance the new man will get that instant impact Purslow and the owners will be looking for ahead of Brighton, Palace, Man City, Leicester and then Liverpool.
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