After a poor start to this season, Aston Villa parted ways with previous manager Steve Bruce at the start of the month.

It brings to an end what is a sad story for Bruce, the former Manchester United defender had his critics all along at Villa Park, and was unlucky to not land them back in the Premier League after losing the play-off final to Fulham last season.

Many believe though that a change was necessary and in came Dean Smith from Brentford. Smith was a boyhood Villa fan and always dreamt of playing for the club he supported, but the new Villa boss admitted he was never of the ability to do so.

Instead, he plied his trade in the lower leagues, before moving into management.

A successful spell at Walsall landed him the Brentford job at the end of 2015. In 143 games as manager at Brentford, Smith amassed a win percentage of just under 40% and this season had transformed the Bees into genuine promotion contenders in the Championship.

Wins are great as a manager, but doing so in style is even better. His attractive style of play at Brentford has received praise from fellow Championship managers this season – Wigan’s Paul Cook “could not speak highly enough of Brentford and Dean Smith”, whilst Stoke’s Gary Rowett believes Brentford have better movement on the pitch than Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds United.

The immediate task at hand for Smith is to boost Villa up the table, but what most fans want and will probably agree with, is that the entertainment will be coming back to Villa Park.