Dean Smith: Former Aston Villa boss appointed as Norwich City head coach on a two-and-a-half year contract
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ByEurosport
Updated 15/11/2021 at 08:47 GMT
Dean Smith has quickly moved on from his time at Aston Villa by accepting the vacant head coach role at Norwich City. His mission will be to keep the club in the Premier League with the Canaries only winning one league game so far this season. Smith's first game in charge will be against Southampton at Carrow Road on November 20.
Dean Smith
Image credit: Getty Images
Dean Smith has been appointed as the head coach of Norwich City on a two-and-a-half year contract.
Norwich had been looking for a successor to Daniel Farke who was sacked just hours after the Canaries produced a 2-1 victory over Brentford on November 6: their first win of the season.
Craig Shakespeare, who was a deputy to Smith at Villa, has been hired as assistant head coach.
Smith said: "It has been a whirlwind seven days, but I’m really pleased to be back and working for Norwich City in the Premier League.
"Clearly, there has been some wonderful work that has gone into this football club over the last four-and-a-half years.
"It is now the job of myself and Craig [Shakespeare] to continue and improve on that work with the ultimate aim of surviving in the Premier League."
The 50-year-old was reportedly in a two-horse race with former Chelsea boss Frank Lampard for the role, but the latter withdrew from the running after having talks with the club.
Smith took charge of Aston Villa in October 2018 and led the club to promotion to the Premier League in his first season.
Villa have maintained their Premier League status since and he also led the Midlands club to the League Cup final in 2020.
Arguably one of his best moments was masterminding a 7-2 win against Liverpool at Villa Park in the 2020/21 season. Villa finished last season in 11th.
However, Smith was sacked by Villa last week after a run of five successive Premier League defeats, including home losses against Wolverhampton Wanderers and West Ham, but he has already landed a new role in England’s top flight.
He has a tricky challenge ahead of him at Carrow Road. Norwich are bottom of the Premier League table on five points after 11 games and will be tasked with keeping the club in the top flight.
Norwich sporting director Stuart Webber said: "We are delighted to have appointed Dean as our new head coach. I have admired his work for some time and he has been a long-term target in the event that we needed to appoint a new head coach.
Dean has an outstanding track record and as soon as he made it clear that he was ready to go straight back into a managerial role we contacted him immediately.
"He shares the same values and vision as the club, has a proven track record of winning games in the Premier League as well as developing players and building a winning culture and mentality."
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