Smith didn’t want Aston Villa to have a play-off parade – that shows his mentality

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Aston Villa will not be having a parade to celebrate promotion back to the Premier League, according to the club’s official website.

Club CEO Christian Purslow did most of the talking but made it clear that he and Smith were on exactly the same page in terms of reserving parades for major trophy wins.

Purslow said: “We’re Aston Villa, we have parades when we win leagues and cups – not when we get promoted effectively third. Parades are for when we win something really big.”

Smith added: “I was fortunate enough to get on the bus when they carried that European Cup around. There’s been a European Cup and a League Championship parade. But for a Play-Off Final? No.”

Much has been made about how Smith is a Villa fan but it’s only when he talks about how he celebrated momentous moments in the club’s history that you realise what that actually means in raw terms.

He knows where the club belongs and getting out of the Championship isn’t – and shouldn’t be, for a club of Villa’s ambitions – an absolutely enormous achievement that deserves commemoration with a parade.

Steve Bruce has won promotions, but has managed all over the place and couldn’t have that affinity with what Villa is and what the club has achieved in the same way as Smith.

The decision shows his winning mentality and that he really ‘gets’ the club once more.