By Brian Dick

Copyright birminghammail

Dean Smith believes Aston Villa are still playing catch-up from relegation to the Championship in 2016. The former Villa boss, who ended the club’s three year stay in the second tier, is currently in charge at MLS outfit Charlotte, with whom he has tied a record with nine consecutive wins. However, all things Claret and Blue have remained close to his heart and the 54-year-old has been having his say on the club’s finances and goal drought. Indeed the two issues could be intertwined. Villa had a quiet transfer window, with Evann Guessand their biggest purchase a £30million signing from Nice. They picked up Harvey Elliott and Jadon Sancho on loan on deadline day and signed free agent defender Victor Lindelof but so far things are yet to click for Unai Emery. Indeed as they head to another of Smith’s former teams Brentford in the Carabao Cup this evening, Villa are the only team in the top four divisions yet to find the back of the net. Smith identified a huge gap in Villa’s resources as one of the contributing factors, the other being spending regulations which limit how much Wes Edens and Nassef Sawiris can invest. “Is that a case of them not being able to as well though,” Smith asked the Monday Night Club. “I always said this, Villa went into the Championship for three years we came up and we spent £125m in that first year. “We had six players on loan who had to go, we released seven players. You are actually building from new. “Even four years in the Premier League now, you’re probably still half a billion behind the top six. “That’s unfortunate because you go down to the Championship, then you’re playing catch up all the time. “Yes, the owners have got the money, but they’re not probably allowed to spend it as well as they could. “I think you’ve got to credit Unai for how well he’s done over the last three years already because he hasn’t brought loads of players in since he’s been there, he’s worked with what he’s got and improved them.” Smith is less concerned about the quirk that means they haven’t yet scored this term. “They’ve got the makings of a really good squad. “It’s frustrating not scoring a goal but the thing for me is that they’ve lost a bit of stability in midfield, losing [Boubacar] Kamara, [Amadou] Onana and [Youri] Tielemans came off at halftime as well. “You wouldn’t normally see John McGinn and [Lamare] Bogarde as his two 6s for Villa, or you haven’t done over the last three or four years, that’s for sure. “I would agree that there probably hasn’t been as many options now. “As I say, because you lose [Marco] Asensio, you lose [Marcus] Rashford, JJ [Jacob Ramsay] was the one who who really surprised me and we just mentioned there that the rules on PSR, Villa have obviously got stung by that, because you wouldn’t be selling one of your players who can score your goals as well. “And he has scored really important goals throughout his short career there. “I looked at the squad early in the season and a few of the younger players were on the bench and they’ve had a few injuries, I think once the team comes back I have no doubt. “Ollie Watkins guarantees you 15 goals a season, so he will come through and score goals. “He missed a big chance, I think it was at 0-0 against Palace when he went through one on one with the goalkeeper And didn’t score. “They haven’t created too much away from home at all, half the game against Newcastle who were playing with 10 men, so for me it’s not too doom and gloom.”