Re: The Steve Bruce thread

[achilles]

This interview is from SSN:

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11677/11431502/aston-villa-selling-jack-grealish-and-others-inevitable-says-steve-bruce

Steve Bruce has told Sky Sports News Aston Villa have no choice but to sell a number of their prized assets – including Jack Grealish - in order to stave off the threat of administration.

Villa need to raise £40m to comply with Financial Fair Play regulations following last season's failure to secure promotion to the Premier League.

The club faced a winding-up order via the High Court last month until they agreed a payment schedule regarding money owed to HMRC.

Villa owner Tony Xia last week said the club is not for sale, but Bruce is facing up to the reality that players in his squad who could command healthy transfer fees will likely leave the club this summer.

Read on for a full transcript of Bruce's exclusive interview...

Aston Villa is a huge club with a huge history, but when you lose key personnel at any senior level how difficult does that make the manager's job?

"Very, very difficult because obviously I have come out and you want to go on holiday in three or four weeks. Of course, then it unravels, all of the problems the club has got itself into.

"And the first thing before we go into anything is that we have to address is Financial Fair Play - forget everything else for the moment. Financial Fair Play has to be addressed whether the owner has got any money or not, so we have to try and put that in place if we possibly can.

"Obviously, the owner has put out a statement. I had a conversation with him four or five days ago where I issued my commitment to the club, and to him, where I said: 'We're up against it, let's be open and honest, we might have to make decisions that might not be easy, we have to generate some money'.

"Inevitably that is going to be player sales. There are going to be people that I do not want to sell - and the obvious one is Jack [Grealish] - but people will know that we have got financial problems and they'll sit and wait, and wait, till Deadline Day possibly. I hope that doesn't happen but we've got to baton down the hatches and wait for it."

Does that make it an even more bitter pill to swallow? Because - let's be honest - Jack Grealish is a young English player with enormous potential, should be worth millions and millions on the open market, but the situation you find yourself in devalues him.

"And it's pretty brutal stuff out there. There will be nobody feeling sorry for Aston Villa because financially we have got ourselves in a bit of a pickle, so yes we have got to be ready for that.

"I have enjoyed working with Jack, and Jack is the obvious one that clubs [are going to target] because he had a wonderful six months. He reminded everybody as a 22-year-old what a very good player he is. On another day at Wembley (Play-Off final versus Fulham) he could have scored one of the great Wembley goals.

"He is a special talent, a real special talent, and yes, you don't want to lose him but the inevitable thing is we have to. We have to - to keep the club up and running and keep it in line with Financial Fair Play.

There is a scenario where not just Jack, but James Chester, Jonathan Kodjia also may not see your first game at Hull….

"I think we have got to be truthful to the supporters - that could happen. That is the inevitability. I didn't like to hear that and maybe the easier thing for me to do is say 'I don't like that' and then walking away from that.

"After thinking about it I thought the club is in trouble and if ever it needs me, with my experience to beg steal and borrow, then now is the time.

"We are a big, big, club; a huge club with a big fanbase and that will never change. We are having a tough time at the moment but we have got to try and steer our way through it and ride the storm if we possibly can, baton down the hatches and get on with the hand that we have been dealt at the moment.

"I have accepted it and committed myself to the cause and I think it is better to be open and honest with the supporters, warts and all, to say how it is. We know what to expect. We don't want to lose Grealish, Kodjia and Chester but the inevitability is we might have to so let's get ready for it."

The owner Dr Xia has issued a number of statements lately. He is clearly passionate about the club. He clearly wants the club to succeed but at the end of the day words are only so much are they not?

"He has made it pretty clear that he wants investment. I think that's pretty clear from the letter that he has put out.

"I don't think he wants to relinquish the whole control of the club. I think he wants to keep hold of it, so I think the whole club is looking for investment at the moment. If we get it great, if we don't obviously we will carry on as best we can until the owner decides what the next step is that he is going to take."

[Dazzle]

The above has been obvious since the late payment of HMRC. The squad as we knew it last season is gone, decimated. All the good players will be gone, all the shit will remain. Don’t rule out one or two of the younger players going too, it’d be no surprise to see Davis and Green get plucked away. Grealish, Kodjia, Adomah, Chester will all go. And still we leave McCormack cast aside with no route into the squad, the only way we’ll be able to get rid of him now would be for free, so £12m burnt. Richards is basically retired on the best pension known to mankind. Basically every player is up for sale. And still they talk of investment into the club.............fucking cuckoo land. Who in their right mind is going to put millions into the club whilst allowing the fuckwit that is Xia remain in charge? Ridiculous thought. We should be getting in the region of £50-55m for the players I’ve listed above, Xia will likely end up £35-40m. He simply cannot be trusted to get the best for Aston Villa FC, he’s now a proven chancer. The lovechild of Michael Knighton and Ting Tong wakkadakkadingdong.

[achilles]

Totally agree @Dazzle.

Bruce says in his interview for clubs to wait till the last day of the transfer window as we will be desperate to get rid of players so get your bargains then for peanuts! This sounds like a wonderful way to start the season, having absolutely no idea which players you might just have to give away on the last day of the transfer window without any chance of replacing them! What an utterly stupid thing to say even if it may be true, absolutely nothing positive comes out of his gob!

[Dazzle]

I’ve assumed that we cannot bring anyone in until bodies go out, so if Bruce believes what he has said then we’re kinda fucked with regard to recruitment if we are made to wait for deadline day for outgoings. I despair at the utter ineptitude of the people who have gotten the controls at Aston Villa since Doug left. They’ve turned out to be no more than a mirage in the desert.

[The Utterer]

The club is a joke quite frankly, being asset stripped under our noses and yet loads of people are still holding out hope of a promotion push

SB may or may not be able to gather the remnants of last seasons team into some sort of side but how on Earth anyone can expect a team likely stripped of
Terry,
Chester
Snodgrass
Onomah
Grealish
Kodija
Samba
Adomah
& Johnson
Plus whoever else we may lose in the meantime,
Is surely living in cuckoo land!

That team was not good enough to get promoted so how on Earth are we supposed to mount a serious challenge without that little lot?
The replacements thus far are........ NOBODY!

Now i hope some of last seasons second string & some the youngsters come good but even if they do half a dozen of them are not going to come good all at the same time and that is what we would need to happen.

Only hope is if SB can somehow get some loans in but with Xia in charge and asset stripping the club as we speak, and then loaning against that asset stripping to make matters even worse, what hope do we have of him paying out more in wages. He can barely cover the wages now by all accounts!

What an absolute joke it all is.

[big ming]

Given the financial mess that the club are in, it would probably make more sense to encourage Bruce out of the door and get in a young progressive Coach (or just give the job to Agnew) who can get a tune out of the completely wasted capital asset and ongoing wage expense which is Ross McCormack. Clearly Bruce is never going to swallow his pride, at enormous and unaffordable cost to the club.

[achilles]

Somebody might take Ross McCormack if we don't ask a fee for him and just write off £12 million.
Micah Richards will just take his money for another season and won't actually play at all due to him not being fit enough to sell or play.

Bruce isn't going anywhere as he won't find another job that pays £3 million a year and we can't afford to get rid of him!

Honestly if this was a soap opera you just wouldn't believe the script.

[deadbuzzardalive]

The club is a joke quite frankly, being asset stripped under our noses and yet loads of people are still holding out hope of a promotion push

SB may or may not be able to gather the remnants of last seasons team into some sort of side but how on Earth anyone can expect a team likely stripped of
Terry,
Chester
Snodgrass
Onomah
Grealish
Kodija
Samba
Adomah
& Johnson
Plus whoever else we may lose in the meantime,
Is surely living in cuckoo land!

That team was not good enough to get promoted so how on Earth are we supposed to mount a serious challenge without that little lot?
The replacements thus far are........ NOBODY!

Now i hope some of last seasons second string & some the youngsters come good but even if they do half a dozen of them are not going to come good all at the same time and that is what we would need to happen.

Only hope is if SB can somehow get some loans in but with Xia in charge and asset stripping the club as we speak, and then loaning against that asset stripping to make matters even worse, what hope do we have of him paying out more in wages. He can barely cover the wages now by all accounts!

What an absolute joke it all is.

I don't think I've seen anyone who's expecting a promotion push... But even taking away the above players, our squad would still contain

Bunn
Steer
Šarkić

Elmohamady
Bree
Taylor
Hutton
De Laet

Elphick
Sulliman
Mitch Clark
Jedinak

Gardner
Tshibola
Whelan
Bjarnason
Hourihane
Lansbury
O'Hare
Doyle-Hayes
Green

Davis
Hogan
Hepburn-Murphy


On paper that's still one of the stronger squad's in the division, it's just that we've been spoiled for choice for players to select from over the last two seasons... Of the players omitted, Terry will be 39 this year, Chester will be a big loss, as will Snodgrass, Onomah wasn't even a regular for us, we'll miss Grealish of course, but we were able to challenge towards the top for the first half of last season, likewise with Kodjia we were able to challenge without him, Samba is another who wasn't a regular, Adomah I don't think will actually leave, Steer replacing Johnstone I'm not sure about...

The obvious weakness is central defense, but Bruce has said that we will be bringing in some players as well, we might not be spending millions of pounds to do so, but we can pick up some decent loans and frees... I personally think it would be letting Bruce off the hook, for us to write off next season, because when you concentrate on what we have, rather than what we've lost, we've still got a decent squad, relative to the other squads in this division.

[Dazzle]

The club is a joke quite frankly, being asset stripped under our noses and yet loads of people are still holding out hope of a promotion push

SB may or may not be able to gather the remnants of last seasons team into some sort of side but how on Earth anyone can expect a team likely stripped of
Terry,
Chester
Snodgrass
Onomah
Grealish
Kodija
Samba
Adomah
& Johnson
Plus whoever else we may lose in the meantime,
Is surely living in cuckoo land!

That team was not good enough to get promoted so how on Earth are we supposed to mount a serious challenge without that little lot?
The replacements thus far are........ NOBODY!

Now i hope some of last seasons second string & some the youngsters come good but even if they do half a dozen of them are not going to come good all at the same time and that is what we would need to happen.

Only hope is if SB can somehow get some loans in but with Xia in charge and asset stripping the club as we speak, and then loaning against that asset stripping to make matters even worse, what hope do we have of him paying out more in wages. He can barely cover the wages now by all accounts!

What an absolute joke it all is.

I don't think I've seen anyone who's expecting a promotion push... But even taking away the above players, our squad would still contain

Bunn
Steer
Šarkić

Elmohamady
Bree
Taylor
Hutton
De  Laet

Elphick
Sulliman
Mitch Clark
Jedinak

Gardner
Tshibola
Whelan
Bjarnason
Hourihane
Lansbury
O'Hare
Doyle-Hayes
Green

Davis
Hogan
Hepburn-Murphy


On paper that's still one of the stronger squad's in the division, it's just that we've been spoiled for choice for players to select from over the last two seasons... Of the players omitted, Terry will be 39 this year, Chester will be a big loss, as will Snodgrass, Onomah wasn't even a regular for us, we'll miss Grealish of course, but we were able to challenge towards the top for the first half of last season, likewise with Kodjia we were able to challenge without him, Samba is another who wasn't a regular, Adomah I don't think will actually leave, Steer replacing Johnstone I'm not sure about...

The obvious weakness is central defense, but Bruce has said that we will be bringing in some players as well, we might not be spending millions of pounds to do so, but we can pick up some decent loans and frees... I personally think it would be letting Bruce off the hook, for us to write off next season, because when you concentrate on what we have, rather than what we've lost, we've still got a decent squad, relative to the other squads in this division.

I’m sorry but what’s left is not one of the strongest squads, you’re looking at it through rose tinted glasses.

[deadbuzzardalive]

Alright then who has a better pool of players to chose from than the above? I'd suggest only Middlesbrough, Derby, Swansea, Stoke and Albion, are clubs you could say with any degree of certainty that have better squads than the hypothetical one listed.

Most teams would love to have the luxury of being able to field a starting line-up like this...



That's before you even take into consideration the fact that we're going to be bringing in new players, and might not even sell all the players that people are predicting.

That said club's don't traditionally do well, when there's so much uncertainty surrounding them, and I think that could prove to be our downfall next season, no matter who is playing for us... Basically as a club we may have bigger things to worry about than whether or not we're going to get promoted or relegated.

[DelboyVilla]

Lets hope there are no injuries as we probably won't be able to afford a medical team?
I hope we went to Portugal on Easyjet or Ryanair? And the players are all staying with Brucie in his villa?
Maybe Ho is taking the kit home to wash every week and Luke Organ is supplying the half time oranges from Tesco over the road?
Dr Tony won't be back as he probably can't afford the plane ticket?

Bruce couldn't get promoted with a good team? With an average team we will get trashed every week!

[smetro]

With the season just two weeks away I would keep him now. There is enough upheaval with new owners coming in. But there are growing and credible rumours that he will be gone next week.
- New guy better be someone good - because thats a ballsy move if true.

[deadbuzzardalive]

It will be interesting to see what happens with Bruce, if they replace him, you'd think they'd have the pulling power to bring in someone who might not otherwise manager in the Championship, as was the case with Nuno and Benitez at their clubs, but then there's the FFP issue to think about again... But if they can think of a creative way of removing Bruce, and giving his salary to someone else then who knows who we might be able to attract... It's possible they might already have someone lined up.

[STO67]

Well, if Bruce is going, I hope whoever they have lined up is pinpointing and talking to transfer targets. 19 days to go and counting.

[deadbuzzardalive]

The mirror, daily mail and the sun are all reporting that Henry is a candidate to replace Bruce, wouldn't mind bringing in Wenger as well in a DOF type role, probably getting carried away there though.

[AstonThriller]

The mirror, daily mail and the sun are all reporting that Henry is a candidate to replace Bruce, wouldn't mind bringing in Wenger as well in a DOF type role, probably getting carried away there though.

And I see the usual clowns on twitter are trying to turn thier noses up at Henry by attempting to say he's "another rdm", whilst waxing lyrical about Dean flaming Smith!!...it's really pathetic. Henry has learned the game under Wenger, Rykaard, Guardiola and Martinez. Other than being an absolute legend,  he would no doubt bring a new culture to this club that we haven't seen before and I'd love it. Either way though, I just hope the new owners bring in thier own man so we can have a total new start with fresh ideas. Mikel Arteta and Clarence Seedorf would also be on my list.

[FoxyAV]

Well, we've had a variety of exciting and different managers (read: probably cheap) since Houllier left and RDM was the first to come along with any experience of winning anything. Bruce was a knee-jerk reaction, everyone said wonderful things about him and look at that promotion record etc etc etc.

The good news is Wyness and Round are gone. We have to hope the new advisors know what they're doing in terms of any new manager appointment. There's a good chance we'll need someone capable of bringing in some decent loans (can we bring Snodgrass back?) and bringing with them some top class assistants. Who knows, Henry might be the best person to get everything out of this team but we need someone up to the job in hand and he doesn't have a particularly long managerial CV.

He could turn out to be a genius but he could also turn out like Sherwood, who did a great job with the young players but spent his entire time here changing the squad trying to find the one that worked rather than settling on one set of players and doing it slowly. Bruce went the other way, replacing players only when they injured themselves and someone else came in to cover them (Hourihane's a good example here and Adomah only went on left wing by chance).

Imagine someone who can change a game while it's in play, who can get everyone fired up so we score after half time, who plays the right players for the position, who's around them and who they're playing. It certainly wasn't Bruce but is that Henry? Who knows. Do we want to find out?

[achilles]

It is a gamble to replace Bruce at this late stage as the new manager wouldn't have any time to see what he has got!

Those names mentioned are even more of a gamble but sometimes that is what is needed to refresh the whole atmosphere. However before all this we need a CEO in place and much more importantly a PLAN forward!

Seeing as the 'Villa Engine' was such a resounding success can we just scrap it now!

[bruka]

According to Milwaukee Bucks fans Mr Eden is the type to give someone a chance (Bruce) but isn't afraid to pull the trigger if results are not up to scratch.

[achilles]

According to Milwaukee Bucks fans Mr Eden is the type to give someone a chance (Bruce) but isn't afraid to pull the trigger if results are not up to scratch.

On that basis Bruce is on his third chance, perhaps Mr Eden will notice that fact and act accordingly?

[Gordonsleftboot]

Clear the decks and build for the future. If the Brum Mail is correct we lost £50m last year on the gamble. Bruce, who I like as a person, was at the heart of that. He failed with £50m, what will he do with bugger all? If you were buying a business would you keep a man who lost the last owner shed loads? GEt a new man in, take a few hits and start rebuilding properly over the next season is my preferred route. One very minor point, Bruce at Telford last week looked way over weight! What sort of toll did the events of last season take on him! If I was a new owner I'd look at him and wonder how he can be in charge of prime athletes! I did say it was a minor point!

[Dazzle]

I say Bruce stays for now, let’s get whatever business needs doing done and see where we are mid October.

[FoxyAV]

One of the problems with Bruce is his kind of player isn't necessarily what we or any new manager might want.

[achilles]

That is why it is so important what our plans are for the forthcoming season and beyond that as well.

If it is all about stabilising the club for the time being, then by all means keep Bruce but if it is about moving forward and being progressive then we have to get rid of Bruce!

Bruce advocates that you need old experienced heads to cope with playing for Aston Villa but I think you need players with the right temperament and attitude to play for us irrespective of age. Young, hungry players who want to succeed in life especially as footballers and are willing to put in the sacrifices required to progress. UTV

[FoxyAV]

Bruce bought Whelan when we had Jedi, let alone all the other midfielders. Hourihane and Lansbury came at the same time. Kodjia was injured, Bruce fell out with McCormack, Gabby was being played but not scoring, Audrey and Davis presumably weren't considered and instead of taking a striker on loan he bought Hogan in the January window, who is apparently a poacher who operates in a front two, just what we need to accompany Kodjia, who plays on his own and can hold up the ball for everyone else to arrive (exactly what Hogan can't do). We picked up Grabban in this year's January window so this kind of thing is possible. Elmo I can only assume came in to play right wing and because he's played with Snodgrass, but possibly because Bruce needed someone in the dressing room. It can't be because he wasn't happy with Hutton, Bree, De Laet and any other RB I've forgotten about. Hourihane turned out to be an inspired move but only after he was sidelined and only came in by chance.

Chance being the operative word when it comes to Bruce. I just wish he'd go away and play no part in deciding which players to sell and which to loan in or buy.

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