Bruce's time

Well we all now know he has gone, when he rolled into VP I thought he would sort us out and take us up, he inherited some good players but also some shite, he did sort some of them out and added some very talented players over the 2 years BUT I have to say that we have not progressed at all really in that time. In my opinion the job turned out to be too big for him & his ultra defensive style pissed us all off, towards the end no one knew what he was going to do next, not even him methinks, I'm grateful for what he has done ( for which he was well paid including the payoff) but we now need someone who can mould this squad of individuals into a cohesive one, I have no idea who Edens & Sawaris will appoint but you can bet your life the new man will take us forward.

I think we showed signs of progressing. But we never pushed on from it. We have had some good results under SB. But some real shockers. And one (Fulham POF) sickener.
On the whole, I dont think we have moved forward. Not enough to justify anything, anyway. He has failed here.

I like SB. He comes across as a decent fella. And he has been through so much over the last 12 months. Professionally and personally. I wish him all the best. But him leaving is the right decision. And thats coming from someone who said we should keep him in the summer.

I wish him well too but I'm not sure I can forgive him for blaming his players and more recently blaming the fans. I was listening to the discussion on Villa last night on Radio5 and after all the tosh about Bruce's promotion record etc it turned to fans' expectations and how we all now want to see attacking football, which is wrong, there are all different types of football and ultimately the idea is to win. One of the commentators simply pointed out we as supporters want to have fun and want to see engaging football. And that's something Bruce hasn't served up. Too often we were trying not to lose, the football was often dire, the players clearly have talent but some of them are just being wasted and I know following Villa has made me more miserable over the last season and a half. Bruce's heart was in the right place but let's all move on as swiftly as possible.

I wish Steve Bruce well, he can go and take a good rest and recharge his batteries. A decent man no doubt, just came up short on what’s required at AVFC. I backed him to stay during that tumultuous summer but always on the back of the proviso that he had to be right up there after 10 games, performances could be forgiven if points were on the board. Unfortunately he provided neither and so change had to come. That’s the football industry. He’ll have earned far more in his payoff for failure than I ever will in my line of business for success, so let’s not get too down for him.

Simply put, he failed, I appreciate his efforts & I’m sure he tried, but I think we got results last year in spite of Bruce, not because of Bruce, his selection policy seemed like he chucked all the players names in a hat and drew them out randomly.
We have good players but Bruce also wasted a lot of money on overstocking right backs last year & right wingers this year,.
I won’t miss his football, I won’t miss his post match interviews, we may take a little time to get going again, but I’m glad he’s gone.

He was crap from pretty much start to finish. How many games can you remember that you came away from thinking 'wow! That was a great performance?". He picked up something like 35 from around 90 points available straddling this season and last. Absolute cack.

Interesting Twitter message from Grealish, perhaps they should have tried harder for him then?

Jack Grealish

@JackGrealish1
Thank you for everything Gaffer. A true legend

I was thinking today that we got rid of Bruce by firing a cabbage at him.

Never ever thought that Plants v Zombies would make it into real life but it just goes to show you never know......

Well well well........Hogan has come out and let Bruce have both barrels! Basically backs up what we’ve all been saying........that Bruces tactical acumen didn’t advance past “roll your sleeves up and put your boots on” 1980s football. Says he’s been fit for past 5 weeks. Ouch, have that Brucie! Seriously though, it’s shocking to think that’s what’s been allowed to go on at the club. We hopefully witness a release of ability from the players in the coming weeks/months as they respond to a coach who knows what he’s doing

Dazzle wrote:Well well well........Hogan has come out and let Bruce have both barrels! Basically backs up what we’ve all been saying........that Bruces tactical acumen didn’t advance past “roll your sleeves up and put your boots on” 1980s football. Says he’s been fit for past 5 weeks. Ouch, have that Brucie! Seriously though, it’s shocking to think that’s what’s been allowed to go on at the club. We hopefully witness a release of ability from the players in the coming weeks/months as they respond to a coach who knows what he’s doing

Still, Bruce was right about one bit "I wasn't allowed to leave. He was adamant that he didn't want me to go, he said I had a future playing as a striker and I was assured we were going to change the way we were playing."

I really rate Hogan, he's always looked like an excellent footballer completely screwed by Bruce's incompetence. I can't wait to see him playing properly again, I wonder if we'll see him up front with Tammy? Even better is Smith was Hogan's coach at Brentford when the latter was scoring for fun.

Stopped the rot and made us hard to beat and had us winning the vast majority of our home games.

Then the pressure got to him and he became overly cautious. I still think he he signed a better keeper and a CB - even on loan he would still be here.

I think he is finished as a manager - sure he will get another championship job if he wants one - but just can't see him hacking it.

smetro wrote:Stopped the rot and made us hard to beat and had us winning the vast majority of our home games.

Then the pressure got to him and he became overly cautious. I still think he he signed a better keeper and a CB - even on loan he would still be here.

I think he is finished as a manager - sure he will get another championship job if he wants one - but just can't see him hacking it.

Agree with the above, to a point. Yes it’s true we became harder to beat last season and won more than we lost. Fair enough. However, the very fact that 2 GKs were signed and neither look up to the job is poor. He let Elphick go to leave us with one recognised CB. We signed Lansbury, Bree, Hogan......all seemingly with no plan or idea of how or where to play them. Last season we were mostly about individual brilliance getting us results. Bruce made lots of errors, lots and lots. Look how he handled Adomah.........starts last season out of favour, gets a chance due to injuries, player of the season, dropped this season until Brentford game, plays well, gets dropped and attempted to ship out on loan, selected next game! It was all utterly made up as he was going along. He had no defence of himself in the end and that’s why he’d hang players out to dry or call the fans stupid and impatient. He was sacked not a moment too soon in the end. I’m totally confident we’ll soon see a released and refreshed team out on the field. Defensively we’ve been left in a mess and need to find a way through to January, that’s my only concern. We wait to see how Smith and Terry tackle that dilemma.

Attack could be our only means of defence?

The comments above are spot on, the fundamental fact for Bruce was Villa was too big for him, he gave other teams far too much respect instead of removing the shackles and putting it on other teams, the few games we did the results were positive but Bruce always reverted back to type especially away. Bruce will never have the option to manage a team our size again, he will have to resort back to being the underdog again or retire.

achilles wrote:Attack could be our only means of defence?

I was always told that the opposition couldn't score if you had the ball, especially in their penalty area, bring it on.

Bruce went full circle.  Took over a side that was low on confidence and not playing to their ability and left at a time when, well, they are not playing to their ability.  He's left the nubbings of a side, defensively weak but going forward, once O'Kelly and Smith get hold of them, they will be very good.  Yes, we need to bring in a centre back, a complete dereliction of duty by Bruce in not doing so.  He came, he signed, he sold, he sold out. Time to move on, hopefully to better performances and good results.

I feel he had enough, maybe the personal circumstances over the last 9-12months had taken it out of him on top of the pressure of the job and he'd run out of paper for the cracks. But rather than step away, he penned his own narrative as victim. Feeling life was against him, orchestrating his own downfall became too easy and self-destruction became self-fulfilling.

Anyone within the game will see this for themselves. They might not slag him off on the radio or in the papers, but in the boardroom, they will be having very difficult conversations. Bruce really has let the game pass him by and now joins that elite group of British footballasaurus Manager's scratching at the window to get back in. Step forward, Fat Sam, Moyes, Pardew, Bruce, Lambert. McLeish will soon join them.

I saw yesterday that Moyes had come out in support of his fellow dinosaur Potato Head claiming that Bruceball methodology was excellent! No wonder that Golom looking idiot has failed everywhere he has been since Everton! Another fraud living off his so called 'excellent' spell at one club!

Moyes is about as relevant as a Blockbuster video rental store.

Nice one De Kuip

And ticket sales for Swansea are up, what, 50% on Bruce's last match at VP?

I like to think the cabbage tasted good. Can we stop talking about him now?

The dinosaur club stick together, time has passed them by, they should be extinct!

This is what Moyes actually said to The Telegraph...

“I’d certainly dispute I’m out-dated or old fashioned. We see this happening to managers all the time when they get to a certain age. But these are managers who have been incredibly successful over a long period of time.

“There is always a rush to move them on. They are told they aren’t modern enough, that they have not been able to adapt to the changes, but it’s nonsense. I look at some of the managers who are being criticised, people like Jose Mourinho, Martin O’Neill, Steve Bruce and Rafa Benitez - I’d say they are up there with the very best.

Birmingham Mail took his quotes totally out of contex and made it sound like Moyes was criticizing the decision to sack Bruce as 'nonsense', and singling him out for praise.

I listened to something on Sky with Sidwell and Bellamy deciding Bruce was unfairly sacked but owners and fans are too impatient. I gave up after listening to them explain why Bruce wasn't given enough time, the club was in chaos over the summer with him not knowing if he'd get in any players and how we were screwed from a lack of leaders and hadn't replaced Grabban, Terry, Snodgrass and Johnstone. I keep going back to how Bruce didn't stick with the team he had with (crazy thought I know) Kodjia up front, Adomah or Green on right wing, Steer in goal and someone (anyone?) at CB next to Chester, who did fine as captain the year before his CB partner Baker was sold. Lest we forget, we still had the rest of the team that made it to the playoff finals, a load of decent players in reserve and players to fill the holes had we had to sell Jack or whoever else for FFP. Except Bruce chose to dick around in pre-season. It was under Xia's watch that we bought in too many players on high wages and under Bruce's watch that we brought in more players with high wages and purchase prices.

You know what, I don't care, I could go on and you don't care either. He's gone, so what if all his pundit mates think it's a terrible shame. Onwards and upwards.