Bruce Sacked at last (now official)

[Gregorys Boy]

There's no point talking about new managers just yet, we might still get second God damn it!

[Steve67]

Looks like it's the play offs or nothing.  If we do not go up, do we stick with Bruce?  Particularly as we seem to have a bit of money to spend now we have a load of players leaving and the Recon training ground deal.  Shit or bust.  Does Bruce get one more season or does he go at the end of this season?

[Risso]

That's two games in a row now where Bruce hasn't done the post match interview.  It was Clemence last week, and Calderwood this.  Any ideas as to why?

[berneboy]

That's two games in a row now where Bruce hasn't done the post match interview.  It was Clemence last week, and Calderwood this.  Any ideas as to why?

He travelled to see his sick mother apparently.

[Risso]

Fair enough.

[not3bad]

Looks like it's the play offs or nothing.  If we do not go up, do we stick with Bruce?  Particularly as we seem to have a bit of money to spend now we have a load of players leaving and the Recon training ground deal.  Shit or bust.  Does Bruce get one more season or does he go at the end of this season?

It's a good question. Are we moving forward at present? I would say yes, even if we don't go up. Therefore I say keep Bruce. If, next season, it appears we are not still moving forward then review the situation again. If we don't go up this year I would want us to to be in and around the top 3 as a fixture next season.

[Ad@m]

How many times would Bruce have to fail to justify binning him?

[Three Spires Villa]

If, we don’t go up ( I think we will) then I don’t see why we would keep him

[Walmley_Villa]

I see Brentford are knocking on the playoff door. If Bruce ends up going at some point I would still be looking at Dean Smith.

[SoccerHQ]

Looks like it's the play offs or nothing.  If we do not go up, do we stick with Bruce?  Particularly as we seem to have a bit of money to spend now we have a load of players leaving and the Recon training ground deal.  Shit or bust.  Does Bruce get one more season or does he go at the end of this season?

It's a good question. Are we moving forward at present? I would say yes, even if we don't go up. Therefore I say keep Bruce. If, next season, it appears we are not still moving forward then review the situation again. If we don't go up this year I would want us to to be in and around the top 3 as a fixture next season.

Next season will be tougher to challenge for automatic than this year imo.

Can't see the teams coming down being as bad as Sunderland and to a lesser extent Hull were.

Conflicting stories on FFP but we probably won't be able to go out and get players like Snodgrass and Grabban on loan. We'd have to sell a key player or two to do that.

If we didn't go up and kept SB I'd imagine he'd still have us around the top 6 next year but would that be enough? He's been criticised plenty on here for not getting top 2 (I wanted it aswell) so suddenly next year 5th or 6th would be good enough, I doubt it and would imagine that would be Dr Tony's viewpoint.

Only keep him if he's going to last the season and I really doubt it so think a change would be made.

With the fixtures left I can actually see Brentford making 6th as they have two easier games than Millwall do.

Dean Smith would've demonstrated he can finish top 6 in a championship season which is minimum we need. He's also shown he can pick up players from league 1-2 like Sawyers, Ryan Woods and Watkins and mould them into good championship players.

That's another quality we'll need from a manager if we don't go up in the next few years I think.

[ChicagoLion]

The argument for keeping him would be, less disruption to the squad.
FFP will be an even bigger problem next year and Grealish will be sacrificed in the name of squad rebuilding.
How the club will regain momentum for yet another campaign will be the big question.

[The Edge]

I see Brentford are knocking on the playoff door. If Bruce ends up going at some point I would still be looking at Dean Smith.

You can get arrested in some countries for that.

[Duncan Shaw]

I see Brentford are knocking on the playoff door. If Bruce ends up going at some point I would still be looking at Dean Smith.

Whilst I agree I'd love to see him and his football at the Villa, I just feel the pressure of managing us would become overwhelming for him.  No reason, just a gut feel.

[Clampy]

I see Brentford are knocking on the playoff door. If Bruce ends up going at some point I would still be looking at Dean Smith.

Whilst I agree I'd love to see him and his football at the Villa, I just feel the pressure of managing us would become overwhelming for him.  No reason, just a gut feel.

Yes, I agree. It's a lovely idea and he'd get a lot of support but it might be a bit too much for him which would be a shame.

[olaftab]

I see Brentford are knocking on the playoff door. If Bruce ends up going at some point I would still be looking at Dean Smith.

Apparently he is also wanted by a fair few West Brom fans. Now that would be a shame.