Bruce Sacked at last (now official)

[Clampy]

I believe that SB has now crossed The Rubicon. 

There was no pressure on us today, there will never be less, but he has used the occasion to persist with his relentless negative team selections, putting proven quality players out of position and persisting with robots like Gardner and Bacuna.

I really thought he might accomplish something, but then again I thought the same about SGT Mark 2.

He needs to be fucked off forthwith.

Exactly. Picking that side yesterday was an Eric Black move. No kids given a chance in a meaningless match.

There's not too many kids he could have picked in fairness.

[Rudy65]

Keith Wyness on Twitter...

"I dont think i have ever been so angry about a performance from a team i work with , unacceptable as SB said"

Can someone who uses Twitter, please tell him its been like this all season. He is making out its a one off. Its not

[tomd2103]

If you buy decent players to do a job they are doing at their current club then why not set your team up to make those decent players do the same for us. It leaves me bemused watching how those players are now performing. You can understand a child trying to put a square peg in a round hole, that's Bruce with our players. a manager of some years who has admitted on more than one occasion that he can't understand why they have performed so bad?

Bruce has now got a very good squad and he hasn't a clue about a system to make it work. Does anyone think he'll magically get a new expansive formation together for the start of next season? Not a chance.

New guy in please and quickly.

He found a system that won us a considerable number of games in a row and beat Blues last week.  Instead of sticking with that system and working on improving it, he's changed it over the last few weeks and we have looked a disjointed mess as a result.  I'm baffled as to why he keeps changing something that has been getting him results. 

[peter w]

Keith Wyness on Twitter...

"I dont think i have ever been so angry about a performance from a team i work with , unacceptable as SB said"

Can someone who uses Twitter, please tell him its been like this all season. He is making out its a one off. Its not

Well he says it after every single game so either Xia would have switched off to it or has become immune to it, or he will hopefully be well aware of the fact that the manager cannot seemingly motivate or drill the players to perform.

[JUAN PABLO]

It won't happen but Dean Smith for me. Sells Hogan and still finishes above us playing good attacking football. Brentford have scored 74 goals so far this season, us 46. Being a Villa fan he knows the club and expectations.

when you look at that statistic . It shows how clueless SB is .  that is embarrassing . We have had the likes of RMC, hogan. JK and Rudy scoreless in this team ( who have always banged in goals for their previous club ) and we have scored 46 goals with JC scoring nearly half of them.

Not Good Enough!!!!!

[Tugby Villain]

One day, we'll actually be decent and it won't be any fun.  Being shit is all I've ever known so anything else would just feel wrong.

[Walmley_Villa]

It won't happen but Dean Smith for me. Sells Hogan and still finishes above us playing good attacking football. Brentford have scored 74 goals so far this season, us 46. Being a Villa fan he knows the club and expectations.

when you look at that statistic . It shows how clueless SB is .  that is embarrassing . We have had the likes of RMC, hogan. JK and Rudy scoreless in this team ( who have always banged in goals for their previous club ) and we have scored 46 goals with JC scoring nearly half of them.

Not Good Enough!!!!!

They have let a lot more goals in than us but their goal difference is +9 I think. Ultimately the objective is to out score the opposition. My concern is as others have said that we don't have a system of play like all of the teams in the top 6-8. Nothing is any clearer than the day SB stepped in the door. Our better players are the ones RDM signed...

[Tugby Villain]

Gardner - Lansbury - Bacuna

Gil - Sanchez - Veretout

Which do you prefer?

[john e]

Keith Wyness on Twitter...

"I dont think i have ever been so angry about a performance from a team i work with , unacceptable as SB said"

Can someone who uses Twitter, please tell him its been like this all season. He is making out its a one off. Its not

done

[pbavfckuwait]

Tugby that is immaterial , as Gill, Sanchez and Veretout did not want to play for us in the Chumpionship, the biggest concern is we have signed players that have performed at a 7 or 8 for their previous clubs week in and week out, they come to the Villa and were lucky if we get a 4 or a 5 out of them and that's on a good day, but alot of that can be easily identified, why go and buy two central midfield players and yesterday play them out of position, one of them as a bloody winger for god sake.
There is one man at Villa park who is responsible for performances and he is not getting those performances out of the players, when that happens he has to go. Dr Tone tell him next Sunday thanks for your efforts, but don't let the door hit your arse on the way out bye.

[Gareth]

Although I firmly believe there is 0% of Bruce being removed in the summer I am now concerned. 

When he was appointed I thought it was the correct fit and although it was already too late to make a realistic bid for top 6 I expected he would add some defensive organisation and over time develop a trusted system and pattern of play that would see us end the season well with hope that next season would see us hit the ground running.  Defensive organisation has improved although the aberration that was January & Easter suggests it is not fully solved.  As for systems, he claims to be a 442 man yet has spent most of him time either playing 541 or 451 (he'll claim its 433 but we watch it!) - there is no set system that seems to be in place which when you've had 10 games as a 'free hit' is hugely wasteful & disappointing.  As for pattern of play all season the team have looked like strangers, there is no plan for getting the ball from centre halves to forwards, all too often it is fanny around with it for 4/5 passes then heaved forward to a non-existent target.

Where I will defend him to the hilt is the squad he inherited was not physically fit enough for this league and that is something that is difficult to address during the season but it is absolutely not acceptable if they come back in poor condition again.

It's a huge summer where there is a lot of culling to occur, he talks of a dozen to leave - Richards, Veretout, Sanchez, Gil, Bunn, Amavi, Cissohko, McCormack, Elphick & Bacuna would be a start.  Gardner & Grealish shouldn't feel comfortable about there places, neither have kicked on - Gabby is the cat with 9 lives who should have binned years ago & Hutton is a cult hero who still does little more than run around and try hard.  Where I worry is does he go and spend another 30m chasing the dream on another bunch of players then try and mould them into a system OR is there a plan to buy the right players to fit a system that sees us play good, attacking, winning football...has Bruce ever achieved that at any club?

Really expected to end the season hopeful for next year....big fail Mr Bruce

[paul_e]

If you buy decent players to do a job they are doing at their current club then why not set your team up to make those decent players do the same for us. It leaves me bemused watching how those players are now performing. You can understand a child trying to put a square peg in a round hole, that's Bruce with our players. a manager of some years who has admitted on more than one occasion that he can't understand why they have performed so bad?

Bruce has now got a very good squad and he hasn't a clue about a system to make it work. Does anyone think he'll magically get a new expansive formation together for the start of next season? Not a chance.

New guy in please and quickly.

He found a system that won us a considerable number of games in a row and beat Blues last week.  Instead of sticking with that system and working on improving it, he's changed it over the last few weeks and we have looked a disjointed mess as a result.  I'm baffled as to why he keeps changing something that has been getting him results.

I don't think he had much choice because that wasn't really a system.  It was a solid defence that coincided with a purple patch for our top scorer.  He can take credit for the defence and not losing but i don't think he deserves much for the wins because the goals we scored weren't much to do with him.

[SoccerHQ]

In my opinion, come the summer we do what is needed to get Eddie Howe. I love what he has done at Bournemouth. Might sound a little crazy here but I sense a bit of Sir Graham about him. Watched an interview with him a few weeks back and I just love his fire and energy and drive. His team plays super football and like Watford did all those years back, Bournemouth punch well above their weight. I believe he's ready for the challenge of bringing a massive club back to prominence. I want the Doc/Wyness to move mountains to bring him to Villa Park.

We may be Aston Villa and they may be Bournemouth but there's no way he's leaving a stable prem job for an unpredictable on in the championship.

When Howe leaves Bournemouth it will be for a step up in the prem like Everton or Southampton I reckon.

He could manage us one day but we'd need to be at the level of 2007-10 and who knows how long that will take.

[Salsa Party Animal]

I think we need to be careful to make sure we choose modern young managers to replace SB. Lot of them can't cope with being big club or pressure or expectation. But I would love it if we can get one right and don't need to replace them after 3 years.

[stuart445]

Going back to my original post, I honestly thought Paul had been a regular down there this season seeing as he's gone to great length's at times to knock Bruce's football under us and took poster's like me and many others to task when we've said Bruce is the right man at the moment. That's not me knocking how many times he's been by the way, it's not my place to do that.

Oh and Darren Woolley is the best fan.

I honestly don't think I've done that at all.  What I've said, fairly consistently, is that the sort of team's that Bruce puts together are teams that struggle to stay in the premier league and I personally think going for a pragmatic option to get us up and then start again once we're promoted is the wrong approach, I'd rather we'd taken a longer term view and got in younger players with the right technique and skillset who could've developed together (with players like Jedi there to mentor them through for a season or 2).  I didn't take anyone to task, I just argued against the idea that playing the way we are is the only way out of this league, the evidence of teams that have been promoted over the last 10 years backs me up and even this year the 2 teams that are going to get the automatic spots have mixed the battling results with games where they've dominated and been comfortable.

My opinion of Bruce isn't based on 30 odd games at Villa (regardless of how many of them I've seen live), it's based on his entire career as a manager.  I've seen his teams play enough times to know that how we're playing now is what he does, he creates a solid back 4, an industrious midfield in front of them and plays for the clean sheet.  He then hopes for a goal or 2 from a set piece or a bit of magic from the 1-2 players that he lets really express themselves.

We've been down the young and hungry players route before, where ended up with Ashley Westwood so no do not want to go down that route ever again