Bruce Sacked at last (now official)

[Clampy]

Has anyone actually said Bruce is our saviour? No, I thought not. What 'nonsense'.

[chrisw1]

I am suggesting no such thing.  Of course the hope was that he would get us into the play offs.  The point you continually refuse to acknowledge is that Bruce was pretty much as risk free as you could get.  Following the failures of McLeish, Lambert, Sherwood, Garde, Black & Di Matteo and not forgetting contributions from experienced assistants - the likes of Keane, Wilkins & Clark, stabilising a club that many described as a poisoned chalice is no small feat.  Yeah, Koeman might have been able to come in part of the way through the season and do something 6 other managers had failed to do but he may well not.  (if for one fantasy moment we actually believe he may have taken the job).  On the other hand, Bruce has done it.  Saying a manager is only successful if promotion is achieved in 2/3's of a season without any acknowledgement of what has transpired in the previous 6 years is a really shitty way to judge a manager.

It's a good job I didn't say that then isn't it, however what I am saying is that anyone in any job will have a bunch of targets set for them and they will be reviewed based on those targets.  You and stuart (and others at various times) seem to think that Bruce either didn't have any for last season or that they were as simple as avoiding relegation.  I don't think that is remotely accurate and to back that up let's look at what actually happened:

• We had a new owner who'd made it pretty clear in the summer that promotion at the first attempt was the goal.
• We spent more money than the rest of the league combined to rebuild the squad in an attempt to achieve that.
• We sacked the manager who'd been given that money after 11 games because we were at the wrong end of the table.
• We hired a manager who's main positive was a bunch of promotions from this league, and our owner made mention of that in the press release to announce him.

Based on all of that what do you think his target for last season was? You can come up with any excuse/explanation/mitigation you like but it doesn't change the fact that there is absolutely no chance that we went through all of that and then told him that finishing bottom half is fine.  Xia expected more and posted a tweet that stated as much as clearly as anything he's ever written:

@Dr_TonyXia
59 of 💯. That's I rated our season. Only results matters. We need RESULT next season. #UTV

Followed by:

@Dr_TonyXia
 May 8
More Dr. Tony Xia Retweeted Dr. Tony Xia
In 💯 rating system, 60 is the grade for 'pass'.  We are still at the crossroads point.

So we failed in his eyes, that's all the evidence you need that Bruce didn't achieve what was hoped of him.  The reasons for that are why he didn't get sacked in the summer but it doesn't change the fact that he under-performed.  I don't think promotion was ever likely but we should've been much closer to the playoffs.  Looking at the table I think we should've been looking to finish with Derby and Norwich, still a way short of the playoffs but quite clearly a level above where we ended up.

Paul_e I doff my hat! Superb post!

Let’s hope this stops this silly Bruce was our saviors nonsense.

What will it take to stop the 'he was a terrible appointment' nonsense?  We're 5th in the c**ting league and on a good run, but you still wont let it go.

[LeeB]

Has anyone actually said Bruce is our saviour? No, I thought not. What 'nonsense'.

Neither did Chicago_Lion, the fat fingered fool.

[john e]

Has anyone actually said Bruce is our saviour? No, I thought not. What 'nonsense'.

not even so much as a sausage roll

[ciggiesnbeer]

<sheepishly takes down his Bruce icon off the wall.>

Thats right, nobody is saying he is their saviour.

<whispers> forgive them Bruce, they know not what they say

[LeeB]

<sheepishly takes down his Bruce icon off the wall.>

Thats right, nobody is saying he is their saviour.

<whispers> forgive them Bruce, they know not what they say

*gently caresses varnished potato*

[ChicagoLion]

Has anyone actually said Bruce is our saviour? No, I thought not. What 'nonsense'.

Will you be cleaning his car before or after the game?

[Clampy]

Has anyone actually said Bruce is our saviour? No, I thought not. What 'nonsense'.

Will you be cleaning his car before or after the game?

You know when an argument is lost. Thanks.

[Diablo]

Has anyone actually said Bruce is our saviour? No, I thought not. What 'nonsense'.

he's not the messiah he's a very...

[ciggiesnbeer]

Rode his luck tonight. Although I did approve of his subs. Given what was on the bench they seemed smart. Ugly win though.

[Confusious says]

Up to 4th now, Bruce has admitted post match game was poor tonight. But I will take 3points a game from now on

[SoccerHQ]

I've seen worse.

[john e]

we have become the team that Bruce always produces wherever he goes,
capable of being in with a shot at promotion no doubt but in the image of Blues, Hull, Sunderland etc

I could think of better clubs we should be aspiring to be like

[mr underhill]

After the shitstorm of the past few years looking up just a few places to the summit of the league - any league - is a positive.

[paul_e]

we have become the team that Bruce always produces wherever he goes,
capable of being in with a shot at promotion no doubt but in the image of Blues, Hull, Sunderland etc

I could think of better clubs we should be aspiring to be like

If I'm honest I'm willing to accept this version of a Bruce side, What we saw last season (and in the first few games this season) was a Bruce top flight side - go into every game thinking a point is a good result, play for the clean sheet and hope we nick one.  We're still quite defensive but he is now at least the gap between the striker ad midfield is reasonable, too often since he arrived we've had 9 players deep and a lonely front man 30 yards away from them.