Bruce Sacked at last (now official)

[Monty]

I think we're fourth because of Bruce as much as anyone. He's done an adequate job, within the margin allowed for luck, and that's fine. It's not exactly been super magical though.

[Allan C]

I think finish anywhere up to 7th is no big deal in PL. Everton are 8th after a terrible season. We should, initially, have a team capable of doing that and playing with some sort of style that we can keep and add to in follow on seasons.

Sorry but it’s that kind of thinking that’ll see us relegated in a years time

[Tony Erdington]

I think we're fourth because of Bruce as much as anyone. He's done an adequate job, within the margin allowed for luck, and that's fine. It's not exactly been super magical though.

Yes that sounds right, were forth because of Steve, well indeed he puts the team out , the game management has been adequate in some peoples eyes, admittedly I only go to the home games, but you can see the tactics of the away side normally but Steve is a cautious bloke and don't make changes for changing sake but preservers with what's out there, and unfortunately weve dropped points, and/or made hard work of a game we could have won at a canter. so yes we are forth because of Bruce.

[Monty]

Like I say, I think he can get is playing to the sum of our parts, but never more than that.

[KevinGage]

Like I say, I think he can get is playing to the sum of our parts, but never more than that.

Personnel wise, we should be better than the fourth best team in this poxy division.

So I'd respectively disagree.

[brontebilly]

He has given youth players a go at other clubs....when SHA went up in 2002 an 18 year old scored the winning penalty.

As said before he played Henderson at Sunderland when he was 19.

Issue here is the short term nature of it. He knew when he was appointed he had 18 months to get us up and has signed accordingly, going for tried and tested players he's worked with before like AEM and Snodgrass.

If he knew he had 3-4 years like he did at SHA and Hull I'm sure he'd have signed differently.

Well, not really, no. In Bruce's first window he splurged on Taylor, Hogan, Lansbury, Hourihane, Thor - none of whom he'd ever worked with before. You couldn't call any of them spring chickens but they aren't pensioners either... So the truth of it is he came in, spent a fortune on distinctly average players somewhere in the middle of their careers, and then when they'd failed to help him achieve promotion and we'd run afoul of FFP rules, he had to resort to signing the likes that you've mentioned.

Last summer, tried and tested. Snodgrass, El-mohamady, John Terry. Then (b]Grabban in January who is proven 20 goal a season striker at this level.[/b]

Sorry but I have to argue the point there, He's scored 20 in a season twice (will be 3 times if he scores again) and 1 of those was in league 2. He's absolutely not a proven 20 goal a season striker, he's a player who came to us in good form and has adapted brilliantly since he arrived.

Aside from that this summer we'll lose, from the current squad:

Johnstone, Hutton, Samba, Tuanzebe, Onomah, Snodgrass, Grabban (I won't include Gabby)

Then you have Terry, Whelan and Jedinak all well into retirement territory.

Like it or not this will be a summer of churn, even if don't sell a single player, and it's because of his choices last summer.

I was critical of his transfer choices last summer, no cover at left back and limited at centre half and left wing but on a limited budget arguably it was very successful. I don't think we had the cash to buy exciting young players, the spend on McCormack and Hogan put paid to that. Even the ones we did in this division, Tshibola and Bree arguably have been flops.

Bruce can further point with justification to long term injuries to Kodjia and Grealish as reasons why we weren't closer to the top in the first half of the season. I think we all underestimated how good Wolves and latterly Fulham have been. Both those sides should comfortably stay up in the top division.

There is a valid point 're the age profile of the squad but it ignores that the "distinctly average players" brought in were replacing younger but inferior players (Baker, Amavi, Westwood, Ayew, Bacuna, Gardner).

[Steve67]

4th was the minimum I expected with what we have spent. Therefore, average.

[tomd2103]

4th was the minimum I expected with what we have spent. Therefore, average.

In terms of grades I would give him at a C at the moment - a pass but only just and that becomes a D and a fail if we don't go up.  When you look at how close we are to second and then reflect on how many sub par performances there have been over the season, then we should be home and hosed by now.

[olaftab]

I think finish anywhere up to 7th is no big deal in PL. Everton are 8th after a terrible season. We should, initially, have a team capable of doing that and playing with some sort of style that we can keep and add to in follow on seasons.

Sorry but it’s that kind of thinking that’ll see us relegated in a years time

I don’t understand. What do you suggest?

[Allan C]

I think finish anywhere up to 7th is no big deal in PL. Everton are 8th after a terrible season. We should, initially, have a team capable of doing that and playing with some sort of style that we can keep and add to in follow on seasons.

Sorry but it’s that kind of thinking that’ll see us relegated in a years time

I don’t understand. What do you suggest?

I don’t believe the current squad Or the style of play is good enough to maintain a place in the Premier League. I don’t trust Bruce to buy the right players that will do that and he definitely will not play the style of play that will keep us there

[Mister E]

I think finish anywhere up to 7th is no big deal in PL. Everton are 8th after a terrible season. We should, initially, have a team capable of doing that and playing with some sort of style that we can keep and add to in follow on seasons.

Sorry but it’s that kind of thinking that’ll see us relegated in a years time

I don’t understand. What do you suggest?

I don’t believe the current squad Or the style of play is good enough to maintain a place in the Premier League. I don’t trust Bruce to buy the right players that will do that and he definitely will not play the style of play that will keep us there

You’ve very succinctly summed up where we are with this manager. Add to this the comments offered by Paul…e above about the decisions Bruce made last summer.
He is not the manager to take us substantially forward in either the first or second tier.

[JD]

I agree Monty, it  would seem unfair if we went up, but I wouldn't want him spending a fortune to rebuild the team for a top flight return and if we don't go up and our cloth is cut, he's not the man to get the best out of young inexperienced players. He's in the Pulis,Parew,Big Sam category of managers who now are getting found out in the Premiership.

Yep Allardyce has really been found out.  He took over the progressive Ronald Koeman's free flowing total football team then bought tried and tested past it cloggers like Tosun & Walcott in January and has only managed to take them from a relegation battle to 8th in the league (and 6th in the form league since he joined).  What a chancer, no wonder they hate him up there.

I imagine Palace & Sunderland hate him for being found out at there places too.

Ask the Everton fans what they think.

My best friend is an Everton fan and he reckons the football they are playing is abysmal and hates it. I told him to watch Villa next time he complained about Everton.

[Ads]

We play some decent stuff and some languid stuff on rarer occasions. There is usually no inbetween.

[Monty]

We play some decent stuff and some languid stuff on rarer occasions. There is usually no inbetween.

Our defensive organisation is usually good and Bruce can take a lot of credit for that, but our attacking play looks haphazard and improvised, and reliant on the higher individual quality we have to make the difference. That is not a luxury we will have in the Premier League.

[andyh]

Sunderland could do no better than bringing him back and getting him to do there what he has done here.