Next Villa manager

[kippaxvilla2]

I would just be happy with him getting us to fight and ultimately win games again.  If that means he gets us to mid table security this season and pushes next season then so be it.

[cdbearsfan]

Bruce is a "current, proper football manager". We haven't had one of those since BFR.

Pretty much everyone we've appointed has been a "current, proper manager".

Only Houllier was out of employment for a serious amount of time prior to his appointment, IIRC.

[Dave P]

Bruce is a "current, proper football manager". We haven't had one of those since BFR.

Pretty much everyone we've appointed has been a "current, proper manager".

Only Houllier was out of employment for a serious amount of time prior to his appointment, IIRC.

On reflection, MON was as well. The others have either been up and coming, or out of the game for some time.

[sickbeggar]

Well if you want stability you don't sack a manager after 2 months. Likewise,stability doesn't spring to mind if you're appointing a manager who will get us up, but is deemed too shit to manage us when we get there

You do when you're skittering down the table like a one-legged goat down a mountain. How many more warnings do we need? How many wake up calls? We're plunging ever downwards and we have to stop it. That's the here and now. Worry about what happens in the Premier League if we ever get back there.

Hang on, the main Bruce arguement is he WILL get us up this season. Who wants Bruce for any other reason? If someone on here had said, they can see Mr. Pototo head leading us to the top 6 in the next 5 years, then i'd buy into it, but no-one thinks he will. Its the most short-sighted desperation shot even we've attempted if he is appointed

Not from me it isn't. I said before the end of last season that this one would be a struggle. I don't think for a minute we will go up this season, with or without Steve Bruce. I think there's a much greater likelihood that we'll go down. And look where we are. We're 19th and we're getting worse. If you don't win at least the odd game in this division, you slip out of it. The alarm bell is ringing loud and clear.

And let me make it clear, I'm not saying Steve Bruce is our only option. I won't be overjoyed to have him as our manager. I just don't think we can afford to be so precious, because nice grounds, illustrious histories and puffed up pedigrees do not win football matches. Forget all that. Right now, as things stand, we are not too good for Steve Bruce.

Yeah, totally agree with you that i saw this season as a struggle and relegation didn't cure the fundamental problems of crap players and tactics. I don't think we'd have gone down with RDM though. I thought he would steady the ship eventually and then we'd look at progressing. We are not too good for Bruce i agree but i think if we are to build for the future I want more than what he's done at Wigan and blose

[ClaretAndBlueBlood]

If a club that had won four games in however many matches, last away win over a year ago, spent tens of millions and have a win against Rotherham and are in 19th place in the second division to show for it,  appointed somebody who got Hull City promoted twice and to an FA Cup final (HULL CITY!) whilst having to deal with all sorts of shit from the owners was any club other than Villa there would be people on here saying what a good appointment he was.

We're 19th, we absolutely stank the Premier League out for years before finally being put out of ours and everybody else's misery, there aren't a lot of managers out there who we could choose from. It's 35 years since we were European champions. I made the point aboutHul being 'organised' as to my eyes recent Villa managers have found something so basic beyond their capabilities.

We aren't "any club other than Aston Villa" though.  We are Astom Villa. We are the biggest and richest club to ever (dis)grace this division and should have all kinds of options before appointing someone that, judging by this thread, at least half the fans consider tediously uninspiring.

Reality check needed - who are these top managers just waiting to move to B6 and where are they hiding? You suggested Mancini and Beisla - we have no chance of attracting these I'm afraid.

I'm no Bruce lover by the way but I'm having to accept he's the best option available. I'd quite like Burnley or Huddersfield's manager personally but realise we can't even attract those in our current predicament. Depressing, but true.

And you keep saying we're the biggest / richest club to ever be relegated. No wonder our fans get accused of arrogance. I think Man U for starters may pip us to that title.

how do you know that is true?

I don't, obviously. I'm going off what I hear in the media, the same as everyone else on here discussing this topic is.

heard nothing from Dyche or anyone else from Burnley as far as I know. We dont even know if he is in the running. As for Huddersfield, their chairman has said that Wagner wont be joining us. May or may not be true but he wouldn't be the first chairman to come out with statements like that and then be proved wrong

[KevinGage]

Bruce would obviously not be the worst manager in the history of the world, but I'm with OMVF. This is an opportunity to rebuild the club, give it something of a more progressive platform like Swansea or Southampton, put aside the short-term lurching that's got us into this mess - and I'm not totally convinced that Bruce will do anything better than keep the club bobbing along, either in the top half of this division or (absolute best case scenario) the bottom half of the division above.

We do not have that progressive platform yet -and we're not likely to have that by the time the next appointment is made in the next week or two either. That might be a tad ambitious. OMVF didn't seem to get it so I ask someone who might, what is wrong with starting to address some of that even with Bruce at the helm? Why does having an experienced manager at this level automatically preclude positive changes occuring at other levels of the club? If anything, it gives you more time and breathing space to get those structures right. 

Southampton started that project with Pardew in the Third Division, then Adkins and only then the more attractive European lot. They were out of the top flight for seven years - and nearly went broke in that time. There are things we can learn from them and Swansea, but that sort of enforced total rebuild is probably a scenario we don't wish to mirror too closely.

Southampton overhauled the youth set up, the scouting, the whole lot. That wasn't part of Pardew's remit, he was one cog in the wheel. Having him at the club didn't hinder any of the other work.

[Brian Taylor]

I like Bruce - there I have said it.

you are entitled to your opinion, even if it is wrong :-)
[/quothhe is being brought in to prevent demotion, if he's brought in. Top half of division in may will be a bonus.

[pig]

Just get Bruce in.

He will organise us, we might win a few games and could make the play offs. He seems like a decent bloke. It upsets me sometimes as a villa fan, the words that get thrown at me are deluded and fickle. We are at times though, we have been crap for a long time and obviously have deep rooted issues.

If it doesn't work out then so be it, but now doesn't seem the time to take a gamble, we can't wait for someone bigger and better. We need stability and we need to win. As boring as Bruce is perceived, he will do that for us.

[saunders_heroes]

I don't want Bruce at Villa John. But given the immediate options I'm not going to hang my head in shame at all for considering him as a viable candidate.

That's fair enough. I think it's just an indictment of the state of the club and the 6 year decline that we're even talking about employing someone as drab as Bruce. I just hate what we've been turned into, and if he joins and gets us up then great, but at the moment the thought of him being our manager just saddens me.

[paul_e]

If a club that had won four games in however many matches, last away win over a year ago, spent tens of millions and have a win against Rotherham and are in 19th place in the second division to show for it,  appointed somebody who got Hull City promoted twice and to an FA Cup final (HULL CITY!) whilst having to deal with all sorts of shit from the owners was any club other than Villa there would be people on here saying what a good appointment he was.

We're 19th, we absolutely stank the Premier League out for years before finally being put out of ours and everybody else's misery, there aren't a lot of managers out there who we could choose from. It's 35 years since we were European champions. I made the point aboutHul being 'organised' as to my eyes recent Villa managers have found something so basic beyond their capabilities.

We aren't "any club other than Aston Villa" though.  We are Astom Villa. We are the biggest and richest club to ever (dis)grace this division and should have all kinds of options before appointing someone that, judging by this thread, at least half the fans consider tediously uninspiring.

We are Aston Villa, the club other clubs can't wait to play because they know they'll get something out of it. We are Aston Villa, the club that’s sitting 19th in the Championship. The club that can't buy a win. The club that hasn't won away in over a year. The club that's won four matches in the time it took Barcelona to win four cups. The club that's closed part of its ground because it can't fill it. The club that's the butt of every joke in English football. The club that's synonymous with failure. The club that desperately needs stability before it can hope to become anywhere near great again. That's the club we are after 10 years of Randy Lerner. It won't change overnight.

We are Aston Villa the club that's 19th in the championship because every time a manager leaves we have start from the beginning because we refuse to act like a modern club and put a plan in place for how we want to operate and then fit managers into that plan.  The club with fans that are trying to convince themselves that settling into the same cycle of employing a manager for the now with no plan for the future is the pragmatic thing to do. A club that is owned by a billionaire who has spent what he said he would and has stated lofty ambitions but who apparently are being 'arrogant' to think that they might be able to do better than a manager who failed in the only remotely comparable job he's ever had.

I don't want Bruce because I think he's the wrong choice for the squad now and the wrong choice for the club tomorrow, his time down the road means nothing other than the fact that it's probably the most successful stint he's ever had and consisted of survival.  I don't have other names to give but seeing as I'm not the ceo that shouldn't be taken as a sign that there aren't any, just that I have no idea who we've spoken to or considered.  All it means is that I think a search that unearths a guy in the canteen and a bloke who lives down the road and needs a job might not have been as thorough as I'd like and probably doesn't account for their ability to create a culture at the club that will survive after they've left.

[Toronto Villa]

I don't want Bruce at Villa John. But given the immediate options I'm not going to hang my head in shame at all for considering him as a viable candidate.

That's fair enough. I think it's just an indictment of the state of the club and the 6 year decline that we're even talking about employing someone as drab as Bruce. I just hate what we've been turned into, and if he joins and gets us up then great, but at the moment the thought of him being our manager just saddens me.

SH it's like being an alcohol. The first step is to accept that you have the problem and them take the requisite steps to pull yourself clear. Bruce as Villa manager isn't the final step but it might be one step to getting back to the position and status we all believe we should be at. Right now we have taken steps as a club behind the scenes to address the slide. But the on field but needs urgent attention. Given where we are, we are not above hiring Steve Bruce. Sometimes reality is a kick in the balls.

[Monty]

I accept that Bruce is a possible method to getting out of this, but it's galling that other (smaller) clubs can do it by getting Karanka etc, and we have to do all this again.

[PaulWinch again]

And to add, I couldn't care less about his past. And if we do start winning it will go a long way to debunk the nonsense surrounding TSM1. We didn't care that he had managed them. It was that it was the never ending drippings of shit negative football that was the issue.

And you think Bruce will bring winning attractive football ?

I don't expect champagne football, but Hull ended last season as 4th highest scorers and GD of +34. It wasn't like they drew their way to promotion with a bunch of fist pumping 0-0's

I'l be reminding you and your campaign for Bruce mates in about six months time when we are no further forward and having to pay another twat off for not knowing what's he's doing

il be asking where are all these goals you speak of, where is this guaranteed promotion and the rock solid defence, great organisation whilst the whole thing falls down around our heads and we go again looking for the next pair of dullard safe hands

Anyone wanting Bruce at Villa should hand their heads in shame

Hang their heads in shame? For thinking Bruce might do an ok job? What over the top bollocks.

Agreed, because people aren't instantly writing off Bruce before he potentially takes the job they should 'hang their heads in shame'? Alternatively how about consider the possibility he might do ok and then hopefully all Villa fans would be happy.

[cdbearsfan]

If a club that had won four games in however many matches, last away win over a year ago, spent tens of millions and have a win against Rotherham and are in 19th place in the second division to show for it,  appointed somebody who got Hull City promoted twice and to an FA Cup final (HULL CITY!) whilst having to deal with all sorts of shit from the owners was any club other than Villa there would be people on here saying what a good appointment he was.

We're 19th, we absolutely stank the Premier League out for years before finally being put out of ours and everybody else's misery, there aren't a lot of managers out there who we could choose from. It's 35 years since we were European champions. I made the point aboutHul being 'organised' as to my eyes recent Villa managers have found something so basic beyond their capabilities.

We aren't "any club other than Aston Villa" though.  We are Astom Villa. We are the biggest and richest club to ever (dis)grace this division and should have all kinds of options before appointing someone that, judging by this thread, at least half the fans consider tediously uninspiring.

We are Aston Villa, the club other clubs can't wait to play because they know they'll get something out of it. We are Aston Villa, the club that’s sitting 19th in the Championship. The club that can't buy a win. The club that hasn't won away in over a year. The club that's won four matches in the time it took Barcelona to win four cups. The club that's closed part of its ground because it can't fill it. The club that's the butt of every joke in English football. The club that's synonymous with failure. The club that desperately needs stability before it can hope to become anywhere near great again. That's the club we are after 10 years of Randy Lerner. It won't change overnight.

Agreed.

But why is appointing a so-so manager more likely to change that than appointing a spectacular one?

[PaulWinch again]

How do we know that Bruce isn't part of a long term plan? Maybe stabilising the club and getting us promoted in the next two years is the start of a plan. Once you have that platform in place you build on it.