Next Villa manager

[Nunkin1965]

Thinking about our position and situation Steve Bruce is probably what we need right now.

He's not my choice. A Wagner, Smith or Johnson for me, but our position is so precarious right now. I mean lets face it. So far we haven't even come close to competing against the solid, organised units that Championship sides are. Continue like we are and we'll all be adding League One grounds to places we've never been to.

Am I bothered if he's managed Blues, if he's failed at times, played a bit of hoof ball? No.
I am bothered about results right now? Yes indeed.

Lets hope he stops the slide, gets us organised and competing again.

[Tayls_7]

Nigel Pearson now free to join us.

Can we hire Pearson for one-on-one coaching sessions for Gabby.

[PeterWithesShin]

A manager that is already top class wouldn't touch us with a barge pole. We either sign a steady Eddie type (like Bruce) and hope that they turn us around, or we take an even bigger gamble on a Wagner type and hope they become top class with us. I'd prefer the Wagner type, it could be a total disaster and we'd be in Div 3 next season, or he could be the next Klopp and we got him early and are on our way back big style. But it's easy for me to say i'd take the gamble, it's not my £100m+ on the line.

[cdbearsfan]

There are children of around ten or eleven years old who support us and attend games, and all they've really known is embarrassment, humiliation, disappointment and failure.

By the time I was ten we were champions of Europe.

I feel sorry for those kids, and I think we're going to have to learn how to grind out a few 'boring' agricultural wins to let them feel what winning is like, as they've probably no idea.

You don't suddenly go from being the shittest of the shit to exciting winners just like that. The first step is winning by any means. And time is running out, because if we don't start winning soon, we could end up being the 'biggest club' in the third division.

Yes, of course. And "winning by any means" is more likely if we appoint a top quality manager than it is if we settle for second best as we have done with every managerial appointment since 2010.

Who is this top quality manager who'll come to byword-for-failure-national-joke-and-19th-in-the-Championship-can't-buy-a-win Aston Villa? Who?

Thanks for reminding me where we are in the league. You haven't done that since your last post.

There are plenty of managers who would be willing to come to one-of-the-richest-clubs-in-the-World-who-will-pay-you-loads-of-money-and-give-you-even-more-to-spend.

We are only two-thirds of a good season away from the richest league on the planet.

Of course, if you were conducting the interviews we'd be lucky to attract Billy McNeill's lesser talented brother. You'd just keep saying "do you know we're nineteenth in the league?" every ten seconds until the applicant pretended to need the loo then escaped out of a bathroom window.

However, if Dr Tony is good at selling his vision for our massive club, and happy to pay shitloads of cash, we could attract any number of fantastic managers.

I've already stated my preferences but happy to do so again. Monty talked me out of Mancini so I want Bielsa or Girard.

[Mister E]

I agree with every word ciggies I base my reluctance to welcome Steve Bruce on the following

He has never been a top manager.

He has never produced high quality football from any team he has managed.

He is a comfortable man, a wealthy man, a 55 year old man, living in his comfort zone, soon to have the added comfort of a Villa contract in his pocket.

We talk rightly and at length about motivating the players.  What is going to motivate Steve Bruce?  His gravy train like RDM's, Garde's, Sherwood's, Lambert's, McLeish's, Houllier's and MON's rolls on.

hear, hear.

[Dave P]

HOOF!!

Even if that were the case, if hoofing the ball up quicker led to the ball ending up in the opponents net more often I'd take it, certainly above the abstract unthreatening passing moves we've been treated to for what seems like forever.

So we are about to appoint a manager with a tendency to play long ball whilst we are in the second tier. The manager in question would be joining the biggest club he has managed in his career with the closest he has come to true success is losing an FA Cup final?

For Bruce in 2016 read Graham Taylor in 1987.

[ozzjim]

A manager that is already top class wouldn't touch us with a barge pole. We either sign a steady Eddie type (like Bruce) and hope that they turn us around, or we take an even bigger gamble on a Wagner type and hope they become top class with us. I'd prefer the Wagner type, it could be a total disaster and we'd be in Div 3 next season, or he could be the next Klopp and we got him early and are on our way back big style. But it's easy for me to say i'd take the gamble, it's not my £100m+ on the line.

Exactly

[cdbearsfan]

Graham Taylor had achieved real success though, taking Watford up three divisions, and never going back down. He also finished second in the league, I think. A phenomenal achievement for a club of their size.

Unlike Bruce he had never failed anywhere.

[Monty]

I suppose I just don't actually see a whole lot of difference between middling in the Championship and lower-middling in the Premier League. So far this season, the only difference I've noticed is that the fans of the clubs getting the best of us haven't been total plastic wankers, and the players on the pitch twatting us haven't been as good.

Obviously, I want Villa to compete at as high a level as possible, but 16th in the PL or 10th in the Championship? You're still an also-ran, not doing much and (in our case) presumably playing lethally unappetising football. If this club is going to jump out of this deeply grooved rut, it'll need something a bit more radical than 'hire Steve Bruce, he might get a 1-0 against the Dingles'.

[brian green]

What demolishes the "who would want to come to us" proposition is the totally mercenary, money grubbing, immoral business, yes Delph I am looking at you, football has become.  Make the offer big enough and you can get anybody you want.

[PaulWinch again]

Graham Taylor had achieved real success though, taking Watford up three divisions, and never going back down. He also finished second in the league, I think. A phenomenal achievement for a club of their size.

Unlike Bruce he had never failed anywhere.

Maybe Hull fans were really anti Bruce too, but he did pretty well for them.

[Toronto Villa]

Graham Taylor had achieved real success though, taking Watford up three divisions, and never going back down. He also finished second in the league, I think. A phenomenal achievement for a club of their size.

Unlike Bruce he had never failed anywhere.

Are you sure? I love Sir Graham, but his career isn't exactly all gold now is it? I realise in coming to us he has been successful but even someone as competent as he was shows that failure is possible.

[garyfouroaks]

]I've already stated my preferences but happy to do so again. Monty talked me out of Mancini so I want Bielsa or Girard.

Sheer madness to consider men with no experience of English football for the  career grater that the champ is.

[cdbearsfan]

I suppose I just don't actually see a whole lot of difference between middling in the Championship and lower-middling in the Premier League. So far this season, the only difference I've noticed is that the fans of the clubs getting the best of us haven't been total plastic wankers, and the players on the pitch twatting us haven't been as good.

Obviously, I want Villa to compete at as high a level as possible, but 16th in the PL or 10th in the Championship? You're still an also-ran, not doing much and (in our case) presumably playing lethally unappetising football. If this club is going to jump out of this deeply grooved rut, it'll need something a bit more radical than 'hire Steve Bruce, he might get a 1-0 against the Dingles'.

Well, exactly. If you look at the managers who have got us promoted out of this league before...

Jimmy Hogan
Joe Mercer
Ron Saunders
Graham Taylor

All of them visionaries who had a tremendous influence on the game.

Does Steve Bruce really seem likely to fit on that list?

Of course, if Jimbo had been in charge of the selection process when any of those four were appointed he'd have said "what are you doing here? Don't you know we're shit?" and slammed the door in their face.

[cdbearsfan]

Graham Taylor had achieved real success though, taking Watford up three divisions, and never going back down. He also finished second in the league, I think. A phenomenal achievement for a club of their size.

Unlike Bruce he had never failed anywhere.

Are you sure? I love Sir Graham, but his career isn't exactly all gold now is it? I realise in coming to us he has been successful but even someone as competent as he was shows that failure is possible.

I'm not talking about now. I was talking about Taylor's record a the time we appointed him, as was the poster I was responding to.