Steve Bruce - officially confirmed (as Sheffield Wednesday boss)

[saunders_heroes]

It will either work or it wont. No-one can say for sure. A lot of us on here were delighted with Lambert and a lot of us thought RDM had a good track record. Unfortunately, a lot of us were mistaken. There is something deeply wrong at the heart of Aston Villa and I don't feel it can be addressed just by bringing in another new manager. I'm still trying to put my finger on what it is though.

I'm slightly underwhelmed but still retain a little bit of hope.

What's wrong at Villa is the mess we've been left with after the 6 year sabotage by Lerner and we're practically starting from scratch again under Xia. I'm also underwhelmed with things so far (and especially Bruce) but he's here now so we'll just have to get on with it. I've never liked Bruce but if he gets this team up he'll be a f#ckin hero.

[SheffieldVillain]

What I'm saying is that a couple of days will make very little difference. Not 'no difference' but 'very little difference'. Especially as most of the players who he would want to work with wouldn't have been there. There's little point in him knowing the fitness levels and injuries of the players before they went on international duty, is there?

Well, as you said, not all of your 1st team squad are away on International duty so surely every day spent with them is valuable? I know Rafa Benitez had double sessions with the Newcastle squad members who weren't representing their countries, and that's a squad he knows inside and out.

It's more important to do the 'due diligence' and make the right appointment, than it is to rush the wrong person into the role so he can have a couple of extra days with the players. I expect the club have done their research, and a few days here or there won't make much difference if we have the right man.

I'd argue that due diligence on a manager takes far less time to get right than; assessing what's wrong, assessing what's right, formulating a plan to see more of the latter and less of the former, creating coaching sessions to allow for the execution of that plan, and putting players through those sessions.

An extra day's due diligence is not worth as much as an extra day on the training field.

With all due respect, I couldn't care less what Rafa Benitez does at Newcastle.

[castlefields_villan]

Satisfied with the appointment rather than thrilled. Confident he'll improve us, although that isn't hard to do!, just a case of whether he can improve us enough.

Depressing stat time, Bruce won 24 league games last season, we've won 24 in the last three and a quarter seasons.

This just about sums it up PWS, as was the case back in 1987, we need someone strong to steady the ship.  He's a strong character with oodles of top division/second tier experience - this was something sadly lacking in so many of the appointments over the last 5-6 years.

I feel with the talent he has at his disposal, we've got the potential to at least try to play good football whilst making our way up the table.

Welcome aboard Steve.

[kippaxvilla2]

I'm going to call him Steve The Bruce as we always do well under Scottish managers.

When I read this it actually scared me for a minute as I had to remind myself he isn't in fact Scottish.

[PeterWithesShin]

I've never minded Bruce, admittedly I never thought we'd be so shite he'd be a decent option as manager! But i've always found him to be quite witty. Always seemed to take the potato head stuff in good spirit for example, and always remember him laughing as Dunn tripped himself up at the sty trying to be clever.

[The Fish]

With all due respect, I couldn't care less what Rafa Benitez does at Newcastle.

The point being that a manager who already knows the lay of the land is using the International break to get some extra work with the players in, so surely a new manager with limited knowledge of the situation at Villa Park would have benefited from as much time as possible.

I could have as easily mentioned Neil, or Wagner, or Klopp, or Wenger.

[LeeS]

It's like the night before Christmas but knowing you'll be unwrapping The Very Best of Coldplay and a second hand copy of The Da Vinci Code in the morning.

Posh bastard!

[paul_e]

I don't think Bruce is a terrible appointment and I can see why people think he's a good choice but for me it's just perpetuating the problems we've had for years and treating the short term and long term aims as disconnected things.  If he gets us up this season then it's a 'risk' that's paid off and he'll get my thanks.  If he fails to do that then I'll be very disappointed that we didn't take t he chance to get someone in with a thought of tomorrow.

[HK Villan]

I'm pleased with this.  He's a proven manager especially at this level, a decent guy and even when he was at Blues I think on a professional level he earned and deserved our respect.  The Blues connection is just not an issue for me.... I'm looking forward to having a solid, experienced manager in the dugout, who can take us up the table to challenge for promotion.

[SheffieldVillain]

With all due respect, I couldn't care less what Rafa Benitez does at Newcastle.

The point being that a manager who already knows the lay of the land is using the International break to get some extra work with the players in, so surely a new manager with limited knowledge of the situation at Villa Park would have benefited from as much time as possible.

I could have as easily mentioned Neil, or Wagner, or Klopp, or Wenger.

You could. And they would each have had an equal lack of relevance to Villa.

After the successive dimwits appointed as managers here in the last few years, it was more important that the people making the appointment made absolutely sure they'd explored every possibility. If this took an extra couple of days which Bruce could have mostly spent realising our fringe players are crap, which I'm sure he realises given they are fringe players at a club in the bottom half of the Championship, then so be it.

[adrenachrome]

Apparently forward planning is 'fannying around'. Fuck's sake.

When your bathroom is full of rusty, leaky pipes, you turn off the water at the mains and fix them before you start thinking about installing a new bathroom.

What we need right now is a plumber, not an award-winning designer of avant-garde bathroom suites.

No point preaching plumbing basics to the tippy tappy tendency.

[kippaxvilla2]

I've never minded Bruce, admittedly I never thought we'd be so shite he'd be a decent option as manager! But i've always found him to be quite witty. Always seemed to take the potato head stuff in good spirit for example, and always remember him laughing as Dunn tripped himself up at the sty trying to be clever.

I am the same.  He is one them managers/players you wanted to find yourself despising especially for the misery he personally has bestowed upon us over the years but you can't help but kind of like him as a fella.  Except when he was at the Sty (and that is only because he would have upset the proles) he has always been pretty complimentary about us.  He also won't take any bs from the players.  If you look at some of the quotes from respected players as well none of them have a bad word to say about his management style.

[The Fish]

You could. And they would each have had an equal lack of relevance to Villa.

After the successive dimwits appointed as managers here in the last few years, it was more important that the people making the appointment made absolutely sure they'd explored every possibility. If this took an extra couple of days which Bruce could have mostly spent realising our fringe players are crap, which I'm sure he realises given they are fringe players at a club in the bottom half of the Championship, then so be it.

I'm not trying to be ornery, but I'd say evidence that experienced coaches use every chance they get to work with their players is relevant in this discussion.

If the man appointed was a relative unknown, but whose interview was impressive I could understand deliberating for the extra days, but it's Bruce. Everyone knows Bruce, everyone knew it was going to be Bruce, so why not announce him asap so he can get on with coaching? That's why the delay was surprising.

[Jimbo]

With all due respect, I couldn't care less what Rafa Benitez does at Newcastle.

The point being that a manager who already knows the lay of the land is using the International break to get some extra work with the players in, so surely a new manager with limited knowledge of the situation at Villa Park would have benefited from as much time as possible.

I could have as easily mentioned Neil, or Wagner, or Klopp, or Wenger.

Two days without the right man is preferable to two months / years with the wrong man.

Anyway, can't Bruce just ask Steve Clarke about the players? And I'm sure he's watched us play for himself.

[ironmaidenmania]

Not who I wanted but a decent choice. Not sure we'll be promoted this season because we have a massive hill to climb, but could sneak the playoffs with a good run.

Not bothered by the link to SHA but we do need to get behind him and not turn at the first defeat/poor result.

Good luck Steve, boy are you going to need it!