Steve Bruce - officially confirmed (as Sheffield Wednesday boss)

[john e]

The stuff on other threads got me thinking, has a Villa manager had so many problems that were not of his own making?
Gabbys involvement
McCormicks fitness
AAyews attitude
Bakers fragility
Huttons inability
Westwood being Westwood
Gardener not being good enough
Grealish Special talent or passenger?
Kodjia where to play and off to Africa
Gollini or Bunn?
And surplus to requirements Micah Tish Kodak
It's a pretty messy boat.

as bad as we can be at times, he probably has one of the top two squads in the division to work with, I'd say he was one of the lucky ones and I think he knows it

[brian green]

Or expressed another way

Gabby's rehabilitation
McCormack's settling in
Ayew's talent
Baker coming on very nicely
Hutton's commitment
Westwood taking all the flak without whining or sulking
Gardner battling back from horrendous injury
Grealish confirming his special quality
Kodjia doubling in value
Gollini and Bunn learning their trade
Kojak see Gardner
Tshibola excellent prospect
Richards nailed on for Sunderland in January

Pretty ship shape compared with six months ago I would say.

[peter w]

When can I expect the Christmas Carol version please?

Good king Wyness first looked out
On the feast of Steven
"Send that fat fuck Gabby off
 To somewhere shit like Sweden'
 
 

Well I liked it.

[peter w]

The stuff on other threads got me thinking, has a Villa manager had so many problems that were not of his own making?
Gabbys involvement
McCormicks fitness
AAyews attitude
Bakers fragility
Huttons inability
Westwood being Westwood
Gardener not being good enough
Grealish Special talent or passenger?
Kodjia where to play and off to Africa
Gollini or Bunn?
And surplus to requirements Micah Tish Kodak
It's a pretty messy boat.

I'd say that's one of the more over the top posts that I've read in a while. You're making it sound as if we have a team full of misfits. Messy boat, what a load of twaddle.

You think we're mid-table, and never on Page 1 of Ceefax Championship table, because we only need a midfielder or two?

[PeterWithesShin]

Most likely because we gave the rest of the division an 11 game start because RDM was crap.

[ChicagoLion]

The stuff on other threads got me thinking, has a Villa manager had so many problems that were not of his own making?
Gabbys involvement
McCormicks fitness
AAyews attitude
Bakers fragility
Huttons inability
Westwood being Westwood
Gardener not being good enough
Grealish Special talent or passenger?
Kodjia where to play and off to Africa
Gollini or Bunn?
And surplus to requirements Micah Tish Kodak
It's a pretty messy boat.

I'd say that's one of the more over the top posts that I've read in a while. You're making it sound as if we have a team full of misfits. Messy boat, what a load of twaddle.

its a reflection of what is currently being said on this site, so your fellow posters are over the top then, actually I do think we have a number of misfits but you are of course welcome to your opinion. Happy Clampymass.

[brian green]

Not only did we give the Second Division an 11 game start we ended the last days of the Lerner ownership not as a sick club but as a totally disfunctional one.  We belly flopped into the Championship.  It has taken until now to get to our feet.  We have a good owner and a good manager.  The long march back has begun.  Many fans and I include myself, have been too fond of seeing the worst in our club.

[paul_e]

The bit that's got me is the 'not of his own making' line.

Gabbys involvement - already written off by most fans, SB decided to reintroduce so totally his own making
McCormicks fitness - initially not his fault but he's been here for long enough to be responsible for this still not being properly addressed
AAyews attitude - Ayew was our best player for 11 games, his attitude has only been questionable since he's struggled being played asa  wide midfielder by Bruce
Bakers fragility - Fair point
Huttons inability - He has the choice to play Bacuna there
Westwood being Westwood - He has the choice to pick other players, Tish for example
Gardener not being good enough - As above
Grealish Special talent or passenger? - Silly statement, finding a spot for th emost naturally talented player in th esquad really shouldn't be beyond anyone
Kodjia where to play and off to Africa - Play him up front, it's simple.  ACON is another matter but it's not as if no other manager has to deal with it.
Gollini or Bunn? - Fair point on this one, but both should be good enough to hold their own in this league.
And surplus to requirements Micah Tish Kodak - Micah no problem other than SB trying to fit him in for his first game, Tish is a problem entirely created by SB, Kozak is a guy who seems to have had his career ruined by a series of horrific injuries, unfortunate but no major problem.

So there's 3-4 valid concerns that are nothing to do with Bruce in that list.  Any new manager who comes in mid-season to replace a sacked manager would expect at least that because if there's no problems the other guy would still be there.

I'm not dismissing the concerns, I just don't agree that he isn't responsible for as many on that list as were dropped on him.  There were others that he's solved that you've missed though.  I just don't like the idea of this leading to 'poor Steve Bruce given the impossible job of getting promotion with one of the 2 most expensive squads in the league'.

[Clampy]

The mediocre start that we made wasn't helpful and I think we can all agree that we haven't won as many games we should have but I think Bruce has done well overall since he's been in. I don't think we have a number of of misfits. One or two are not good enough and one or two are not playing to their capabilities. Others have done well. We're not a messy boat, we've just not won enough games.

Happy Clampymass.

[paul_e]

The clear problem was the lack of focus for the full game under RDM, at about 80 minutes we seemed to lose faith that we could get a result and collapse in ourselves and it was then a matter of time before we'd concede and throw away points.  That mental weakness was the only major problem Bruce needed to address because we'd played mostly decent football and were scoring enough goals to be competitive but the belief just wasn't there.

[PeterWithesShin]

Both have had 11 league games, under RDM we scored 2 and conceded 6 in the last 10 mins, under Bruce we've scored 4 and conceded 1.

[supertom]

W6
D3
L2

Good record. Solid start and should get better.

[PeterWithesShin]

Even more impressive when you consider our previous 3 managers (4 if you include Black as he had a number of games) won 9 league games between them.

[achilles]

The bit that's got me is the 'not of his own making' line.

Gabbys involvement - already written off by most fans, SB decided to reintroduce so totally his own making
McCormicks fitness - initially not his fault but he's been here for long enough to be responsible for this still not being properly addressed
AAyews attitude - Ayew was our best player for 11 games, his attitude has only been questionable since he's struggled being played asa  wide midfielder by Bruce
Bakers fragility - Fair point
Huttons inability - He has the choice to play Bacuna there
Westwood being Westwood - He has the choice to pick other players, Tish for example
Gardener not being good enough - As above
Grealish Special talent or passenger? - Silly statement, finding a spot for th emost naturally talented player in th esquad really shouldn't be beyond anyone
Kodjia where to play and off to Africa - Play him up front, it's simple.  ACON is another matter but it's not as if no other manager has to deal with it.
Gollini or Bunn? - Fair point on this one, but both should be good enough to hold their own in this league.
And surplus to requirements Micah Tish Kodak - Micah no problem other than SB trying to fit him in for his first game, Tish is a problem entirely created by SB, Kozak is a guy who seems to have had his career ruined by a series of horrific injuries, unfortunate but no major problem.

So there's 3-4 valid concerns that are nothing to do with Bruce in that list. Any new manager who comes in mid-season to replace a sacked manager would expect at least that because if there's no problems the other guy would still be there.

I'm not dismissing the concerns, I just don't agree that he isn't responsible for as many on that list as were dropped on him.  There were others that he's solved that you've missed though.  I just don't like the idea of this leading to 'poor Steve Bruce given the impossible job of getting promotion with one of the 2 most expensive squads in the league'.

That to me is the most important, he wouldn't be here if we hadn't of been shit so you know it isn't going to be plain sailing, so get shoveling!

[adrenachrome]

Both have had 11 league games, under RDM we scored 2 and conceded 6 in the last 10 mins, under Bruce we've scored 4 and conceded 1.

Fitness, organisation and concentration all have been improved under SB, as you would expect.