Steve Bruce - officially confirmed (as Sheffield Wednesday boss)

[Diablo]

You have to question the wisdom of publicly outing Ross Mccormack (a £12 million investment/asset??). Whilst it plays well to the fans to appear tough (and is a welcome distraction from squandering a 2-0 lead) it surely would have been wiser to keep quiet and flog him in the transfer window. This will only knock £ millions off any potential fee and weaken our position if anyone else was/is interested. Seems rather strange.

[Risso]

Its far to early to judge Steve Bruce, his backroom staff etc. 

What is clear  is that he was not satisfied  with the squad he took over.  Yes  he has made one or two surprising selection decisions, he needs the summer to recruit properly and commence on an honest challenge to get us out of this division.

I think this time next year we will be able to honestly assess, up to then got to give him some slack.

I know everyone is desperate to get back to the premiership but not even the likes of Houdini, Uri Geller etc can  force that.  We just need to be patient, otherwise we turn into a circus  like the Leeds  module was until Monk bedded in.

The only problem I have with this is where was this 'we need to give him at least a year' when RDM was around?  I get that Bruce got a bounce and that pulled us into midtable but 14 points from the last 10 games isn't a good record.  I also get that RDM had a full transfer window but I've seen people on here say that the club is in disarray and will take a while to turn around, if that's the case why is RDM a chancer, etc who deserved to go after 2 months?  It just feels like a lot of fans never warmed to RDM so he was crap in everything he did whereas Bruce has said a few nice things and pointed out a few problems and now everyone seems willing to have great patience for him to unveil his masterplan.

I don't even disagree with sacking RDM but I don't see why Bruce's place should shouldn't be under threat if we finish in the bottom half, for example.

Isn't it more that Bruce seems to have identified where the problems are, even if he hasn't fully resolved all of them. That in itself is a modicum of progress. Whereas Di Matteo (who I was in favour of employing) actually created more problems by buying in such an unbalanced fashion and showed no real signs of having identified any of the issues from last season. Also Bruce seems to care about his work, whereas Di Matteo quite frankly came over (whether it was true or not) of not really giving a stuff either way. That might just be down to personality of course but is bound to buy him more time. Part of  any managers job is to manage relationships with all involved - players, board and fans, and Bruce is simply better at this than RDM. Also, Bruce has won 47% of his games as opposed to 8%. That probably buys a bit more belief as well...!

I don't disagree, as I say I think sacking RDM when we did was harsh but understandable.  My point is that I've seen lots of comments about needing 12-18 months and I just think that's naive.  If we don't win another game until March (for example) then Bruce will be in just as poor a position as RDM.  The nature of the job is that you're only as safe as your last handful of games and Bruce needs a win or 2 quickly to get back on track, right now we're 3 games into our run of 6 winnable games in a row and we've got a point from them.


oh and in the original post i've fixed the obvious typo.

There's no comparison between the two.

RDM spent a fortune, but mostly spent it badly, and failed to fix the midfield.
He had no discernible style of play, and the away performance at Preston was absoluteluy abject, the worst performance I've seen in 5 years, which is really saying something.
I'm not overly impressed by Bruce yet, but the points he's got are obviously much better than RDM's, and he has at least coaxed a few decent performances out of the team.

[SheffieldVillain]

You have to question the wisdom of publicly outing Ross Mccormack (a £12 million investment/asset??). Whilst it plays well to the fans to appear tough (and is a welcome distraction from squandering a 2-0 lead) it surely would have been wiser to keep quiet and flog him in the transfer window. This will only knock £ millions off any potential fee and weaken our position if anyone else was/is interested. Seems rather strange.

I don't think it had anything to do with playing well to the fans. I think it had to do with setting down a marker to the rest of the team. If losing a few million on McCormack means finally pulling into line the parade of tossers who've 'graced' our side in the last few years, it will have been well worth it.

[Brend'Watkins]

You have to question the wisdom of publicly outing Ross Mccormack (a £12 million investment/asset??). Whilst it plays well to the fans to appear tough (and is a welcome distraction from squandering a 2-0 lead) it surely would have been wiser to keep quiet and flog him in the transfer window. This will only knock £ millions off any potential fee and weaken our position if anyone else was/is interested. Seems rather strange.

There's two ways of looking at it.  Your way which I sort of agree with and the other way which is as Bruce has done.  If you read further into what he's said about the potential for anarchy within the club you can kind of understand where he's coming from. By going public he's addressing an issue which shows the rest of the squad he won't stand for such behaviour, It's not the first time as we now know so he had to do something.  He's also letting us the fans know and so prevents unwelcome speculation which could drag on and hinder what he might be trying to do in other areas. 

[Chris Jameson]

You have to question the wisdom of publicly outing Ross Mccormack (a £12 million investment/asset??). Whilst it plays well to the fans to appear tough (and is a welcome distraction from squandering a 2-0 lead) it surely would have been wiser to keep quiet and flog him in the transfer window. This will only knock £ millions off any potential fee and weaken our position if anyone else was/is interested. Seems rather strange.

From what he said it's not the first time he's missed training and Bruce has been in the game long enough to know how to handle such things. Obviously McCormack didn't take any notice so he went public, saves him having to email and ring all those Villa supporters demanding to know "why no McCormack FFS" etc each time a match thread is started.

It's also likely that plenty of people in the game know about what's going on. Look at how many people know how much Hull City pay Tom Huddlestone for example. £80,000 a week* in case you're wondering.





*They don't.

[mr underhill]

of course it also highlights a long standing problem of a culture of insurrection at the club which is deeply worrying. This sort of shady shit goes back to Fatty Dunne and Co.

[Jimbo]

Bruce has done the right thing. No matter what your price tag or standing in the game, whether you're a junior or senior, if you're taking the piss you will be called out. The message finally has to sink in that Villa won't tolerate this kind of shit any more.

[LukeJames]

Bruce has done the right thing. No matter what your price tag or standing in the game, whether you're a junior or senior, if you're taking the piss you will be called out. The message finally has to sink in that Villa won't tolerate this kind of shit any more.

Yet he continues to play Agbonlahor....

[ozzjim]

Gabby much as i loathe the slippery fucker, has done everything Bruce has asked of him.  As such he is using him and he did pretty well at the weekend. 

McCormack has not, and is rightfully getting hammered for it.

[Jimbo]

Bruce has done the right thing. No matter what your price tag or standing in the game, whether you're a junior or senior, if you're taking the piss you will be called out. The message finally has to sink in that Villa won't tolerate this kind of shit any more.

Yet he continues to play Agbonlahor....

The difference is Agbonlahor isn't doing it under Bruce's watch. Bruce had to be pragmatic here, knowing that he would lose two strikers in January. He thought it was worth trying to get Gabby up to speed in the hope that he could fill a gap. The fact that he isn't filling the gap right at this moment is less down to his attitude, and more to do with his ability as a player.

If it were me, I'd tell Gabby to go fuck himself, but I can see why Bruce has tried what he's tried. I didn't see Gabby's performance on saturday, but some are saying it was vastly improved, which may suggest Bruce was onto something?

[saunders_heroes]

Bruce has done the right thing. No matter what your price tag or standing in the game, whether you're a junior or senior, if you're taking the piss you will be called out. The message finally has to sink in that Villa won't tolerate this kind of shit any more.

Yet he continues to play Agbonlahor....

Because Agbonlahor has knuckled down and done a job for Bruce like he's been asked to do.

[LukeJames]

Really? Bruce must have asked him to contribute nothing and continue to look half arsed then because, other than an hour against Preston, thats the only job that he's been doing.

[saunders_heroes]

Really? Bruce must have asked him to contribute nothing and continue to look half arsed then because, other than an hour against Preston, thats the only job that he's been doing.

Yawn.

[mattjpa]

Gets my goat a little that people are still getting at Agbonlahor and comparing his situation to McCormacks. Bruce was very clear - slates are wiped clean. Work hard, train hard, do what you are asked on the pitch and you will be in. Gabby, Westwood and even Richards have obviously done that so will continue to get picked. McCormack has done the polar opposite so has been ejected. There may still be a footballer in agbonlahor if he gets a chance to keep this run in the side going

[LukeJames]

Really? Bruce must have asked him to contribute nothing and continue to look half arsed then because, other than an hour against Preston, thats the only job that he's been doing.

Yawn.

Care to tell me what he's actually contributed then instead of being a diva?