Steve Bruce - officially confirmed (as Sheffield Wednesday boss)

[peter w]

Its not being a diva - he may not be playing well but he is doing a shift more often than not.

[LukeJames]

Writing 'yawn' when you disagree with somebodys opinion is being a diva.

[Oscar Arce]

I dislike Agbonlahor as much as any for his petulance in recent seasons but he is at least trying now, which lardarse clearly is not.

[Hookeysmith]

Ok I will try

I cannot stand what the useless fat prick has done to our club over recent years whilst taking a shit load of our money

But he was given a chance by getting to full fitness and on Saturday he actually worked his nads off. He made himself a forward focus point and ran the channels well. He will never be the player he once was, or more importantly the player we all hoped he would become, as he chose the ill disciplined version we have seen over recent years. I want him out of the club as it will feel like the last remnants of the bad times will go when he does (Guzan  / Lescott already gone) but we have to be fair he did well on Saturday

[nick harper]

Ok I will try

I cannot stand what the useless fat prick has done to our club over recent years whilst taking a shit load of our money

But he was given a chance by getting to full fitness and on Saturday he actually worked his nads off. He made himself a forward focus point and ran the channels well. He will never be the player he once was, or more importantly the player we all hoped he would become, as he chose the ill disciplined version we have seen over recent years. I want him out of the club as it will feel like the last remnants of the bad times will go when he does (Guzan  / Lescott already gone) but we have to be fair he did well on Saturday

I agree. He turned back the clock a bit and the ball was sticking when it was played up to him which made a difference to the whole side. He also had the strange sight of midfielders running off him which also helped.

[cdward]

I'm assuming that Bruce as would prefer it if McCormack lived up to his reputation and started scoring goals, rather than having to get rid of him and bring in a replacement striker.
So is he trying to goad him into the "i'll show them" mode, where McCormack takes the proverbial kick up arse, realises that Bruce has no problem calling him out, and comes back to work with a point to prove.

Or alternatively Bruce just wants rid, and would prefer to bring in his own striker (Rhodes).

[mattjpa]

Since mid December he has only completed more than 45 minutes in the league three times due to bruce bringing his back up to match sharpness. His whoscored rating has improved over that time by virtually two points and but for a couple of good saves he should have had a couple of goals. I think his shot may have been going in against Preston before Adomah got to it, but even so he grabbed his first assist of the season and carried on with his improvement

Almost everyone agrees our midfield doesnt create near enough chances which Bruce is trying to remedy. For an out of shape striker with off field issues, an entire fan base on his back, no confidence and no match fitness I dont know what more you are expecting  but kudos to Bruce and Agbonlahor as I thought the Gabby we saw on saturday was long gone.

[paul_e]

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.

Results wise I agree there's no comparison but I think the level of criticism aimed at RDM is over the top when there's now a "I always thought it'd be next season anyway" attitude developing. I'm not defending RDM I just think the difference in attitude from the some fan on here (and elsewhere) is bizarre, I just don't see how a bit of a new manager bounce has earned Bruce so much credit that people are happily talking of not even judging him until after the summer.

[Clampy]

I'd personally like to see Bruce lead us into next season whatever league we're in. We need a bit of continuity and with his track record of getting teams promoted, I think it would make sense to stick with the guy if we don't make it back up.

[Steve67]

I'd personally like to see Bruce lead us into next season whatever league we're in. We need a bit of continuity and with his track record of getting teams promoted, I think it would make sense to stick with the guy if we don't make it back up.

Although I am optimistic that we will go on a run between now and the end of the season and might, might end up in the play offs, it's looking increasingly likely that we will be in the Championship next season.  If we are, and we sign a few players in both January and a couple more in the summer, they need continuity.  I 100% agree with you Clampy.  Bruce will take this club forward.  He'll probably hit his own glass ceiling at some point, we'll cross that bridge when it happens, but I agree.  Keep Bruce.

[ClaretAndBlueBlood]

I'd personally like to see Bruce lead us into next season whatever league we're in. We need a bit of continuity and with his track record of getting teams promoted, I think it would make sense to stick with the guy if we don't make it back up.

even if its the third division?

[Clampy]

I'd personally like to see Bruce lead us into next season whatever league we're in. We need a bit of continuity and with his track record of getting teams promoted, I think it would make sense to stick with the guy if we don't make it back up.

even if its the third division?

I think even he'd expect the sack if we went down again.

[Gareth]

I think Bruce is doing a great job so far, the next week or so will shape if we are going to going to keep ploughing at the play offs, suspect come Feb 1st he'll have done more business than he anticipated in this window.

Summer is the acid test, it shouldn't need to be signing 8/9 players again it will be 2/3 first teamers & even more the opportunity to get a squad physically fit for this league, Lansbury dropping off on Sat was understandable having not played for a month but there is a squad there where very few are fit enough for 90 minutes flat out.

[Chris Smith]

I think the one real discernible difference Bruce has made is with our defensive organisation and getting rid of that habit of 88th minute equalisers. It has given us a good base to work from and I think we saw the first signs of the next step in the first half on Saturday. RDM appeared to want to run before he could walk and it cost him his job.

[ClaretAndBlueBlood]

I think Bruce is doing a great job so far, the next week or so will shape if we are going to going to keep ploughing at the play offs, suspect come Feb 1st he'll have done more business than he anticipated in this window.

Summer is the acid test, it shouldn't need to be signing 8/9 players again it will be 2/3 first teamers & even more the opportunity to get a squad physically fit for this league, Lansbury dropping off on Sat was understandable having not played for a month but there is a squad there where very few are fit enough for 90 minutes flat out.

the thing that I find strange is that the last 3 or 4 managers that we have employed have all said this so why haven't any of them sorted it out!!!