Steve Bruce - officially confirmed (as Sheffield Wednesday boss)

[john e]

Yep, Bruce has got enough experience and credit in the bank to deserve a decent shot at it.

I think it would be very difficult to find someone who could do a worse job if it so far

[chrisw1]

Yep, Bruce has got enough experience and credit in the bank to deserve a decent shot at it.

I think it would be very difficult to find someone who could do a worse job if it so far

There's plenty.  RDM, Eric Black and Reme Garde spring to mind.

[achilles]

I dislike the idea that he is now going to 3 5 2 which will inevitably become 5 3 2.
Unless you have the right players this system is easily nullified.
Simply post wide midfielder or forward in the vicinity of the full back. Use the diagonal ball to exploit space behind ful back. 1 striker can occupy 3 centre halves.
Bruce uses it as another counter attacking format, sit deep, filll up the area in front of the deep lying defence and try and spring the full backs.
It's ugly.

It can work if the 3 at the back are ball players but not with 2 of our 3.  That and the fact we don't have a 4th to replace one of the 3 when required.

Richards? 

[paul_e]

Yep, Bruce has got enough experience and credit in the bank to deserve a decent shot at it.

I think it would be very difficult to find someone who could do a worse job if it so far

There's plenty.  RDM, Eric Black and Reme Garde spring to mind.

Black was a caretaker, Garde got absolutely no backing to fix a squad which wasn't fit for purpose (the complete opposite of Bruce in this window) and RDM got 11 games when, according to this thread:

a manager needs at least 1 season to get his team performing to their full potential.

That's not to say that Garde and RDM didn't deserve to be sacked just pointing out that using them as examples of doing a worse job when both of them can legitimately feel hard done by over the support they got in the job doesn't really help the argument that even if things are a bit shit Bruce deserves time to see if he can turn it round, that's something neither of them were afforded in the same circumstances.  The only real difference is that Bruce got a bit of a new manager bounce and those 2 didn't.

[john e]

Yep, Bruce has got enough experience and credit in the bank to deserve a decent shot at it.

I think it would be very difficult to find someone who could do a worse job if it so far

There's plenty.  RDM, Eric Black and Reme Garde spring to mind.

he's got no problems feeling right at home in that company

[RussellC]

Who should we bring in to replace him then?

Well, for a start, any of the Managers of the 13 clubs above us in the second tier of English football are currently doing a better job than he is. In all but 1 case, I'd guess for considerably lower salaries too.

Besides, I haven't suggested sacking him at this stage, and am not doing. However, the idea that there isn't a long list of potential improvements doesn't currently carry much weight.

So according to your logic Zola is doing a better job than Bruce because Blose are above Villa? In my opinion that is total bollox.

No, not Zola, but Rowett had certainly been doing impressive things before him.

The point still stands; there are plenty of other Managers in the World of Football who I would expect to achieve more than we currently are with the tolls available, who I'm sure would all jump at the chance to manage us.

However, and to clarify for the second time, I'm not suggesting that we sack Bruce at this stage. If we don't see a significant improvement by the end of the season though, I would certainly be looking down that list.

So are you saying Rowett then?

If Bruce doesn't improve this season, then yes- Rowett would be a credible candidate to replace him.

For some reason though, I feel I need to clarify for a third time; I am not suggesting that we should sack him at this point in time.

[paul_e]

Rowett would be a big no from me, he's not what we need at all.

[RussellC]

Rowett would be a big no from me, he's not what we need at all.

I'm not putting him forward as my ideal candidate. Just saying that on recent history he's a more-than-credible candidate to do a better job than Bruce currently is.

[Risso]

Rowett would be a big no from me, he's not what we need at all.

I think he'd do a good job. Genuinely interested to know what you think the problem with him would be?

[ChicagoLion]

Dean Smith

[Chris Smith]

Rowett would be a big no from me, he's not what we need at all.

I think he'd do a good job. Genuinely interested to know what you think the problem with him would be?

His experience and qualifications for the job are less than Lambert had when he was appointed. He's slightly improved a struggling championship club and we really should be setting our sights a little higher.

[LukeJames]

Experience is over rated, we've currently gone for the manager with the most experience at achieving our goals and thats not exactly going how we'd have liked. For me whats more important is somebody who can come in and combine a modern approach with getting what the club is all about, for me Bruce gets the club, but his methods are outdated and negative.

[dave.woodhall]

Experience is over rated, we've currently gone for the manager with the most experience at achieving our goals and thats not exactly going how we'd have liked. For me whats more important is somebody who can come in and combine a modern approach with getting what the club is all about, for me Bruce gets the club but his methods are outdated.

He got promoted in May 2016 and his methods have become outdated within nine months?

[chrisw1]

Rowett would be a big no from me, he's not what we need at all.

Who is Paul?  Because the way I see it if RDM & Bruce get sacked in a single season I can't see many credible candidates likely to be kicking our door down.

We've tried hungry successful British - Lambert, refreshing foreign with ideas - Garde, Tub-thumping young British - Sherwood, fairly experienced foreign - RDM with no success.

So who would follow?  Dean Smith, Rowett etc - not enough experience.  A foreign Wagner type?  Again not much experience and the Garde experiment failed - would we go down that route again?

I honestly think if someone like Bruce can't steady the ship people will start to see us an an unmanageable basket case.

The ideal scenario has to be that Bruce gets us back on track and promoted and if at that point he isn't the right fit at least the next candidate will be working with a functional team.  I just can't see how dropping another name into the clusterfuck we are right now is going to do anything other than a further two steps backwards.

With that said, I agree if there isn't considerable improvement by the summer we should look again.  But he should be at least allowed that time to work with his new buys and see if he can find a winning formula. 

[mr underhill]

The guy at Hull is a good example of casting the net a little wider and landing someone who looks pretty clued up whilst not on the usual suspects list