Steve Bruce - officially confirmed (as Sheffield Wednesday boss)

[Villa Lew]

Very sad news, thoughts are with Steve and his family.

[gpbarr]

Tragic turn of events. RIP and condolences to all in the Bruce family

[cdbearsfan]

Commiserations to the Bruce family.

[Archivist]

Puts football in its place, thinking of you and your family

[oldtimernow]

My thoughts are with Steve  and his family, sorry for their loss, never easy losing a parent.

[West Derby Villan]

Very sad news, thoughts are with Steve and his family.

[Hookeysmith]

Come on the players / coaches etc - give SB something to lighten his spirits by putting in a shift against that lot

Tragic news - all the best for the Bruce family at this time. Losing one parent is bad enough but to do so with the other already very ill must be awful to contend with.

[cheltenhamlion]

On a tangent, but this brings back horrible memories of Pulis and that game we lost to Stoke.

[FanNOTCustomer]

I've always preferred to be busy myself. Stepping away from it just leaves you with more time alone with your thoughts.

Sure other family members involved who Steve will have to support etc. Must be a very emotionally stressful time. Some things are more important than football and I wish the Bruce family all the best.

He needs to take as long as he needs, naturally.

[Ads]

Everybody deals with it in their own way. Whatever is easiest.

[SoccerHQ]

But got clubs like Wigan, Sunderland, Small Heath and Hull mid-table.

Why does he have a bad top flight record?

Small Heath - 13th, 10th, 12th, relegated
Wigan 14th, 11th
Sunderland 13th, 10th, 13th
Hull 16th, relegated

Given that his managerial career has been a mixture of promotions, seasons of survival and relegations you could spin it either way. Those who are for him will point out the promotions and mid table finishes with clubs who have traditionally never been particularly successful in the top flight. Those who are against him will focus on the relegations.

Going back to the discusison on the other Bruce thread what I'd like to see alongside this is how much money he spent in each of those seasons.

I think the only time he spent quite big money might have been the season at Small Heath when they had had a season or two in the top flight and he splashed out on the likes of Nicky Butt and Muzzy Izzet (there were others but I can't remember off hand). They ended up having awful luck with injuries (some of them long term). Then Portsmouth under 'Arry, who had looked dead and buried had a phenomenal run towards to end of the season to stay up at Small Heath's expense.

Just to go over this again...

Summer 2004, he signed Heskey for 6m (big fee in those days), Jesper Gronkjaer, Mario Melchiot and Muzzy Izzet so SHA's wage bill went up a fair bit.

Summer 2011 at Sunderland he signed John O'Shea, Craig Gardner, Wes Brown and Connor Wickham for a ridiculous 12m. Sacked four months later.

Summer 2014 at Hull he signed Snograss, Michael Dawson, Jake Livermore and Tom Ince for big amounts. Hull were relegated end of season.

Anyway this all pales into insignificance with the sad news regarding his family so hopefully we can get a win on Sunday for him.

[PeterWithe]

I don't remember Izzet playing for that lot

[Toronto Villa]

I don't remember Izzet playing for that lot

Sporting the "what the fuck have I done?" look

[PeterWithe]

Even seeing that I still don't remember it, did he ever play against us?

[Damo70]

Even seeing that I still don't remember it, did he ever play against us?

I think Izzet got a bad back injury early in his first season with them and ended up having to quit.