Steve Bruce - officially confirmed (as Sheffield Wednesday boss)

[paul_e]

Can't we move this thread now?

Why? If people still want to talk about him, espeially when he's just agreed to take over a new club, then why shouldn't be keep a thread for him? If you don't care then just don't read it.

[brontebilly]

I have always thought of Bruce as a decent bloke but a manager who has failed to move with the changes the game has made .I  will remember him more than anything  for the awful mess he left our goalkeeping and defence in and for paying a fortune for Hogan,who he had no idea of how to use

All true, though I'm sure Bruce would have brought Johnstone back if the takeover had happened earlier. Nyland was a big gamble that backfired massively on Bruce/Walsh, a solid experienced keeper is what we needed. Moreira is on Purslow 100%. Going after Bolasie and Abraham when our defensive options were so threadbare was eventually what finished him, again Purslow was also shown up massively there for sanctioning it.

Give Bruce free reign with a cheque book and that's when the trouble starts. He doesn't really have a strategy for putting together a cohesive team as seen in his chaotic first transfer window and again in the last few weeks of the summer. It's old school approach to bring in good players (mostly on loan) and they will figure it out, that day is gone. Hogan was his huge mistake unfortunately, managers rarely get away with a flop that bad in our division.

I doubt Sheff Wed will have much money so he might do ok there getting in lads on loan and short term deals. Decent man manager too, as seen with turning Grealish's career around. Might do similar with Onomoah for example.

[sid1964]

I cannot how he will not be working for Sheff Wed before Feb 1st - he will be watching there games, chatting to his mates about what to do etc...(if they are to buy anyone, he will decide)

[Mister E]

I don't buy the decent guy thing, never have, he's always been too quick to blame other people for his own failings.

Yup - that's where I am.

[Clampy]

He's always come across as a likeable enough chap to me. I didn't mind him when he was at Blues either.

[Toronto Villa]

I got why we brought him in. I'm delighted he's gone. I don't wish ill on him personally as he's had plenty of that. Professionally I hope he's as colossal a failure at Sheff Wed as he was with us. He got a dream job with us and when it stopped going his way it was everyone else's fault and never, ever his.

In the end he became David O'Leary metaphorically pumping his chest and telling us to curb our expectations after we sneaked past Real Rotherham. Fuck right off.

[Clampy]

Being relegated was a collossal failure. Billy McNiell was a collossal failure.

[TheTimVilla]

I cannot how he will not be working for Sheff Wed before Feb 1st - he will be watching there games, chatting to his mates about what to do etc...(if they are to buy anyone, he will decide)

If it is to do with compo, then he must be breaking the terms of the contract if he communicates with his coaches?

[Ger Regan]

Being relegated was a collossal failure. Billy McNiell was a collossal failure.

Considering that we gambled everything on promotion (and would have been in a world of pain had the new owners not turned up), it's not a stretch to say that his failures at villa could have been catastrophic.

[Toronto Villa]

Being relegated was a collossal failure. Billy McNiell was a collossal failure.

Not getting promoted across essentially two seasons despite having more resources at his disposal relative to the competition was a colossal failure.

[ChicagoLion]

I don’t wish him well Idont wish him anything, I just wish he had not fucked our club up.

Our club was fucked up long before Steve Bruce came along. I'm far from his biggest fan but he was a decent guy who was massively out of his depth.

Sorry I don’t buy the decent guy stuff.

Good for you.

Maybe if you dug a bit deeper you would work out why.

I don't need to. I speak as I find and having had various interactions with him (including a few occasions where my young boy wanted to meet him) I found him to be a decent bloke who made a fuss of my lad and always made time to chat to him about football, school etc.

Crap manager but a decent bloke.

Good for you.

[paul_e]

Being relegated was a collossal failure. Billy McNiell was a collossal failure.

Considering that we gambled everything on promotion (and would have been in a world of pain had the new owners not turned up), it's not a stretch to say that his failures at villa could have been catastrophic.

Yep, lets not forget there were genuine concerns on here about administration and winding-up. That's not all his fault but he was part of a group that gambled everything on promotion and failed, we're pretty lucky that new owners were found so quickly or he could've been the guy who took us to our lowest point in our history, I think that's a pretty big failure.

[JUAN PABLO]

hes already got Onomah , lets hope Elmo and Whelan join him.

and his son hopefully

[Clampy]

I don’t wish him well Idont wish him anything, I just wish he had not fucked our club up.

Our club was fucked up long before Steve Bruce came along. I'm far from his biggest fan but he was a decent guy who was massively out of his depth.

Sorry I don’t buy the decent guy stuff.

Good for you.

Maybe if you dug a bit deeper you would work out why.

I don't need to. I speak as I find and having had various interactions with him (including a few occasions where my young boy wanted to meet him) I found him to be a decent bloke who made a fuss of my lad and always made time to chat to him about football, school etc.

Crap manager but a decent bloke.

Good for you.

You didn't like him, others found him a reasonable bloke. What's the problem?

[Hookeysmith]

I think I have mentioned this before but Bruce's playing career ended in 1995 when he joined the rags.
Before that he has all his schooling under Fergerson who was never considered a tactician but one of the last "old school" managers who relied on the hairdryer treatment as a motivator. I am not sure Bruce has ever seen any other type of football management so its not surprising he apes that what he knows to a degree. Fergie had a formula for playing and trusted his coaches to install that into the players - it was often claimed that Fergie did not attend training every day.

He is not on his own

Ince
Pallister
Hughes
Keane
Robson
Sheringham
Gary Neville
Phelan
Robbins

I am sure there are more


Have all found the modern game, and more importantly the modern footballer, to be beyond them now. The game changes and those that do not change with it get found out

Same for Mourhinio, Wenger, Alladyce etc