Bruce Sacked at last (now official)

[old man villa fan]

The success has been over a long period of time but based on the same style, a style that is now not compatible with the way football should be played today.

He won promotion from the Championship last season. Has the game really moved on that much in the last 12 months?

You missed the point, that he will not change his style, a style that is year by year becoming out dated.  As I said, his success is his weakness in that he has not developed as a manager.  12 months ago Hull scraped promotion through the play-offs and won in the final, when arguably they were not the better team. Each time he has been promoted, he has been left with a team that was ill-equipped for the PL.

And yet, having taken Hull up last year, they stand a reasonable chance of staying up despite being odds on to be relegated at the start of the year.

Criticise his style all you like, I have plenty of times this season, but there's simply no evidence whatsoever to suggest he's lost the ability to get teams promoted from this division.

Other than failing miserably to get a team promoted this season?

I'm prepared to cut him some slack given he took over a side one place above the relegation zone with a third of the season already gone.  Jose Mourinho wouldn't have got us promoted from that position.

Quarter of the season.  The Club sacked RDM and appointed Bruce because they still believed that there was a good chance of getting into the play-offs.

[tomd2103]

We are a bigger club than Bournemouh obviously, but are we currently more attractive to their manager is the big question. As much as it pains me to say i'm not sure. By the end of the season they will be have generated what, £50m+ more than we have? They'll be doing the same next season as well. I have a feeling they can match any wages we would offer him for example. If we don't get out this crap division and very soon we are going to be left behind by much smaller clubs simply because of the money they are earning in the PL each year.

The only smaller clubs who have overtaken us in the entire history of the game are Chelsea and Man City. It will take some massive feat for anyone else to do so in the near future.

And Liverpool , ManUtd, Arsenal. Probably Spurs now as well. But that wasn't the point. It's not about them becoming bigger but leaving us behind as they are generating £50m+ a year more than us every season we are outside the top division. By then end of next season think how much more money will have gone to Bournemouth, Palace, Watford, Bitters etc. It's going to be over £100m. If that's not in danger of leaving us behind I don't know what is.

They will only start leaving us behind if they invest large sums of that money into their squads.  Franks continually makes the argument on WM that Albion are the biggest club in the area because they get that £100m+ a season! but if they are not using that money to buy quality players or enhance the stadium and training facilities, then it's not much of a marker really. 

[cdbearsfan]

In fairness, Mellberg has done well so far. Promotion in his first season and now he's got his team top of the league above in their first season back at that level. They also made the cup semis despite being one league below the top flight.

He's still nowhere near ready for a job as big as Villa, though.

[pbavfckuwait]

I am not a Bruce fan, due to the style of football he plays, in fact due to the lack of any sort of style to the way he sets teams up to play, I can understand those that say he only came in after 12 games, but, theres always a but, there was still a 102 points to be gained over the remaining games, we have if the figures I saw are correct collected 49 points from his time to date, currently 16 points behind Fulham in 6th, so for the play off targets that I truly believe the Dr, Wyness and Round would have set he has failed miserably, also a target he would have agreed with, was attainable. If he had been here at the start of the season we are told he would have gained more points than RDM, maybe, maybe not as we do not know what type of players he would have invested in, so it's all irrelevant.

[brian green]

It is not exclusively a Bruce fault but it continues under his management.  I refer to the inability to react to the strategic needs of team performance.  All our teams since early Sherwood have been unable or unwilling to raise their game or play to their full potential at key times.  In the final ignomony of relegation players like Lescott commented on a big weight being lifted off his shoulders, shrugged and walked away.  Then we had Eric Black allowing rigor mortis to set in while he had a Southampton job in his pocket.

This was followed by the inability of RDM and his BH team to put a fully fit and fully motivated team into the muck and nettles that is the Championship.  Enter Bruce who started to improve fitness and morale but allowed the January transfer window and the ACN to create a slump in points gathering.  With the season two thirds over we start to win games but when we really need one final push to get at least into the fringes of the play offs, the players seemed not to fancy it and the post Burton slump ensued.

So we will end the season on a low note yet again and everything for Bruce and the club will hinge on a good start to next season.

It will be in reality another toss of the same dice that have been tossed so often in the recent past.  In the same way that we cannot dominate opposing teams, our successive managements have failed to dominate and thereby motivate the players into acceptable performances even when they don't fancy it.  Thus we get slides and slumps not a sustained upward curve of improvement.

[PaulTheVillan]

We might as well have stuck with Di Matteo.

[Hookeysmith]

I cannot get out of my mind that piece about him (I think from the Telegraph) where the quote was "Steve Bruce - I don't do tactics" when he was staring down the barrel at Sunderland.

How right it was. As many have already said it would be a lot more palatable if we could see what the plan and shape of the team was he wanted to create. 30+ games on and him and us are no bloody wiser

I really do not think we can afford to let him waste any more transfer money so he has to go

anyone of these will do for me:

Jokanovic - Fulham has played some really good football and wiped the floor with us both physically and tactically

Monk - Turned the basket case that is Leeds around with almost no funds available

Wagner - Apart from last Saturdays abomination of 10 changes (although it shows he thinks about the strategy of vying for position in the play offs) plays attractive football with a bunch of journeymen and youngsters

Carvalhal - Sheff Wed - although we beat them at home they play the game in a good way

Dean Smith - (My Fave)  2 games against them this year and both times his tactics turned the game for them - quick, dynamic football is what I want to see



Not all of them can come up and we are a bigger draw than any of them

[Walmley_Villa]

Jokanovic or Smith stand out for me. Tactics Tactics........still watch us and wonder what the tactic is apart from give Jimmy Danger the ball and hope we score. We have at least improved a bit from corners though, Lansbury can deliver a decent ball.

[mallo]

Jokanovic for me - I was at the Newcastle Fulham game and they played them off the park. Made Newcastle look like us.

[Des Little]

Massive summer for Bruce, and I think he'll get the first 10 games of next season.  If we aren't right up there (and by that I mean top 4), then the decision is simple.  Everyone knows that if we don't go up next season, we could be down here (or worse) for quite a while.

[Walmley_Villa]

Well cannot now rely on Jonny K.....big test to see if Bruce can do what he has failed to do so far and get us scoring from elsewhere...

[Hookeysmith]

Jokanovic for me - I was at the Newcastle Fulham game and they played them off the park. Made Newcastle look like us.

I like him due to the fact that we went there with a 352 against a team who was known for having fast full back that get behind defences - FFS it took 5 minutes for us all to realise we were getting mullered down our flanks and it was only a matter of time before they got in and scored.

The only doubt I have is that Bruce is so tactically bad he may be making these other Managers look much better than they are

[Chris Smith]

I don't think there will be a vacancy but if hypothetically we replace him how long do you give his successor before he too is faces trial by forum? Given that he starts on a level with everyone else, not in the bottom 6 like Bruce did, should we say not in the top 6 by December and we do it all again?

[paul_e]

I don't think there will be a vacancy but if hypothetically we replace him how long do you give his successor before he too is faces trial by forum? Given that he starts on a level with everyone else, not in the bottom 6 like Bruce did, should we say not in the top 6 by December and we do it all again?

How about he gets as long as his competence deserves.  If after 30 odd games we're further away from the play offs than we were when he arrived and we look like the players only interaction with each other is a nod as they board the coach then he'll face calls for his head, which is fair enough.

[Diablo]

Get rid! Comes across as a nice guy but he's a truly awful manager. Turgid football - bereft of ideas and tactical nous. We can't win away, can't dominate a match and continues to play players out of their natural and best position (that he's bought?!). 30 games in we don't look like a team and I've seen plenty. The quality of football is closer to Sunday league football than that of the Premiership.