Bruce Sacked at last (now official)

[ciggiesnbeer]

i don't post much on here for obvious reasons, its pointless banging on about 'Bruce out' when you lie 4th in the league and i never have called for 'Bruce out' because i never wanted him in the first place
but i haven't changed my view on him just because we are 4th in the Championship, he's doing what i thought he would do and i still think we will live to regret the time we will have wasted on Bruce as our manager

I didnt want him either and I wanted him out just a couple of months ago. But honestly you should watch a couple of our recent games. We really are not playing the dour crap we did last season under him. At times we can be.. well.. pretty good.

I dont think he was a particularly inspiring choice either but to be fair to him he seems to have figured out how to have us playing decently even with a fairly severe injury crisis.

If we can get promoted (by no means certain) then I have no idea if Bruce and this squad is good enough for the premier league but I figure we can cross that bridge if we get to it.

[gpbarr]

last season RDM and Bruce reached special heights of shitness but that's gone now we can forget about it

this season Bruce is doing exactly the job he was bought in to do, he is performing exactly to the very letter how i thought he would when we appointed him

the last game i went to was Sunderland at home, we won and it was a supreme example of a Bruce performance, i know we have played better but in general it was fairy typical, it was a perfect example of how Bruce gets teams up out of this league and the reason i never wanted him

i dont believe in the 'lets get up and then plan' theory or the '3 seperate teams' bullshit,
 but i do believe that Bruce can get us up and even if i hate the way he's doing it with zero thought for the future or anything built to last when we do go up i have to accept we have got to get out of this league,

i don't agree its the only way to do it, the 'i dont care how bad it is as long as we go up' stuff is really the most pathetic nonsense i read on here, and i dont believe Bruce is anywhere near good enough for us long term

he might be the promotion specialist but he's also pretty damn good at relegations as well, and if we do manage to go up by stealth it would be very harsh to get rid of him and i don't think we would, but that's if we do go up so i suppose we can cross that bridge when it comes

we have seen a few old school British managers get jobs recently, Pardew, Moyes, Allardyce they might all do 'a job' for the clubs does'nt mean they are the right man or the fans will ever want them,
media lovies just like Bruce pundits who never say anything negative about them but keep swallowing the rubbish served up week by week

i don't post much on here for obvious reasons, its pointless banging on about 'Bruce out' when you lie 4th in the league and i never have called for 'Bruce out' because i never wanted him in the first place
but i haven't changed my view on him just because we are 4th in the Championship, he's doing what i thought he would do and i still think we will live to regret the time we will have wasted on Bruce as our manager

I didn't want him either and I still don't think he's the long term answer - but I'm willing to give the guy credit where its due and say that of late, we seem to be playing better which, after 4-5 years of utter shite, is a ray of light.

And I'd add - whether we are wasting time with him or not, by god he's nowhere near as bad as a couple of the utter tossers that not only wasted our time but also dragged us down to this level.

Perspective. He's doing ok and for now, has my support. As another posted said, let's cross the Premiership bridge when we get there. Silly to be talking about it now when we have not even got promoted.   

[Damo70]

He has been relegated from the Premier League twice but has kept teams like Small Heath, Wigan, Sunderland and Hull up a fair few times. The problem with him seems to be kicking on. He had Small Heath, Sunderland and Hull all looking comfortable in the top flight before things started to slide.

[manic-road]

He has been relegated from the Premier League twice but has kept teams like Small Heath, Wigan, Sunderland and Hull up a fair few times. The problem with him seems to be kicking on. He had Small Heath, Sunderland and Hull all looking comfortable in the top flight before things started to slide.

A lot of that though can be attributed to finances. The likes of Sunderland Hull and especially Small Heath are not the most glamorous clubs in the world to attract decent players and unlikely to be spending much cash on decent players.

[XXVilla]

He has been relegated from the Premier League twice but has kept teams like Small Heath, Wigan, Sunderland and Hull up a fair few times. The problem with him seems to be kicking on. He had Small Heath, Sunderland and Hull all looking comfortable in the top flight before things started to slide.

A lot of that though can be attributed to finances. The likes of Sunderland Hull and especially Small Heath are not the most glamorous clubs in the world to attract decent players and unlikely to be spending much cash on decent players.

Sunderland have spent a fortune over recent years, which is why they’re in the same position as we nearly were last year

[SoccerHQ]

He has been relegated from the Premier League twice but has kept teams like Small Heath, Wigan, Sunderland and Hull up a fair few times. The problem with him seems to be kicking on. He had Small Heath, Sunderland and Hull all looking comfortable in the top flight before things started to slide.

Generally he dosen't spend that much when teams first go up and they survive on the tight knit team spirit. As soon as he started getting in bigger name players at SHA like Heskey they got relegated.

Same at Hull. They spent 40m and got relegated.

A lot of managers are like that. Stoke are getting worse with Mark Hughes signing likes of berahino for 18m and Pulis teams always nose dive when spending more money.

[Bad English]

Well, I asked Bruce for 15 points out of 15, including At Least We Are Not Leeds and he hasn't delivered that. 13 is it?

I am not giving him my usual 110% just yet.

[saunders_heroes]

He has been relegated from the Premier League twice but has kept teams like Small Heath, Wigan, Sunderland and Hull up a fair few times. The problem with him seems to be kicking on. He had Small Heath, Sunderland and Hull all looking comfortable in the top flight before things started to slide.

Generally he dosen't spend that much when teams first go up and they survive on the tight knit team spirit. As soon as he started getting in bigger name players at SHA like Heskey they got relegated.

Same at Hull. They spent 40m and got relegated.

A lot of managers are like that. Stoke are getting worse with Mark Hughes signing likes of berahino for 18m and Pulis teams always nose dive when spending more money.

Those type of clubs nearly always go down eventually and it doesn’t matter who is in charge.

[sickbeggar]

He has been relegated from the Premier League twice but has kept teams like Small Heath, Wigan, Sunderland and Hull up a fair few times. The problem with him seems to be kicking on. He had Small Heath, Sunderland and Hull all looking comfortable in the top flight before things started to slide.

yep, i quite understand people only looking at the results this season under Bruce but IF we do go up its just prolonging the inevitable reality check imo. To me anyway QPR has been the one time we actually looked like getting a cricket score against a team. We were poor against Sunderland, slightly better against Ispwich but not convincing, and pretty crap against Leeds. 10 points gained in those games all told but stick us in the Premiership against better attacks who take their chances against Bruce's defensive tactics and at best we're gonna be just surviving in the premier. You could argue Bruce is working a system with the quality of players he's got, but are we really going to be buying a whole new team if we go up, and would you give him the money if we have? Personally i don't think he'd have a clue how to build an established premiership side.

[LeeB]

He has been relegated from the Premier League twice but has kept teams like Small Heath, Wigan, Sunderland and Hull up a fair few times. The problem with him seems to be kicking on. He had Small Heath, Sunderland and Hull all looking comfortable in the top flight before things started to slide.

Generally he dosen't spend that much when teams first go up and they survive on the tight knit team spirit. As soon as he started getting in bigger name players at SHA like Heskey they got relegated.

Same at Hull. They spent 40m and got relegated.

A lot of managers are like that. Stoke are getting worse with Mark Hughes signing likes of berahino for 18m and Pulis teams always nose dive when spending more money.

Those type of clubs nearly always go down eventually and it doesn’t matter who is in charge.

Martinez gradually took Bruce's Wigan side further down the table before relegating them, but played pretty football doing it and got a plum job at Everton after knocking us back.

[saunders_heroes]

He has been relegated from the Premier League twice but has kept teams like Small Heath, Wigan, Sunderland and Hull up a fair few times. The problem with him seems to be kicking on. He had Small Heath, Sunderland and Hull all looking comfortable in the top flight before things started to slide.

Generally he dosen't spend that much when teams first go up and they survive on the tight knit team spirit. As soon as he started getting in bigger name players at SHA like Heskey they got relegated.

Same at Hull. They spent 40m and got relegated.

A lot of managers are like that. Stoke are getting worse with Mark Hughes signing likes of berahino for 18m and Pulis teams always nose dive when spending more money.

Those type of clubs nearly always go down eventually and it doesn’t matter who is in charge.

Martinez gradually took Bruce's Wigan side further down the table before relegating them, but played pretty football doing it and got a plum job at Everton after knocking us back.

We took on Bruce because of his record of getting teams out of this league. Pretty it ain’t, but we knew that when we employed him. I just want promotion. We can think about pretty expansive football when we’re back where we belong, but until then I’m happy to accept Bruce’s pragmatic style. I still think we’ll get automatic promotion and considering the last 7 years it’d make me a very happy Villa fan.

[Allan C]

He has been relegated from the Premier League twice but has kept teams like Small Heath, Wigan, Sunderland and Hull up a fair few times. The problem with him seems to be kicking on. He had Small Heath, Sunderland and Hull all looking comfortable in the top flight before things started to slide.

yep, i quite understand people only looking at the results this season under Bruce but IF we do go up its just prolonging the inevitable reality check imo. To me anyway QPR has been the one time we actually looked like getting a cricket score against a team. We were poor against Sunderland, slightly better against Ispwich but not convincing, and pretty crap against Leeds. 10 points gained in those games all told but stick us in the Premiership against better attacks who take their chances against Bruce's defensive tactics and at best we're gonna be just surviving in the premier. You could argue Bruce is working a system with the quality of players he's got, but are we really going to be buying a whole new team if we go up, and would you give him the money if we have? Personally i don't think he'd have a clue how to build an established premiership side.

Again, this is spot on. We missed a fantastic opportunity to rebuild properly when we employed Bruce.

[Toronto Villa]

He has been relegated from the Premier League twice but has kept teams like Small Heath, Wigan, Sunderland and Hull up a fair few times. The problem with him seems to be kicking on. He had Small Heath, Sunderland and Hull all looking comfortable in the top flight before things started to slide.

Generally he dosen't spend that much when teams first go up and they survive on the tight knit team spirit. As soon as he started getting in bigger name players at SHA like Heskey they got relegated.

Same at Hull. They spent 40m and got relegated.

A lot of managers are like that. Stoke are getting worse with Mark Hughes signing likes of berahino for 18m and Pulis teams always nose dive when spending more money.

Those type of clubs nearly always go down eventually and it doesn’t matter who is in charge.

Martinez gradually took Bruce's Wigan side further down the table before relegating them, but played pretty football doing it and got a plum job at Everton after knocking us back.

We took on Bruce because of his record of getting teams out of this league. Pretty it ain’t, but we knew that when we employed him. I just want promotion. We can think about pretty expansive football when we’re back where we belong, but until then I’m happy to accept Bruce’s pragmatic style. I still think we’ll get automatic promotion and considering the last 7 years it’d make me a very happy Villa fan.

Yep agreed. I hate being in this league. Pompous and arrogant it might sound but we are above this. I’m tired of having to watch games on my monitor through grainy footage on shit streams. Or at times nothing at all but a radio broadcast. I don’t like a lot of what the PL is but I want to see us in it, in the top league in England trying to become relevant again in Europe. Bruce is what he is and while he fucks me off no end at times this is what we signed up for. Like you I’ll worry about bridging the gap in a number of ways once promoted.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

He has been relegated from the Premier League twice but has kept teams like Small Heath, Wigan, Sunderland and Hull up a fair few times. The problem with him seems to be kicking on. He had Small Heath, Sunderland and Hull all looking comfortable in the top flight before things started to slide.

yep, i quite understand people only looking at the results this season under Bruce but IF we do go up its just prolonging the inevitable reality check imo. To me anyway QPR has been the one time we actually looked like getting a cricket score against a team. We were poor against Sunderland, slightly better against Ispwich but not convincing, and pretty crap against Leeds. 10 points gained in those games all told but stick us in the Premiership against better attacks who take their chances against Bruce's defensive tactics and at best we're gonna be just surviving in the premier. You could argue Bruce is working a system with the quality of players he's got, but are we really going to be buying a whole new team if we go up, and would you give him the money if we have? Personally i don't think he'd have a clue how to build an established premiership side.

Again, this is spot on. We missed a fantastic opportunity to rebuild properly when we employed Bruce.

Yes we fucked up but we have to live with it. We'll just have to do it the hard and probably far more expensive way but right now we have a squad good enough to get us out of this division, even with Steve Bruce as manager.

[brian green]

My hope is not that Bruce will improve Villa but that Villa will improve Bruce.  Might be happening but it is still too close to call.