Bruce Sacked at last (now official)

[cheltenhamlion]

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/football/2016/jul/22/steve-bruce-leaves-hull

[Diablo]

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/football/2016/jul/22/steve-bruce-leaves-hull

Sorry I thought he had been moaning about not getting backed here.

[cheltenhamlion]

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/football/2016/jul/22/steve-bruce-leaves-hull

Sorry I thought he had been moaning about not getting backed here.

It was more to emphasise the notion that they just didn't trust him to spend it rather than they just weren't going to. It was turning into a shit show, the ill owner was the one that used to spend and he fucked off before that lack of investment could damage his reputation. It all comes back to the ownership not investing though.

[Toronto Villa]

I have a feeling that if we are struggling to get into the play off spots or simply clinging on for dear life to a spot come March he'll get the bullet. His recent moaning about not having much to spend is a small indication that the board even if they could back him aren't really going to. At least not to the level he wants or feels he needs. In my opinion he needs to be cemented into the top 6 by March/April to stand a chance of being here next year, and then go on to get promotion however it comes about.

What did Steve Bruce say about not having much to spend? Is there a link?

Maybe moaning was a bit strong. More that he was already pointing out the limitations and so that everyone knows he's doing this with one hand tied behind his back. Which relative to what other clubs have isn't any kind of hardship at all.

[Drummond]

Mid-table on form at the moment, not good enough but not enough to slit wrists yet.

We've had a blip (again) and really need to get back on it. However, having Terry, Jedinak, Kodjia, Grealish and Hogan out would have hurt any team. Out of our strikers, Kodjia, Hogan, RHM and Agbonlahor have all suffered injuries, McCormack was sent out because of his attitude and Davis has played too much for someone so young. It's certainly a bit tricky to play two up top with that lot.

We need another run starting on Saturday, that's for sure. At least we've some strikers coming back into contention (unfortunately they are strikers that haven't exactly had the net bulging for us) which will give us some options. Terry coming back will add solidity too.

The blips now equals 10 points from 2nd.
Automatic promotion has gone.
When he has had Hogan fit he has decided not to play him and we all know why that is.
I agree he has overplayed Davis yet has not been able to come up with any alternative to the play off the big man up front.
The football that is being served up is from an entertainment or results perspective is not fit for purpose.

Automatic promotion has gone in your eyes, yes. But it hasn't in reality.

Mathematically no but once the gap gets to this point you're talking about 2-3 teams imploding completely (Warnock is too long in the tooth for that to happen at Cardiff, in my opinion) and/or us going on a run of 8-9 wins on the bounce and building pressure on them, right now this looks unlikely because we don't look like consistently scoring enough goals to get those wins, our patches of good form have all coincided with someone having a purple patch in front of goal and that's just not sustainable.

Which 2-3 teams would need to implode completely?

As for the purple patch in front of goal, well we've not had enough strikers fit all season, when they are we'll score goals.

[eddiemunster]

Take a look at the squad and contract expirey dates, that is one hell of a rebuilding job.
The problem is that this regime did not complete the clear out needed and have added to the problem.
Expensive players on long term contracts with little or no residual value + FFP constraints + declining revenue streams = Financial Basket case.

http://astonvillacentral.com/squad/contracts/

As things stand, at the end of the season we will have 10 players out of contract (see above list).
Apart from Davis and O'Hare, who would you offer a contract to? Terry has already said he won't carry on after this season.
If we give contracts to only Davis and O'Hare and release the other 8, we'd save roughly £170,000 a week in wages.
The following year, apart from keeping Jedinak, De Laet and the 5 junior players, we'd save another £150,000 a week.
On top of this, we have 4 other players on loan who have more than 2 years on their contracts, but little or no appreciable re-sale value. Getting rid, would save another £79,000 a week.
Would we really miss the 17 players.......my view is no we wouldn't..........we would also have approx  £400,000 in wages to offer to replacements, and I very much doubt that we'd need 17 replacements!!!

[ChicagoLion]

Not entirely sure Eddie what you are saying.

[paul_e]

Which 2-3 teams would need to implode completely?

As for the purple patch in front of goal, well we've not had enough strikers fit all season, when they are we'll score goals.

Cardiff are clearly the important one but Bristol City have a decent lead over us as well so we could do with them slipping up and we need to outperform Derby.  Maybe the implode bit only applies to Cardiff but it doesn't lessen the case that if those 3 they carry on they are we need a huge improvement to close the gap.  Personally I prefer the idea of aiming for a number of points rather than worry about what other teams are doing but my target was 90 so we're going to reach halfway at least 5 points off track for that which again means a big turnaround.

As for strikers, yes we have a few to come back but literally the only one who has looked capable of scoring at a decent rate for Bruce is Kodjia and he's out until late March by most estimates, which is far too late to matter if we don't improve our scoring rate between now and then.

So yes, technically automatic promotion is possible but it's looking incredibly unlikely right now.


Eddie - I largely agree that natural wastage will do a lot of the squad fixing for us (but I think the idea if giving a 35/36 year old jedinak a new deal is scary) but that's actually a big part of the problem, as with the Lambert era we seem to be waiting on players running down deals to get them off the books rather than selling players on our terms, that's the bit that really frustrates me about how we've approached things since relegation, we've basically just repeated everything we did to get ourselves in the shit to begin with.

[eddiemunster]

Not entirely sure Eddie what you are saying.

You said;
Take a look at the squad and contract expirey dates, that is one hell of a rebuilding job.
The problem is that this regime did not complete the clear out needed and have added to the problem.
Expensive players on long term contracts with little or no residual value + FFP constraints + declining revenue streams = Financial Basket case.

I agree that it's a rebuilding job, but  I think that it doesn't have to be a hell of a rebuild.
I also agree with you, that the regime didn't clear out the dross and also that in my view, they have added to it.
I have said in previous posts that we needed a clear out of biblical enema proportions, and I don't only mean players...we need to clear out BH and start again with the coaching staff.
I am also pointing out what we would be saving on a weekly basis, by not renewing certain contracts.

And to answer Paul, I reckon giving Jed another year as a centre back cover would be worth it.

And I agree with you Paul, we should dictate the terms, but I don't think we'll have many interested in buying any of the 17 players i'm on about.

[Ads]

Bristol have Reading, Wolves and Us. We will be above them come the end of our game with them. 3 game turn around.

[paul_e]

Bristol have Reading, Wolves and Us. We will be above them come the end of our game with them. 3 game turn around.

Could be.  Or we could struggle to score ourselves, scrape a win in 1 and draw the other 2 and then we're through that window and still a couple of points short of them and not really any closer to Cardiff.

[SoccerHQ]

Very optimistic.

Bristol could easily go and win at QPR at the weekend.

In our current state I don't see us getting much at Brentford or Boro. Would love to be proved wrong of course.

[Ads]

Our current state? You are aware we're a ways above both and for a reason.

[Ads]

Bristol have Reading, Wolves and Us. We will be above them come the end of our game with them. 3 game turn around.

Could be.  Or we could struggle to score ourselves, scrape a win in 1 and draw the other 2 and then we're through that window and still a couple of points short of them and not really any closer to Cardiff.

We could all sit in out cars with the engines running in the garage too. Whatever gets you through the day.

[eamonn]

Now now, suicide isn't funny.