Bruce Sacked at last (now official)

[olaftab]

Has he resigned?

[PeterWithesShin]

We need a big club manager not someone else who this is the biggest job they have ever had.

Dean Smith seems a great bloke whose teams play decent enough and could well be the manager for us in five years or so. But now? We would ruin him. No offense but Walsall and Brentford with a win rate of <35% is just not the CV of a manager we need.

Surely that would be yes to Moyes and no Dyche/Howe? Or a manager that could see us as a step down etc?

I think we need to stop thinking along those lines, along with things like promotion expert, next big thing and so on and bring in a manager and coaches that will do for us what Dyche, Howe, Wagner have done at their clubs. Bring a defined style of play that can be implemented at all the youth levels and even do really crazy things like coach the first team squad on how to take a throw in.

[olaftab]

What PWS said.

[Nelly]

Has he gone yet?

[Risso]

Starting with a midfield of Whelan and Jedinak was one of the most stupid things Bruce has ever done. They have the mobility of a pair of wardrobes and about the same passing range. Whelan especially was abysmal. It makes it so easy for a manager like Dean Smith to set his team up to pass us off the pitch.

[Steve67]

I don’t trust Steve Round to pick a manager. He has an old boys club mentality. 

I wouldn’t be surprised to see a Paul Clement/John Terry combo.

[mr underhill]

Dean Smith would get the biggest honeymoon period in recent memory if he came to us, playing shit like Whelan or not.

[ciggiesnbeer]

We need a big club manager not someone else who this is the biggest job they have ever had.

Dean Smith seems a great bloke whose teams play decent enough and could well be the manager for us in five years or so. But now? We would ruin him. No offense but Walsall and Brentford with a win rate of <35% is just not the CV of a manager we need.

Surely that would be yes to Moyes and no Dyche/Howe? Or a manager that could see us as a step down etc?

I think we need to stop thinking along those lines, along with things like promotion expert, next big thing and so on and bring in a manager and coaches that will do for us what Dyche, Howe, Wagner have done at their clubs. Bring a defined style of play that can be implemented at all the youth levels and even do really crazy things like coach the first team squad on how to take a throw in.

I definitely want a good style of play as well as a manager who has managed a big club like us. I dont see why we can't have both.

And yes I agree, someone to teach our players how to take a bloody throw in would also be nice.

[Malandro]

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[brian green]

I was half joking when I posted on the match thread about Cambridge scientists being able to programme organic base material to perform complex tasks.  They are from MIT actually, visiting The Fens but they can do it.  Rotting wood slime, which is about as low in the life form chain as you can get, can be programmed to make maps of the Tokyo underground and in another demonstration they can stimulate a gob of slime to steer a little Lego car around an obstacle course.

Here is the serious point.  Putting aside Bruce's denseness and his stubbornness, given the correct team of intelligent people around him there is no reason why we cannot succeed.  What is wrong was touched on by another poster.  He relies on and trusts a dwindling hard core of "his" players.   Players who are too old, too slow, too full of injuries too technically inadequate, too set in their ways, immune to bonding with younger players, immune to bonding with the supporters conforming only with Bruce's template of being tough, hard and loyal to him.

When Bruce goes, the resurgence will come about not because he has gone but because all his baggage can go with him.  Everything and everybody.

[Malandro]

I'm all for getting rotten wood slime to choose our team & tactics.

[rob_bridge]

Dean Smith would get the biggest honeymoon period in recent memory if he came to us, playing shit like Whelan or not.

Indeed it's similar to why Lambert survived after wretched Christmas period in 12-13. He wasn't MON, Houllier or McLeish.

[frank black]

I'm all for getting rotten wood slime to choose our team & tactics.

No thanks, Rednapp can stay retired.

[ozzjim]

We have a squad that is suited to playing football, with a manager that dines at the same table as Pulis. We are exactly where we were a year ago. We still have woeful runs of form. Bruce was meant to make us tough to beat in those tougher periods, grinding out 1-0 wins when the chips were down. We look like conceding 3 or 4 every week. Whelan is a clodhopper.

We should cut Bruce loose and appoint Smith today. Lets see what he can do. Give Hourihane freedom to play his natural game because he is a quality attacking midfielder, get Hogan some confidence, and try and play football. A style and identity on this squad would be great, Bruce has nothing. He has done a poor job and should be sacked.

[PaulWinch again]

I want Bruce gone, but I'd want us to cast the net wider than just going straight for Smith.