Bruce Sacked at last (now official)

[frank]

"I don't want any team of mine just crashing the ball forward. We've got to have some structure, not just get rid of it."

That is a hilarious quote from Bruce, because that is exactly what we do all the time.

Last night we hoofed it upfield time after time and even when the punt found one of our players he couldn't control it. That even applied to Davis, who was so good in the air earlier in the season. To be fair to Johnstone, he did look for other options before hoofing the ball, but our men just weren't making themselves available.

[old man villa fan]

Personally i don't want us to get a permanent replacement in now. A lot of people on here seem to be coming round to the idea of building something longer-term and those kind of managers will be employed currently. Jumping in now looking at the best of the rest seems to be following the quick fix strategy again and lets face it he's not going to be able to do much more than shuffle the current staff around because of FFP situation. Come May we can put feelers out to those bosses maybe looking at a bigger project than their current clubs and go from there. For me its someone temporary for now and if we must pick an established name then he's got till May to impress us

Agree and that might just buy Bruce a bit of time.  Bringing in a new manager with the players we have now will probably see the new manager struggle as well, so it might be better holding out for a replacement until then.  I suppose Terry might be in the frame as a stop gap option.

I think there's definitely managers who could come in now and start us on the right path and we know that Bruce won't so even if the choice is to get someone in with a coaching reputation on a short term deal it would be better than staying as we are.

As is becoming clear we need to just focus on basic technique and encourage players to pass and move.  If we do it and it's enough to get us into the top 6 then the lottery of the playoffs might give us a back door route into the prem, if not we're 6 months along the road to where we want to be and will have a good idea of which players can adapt and which we need to get rid of.  If we stick with Bruce the playoff lottery is literally all we have, if we miss out or we get there and fail then it's just another 6 months of wasted opportunity.

100% paul_e

[sickbeggar]

Just had a listen back to Bruce's post match interview. He seems to think it's okay to distance himself from the teams performance. Coming out with stuff like "it's not good enough" and "we're making too many errors" well I have news for you Steve. That's not good enough. We watch the games we see the errors and we see the shortcomings of the team for ourselves. What we want, what the job demands is explanations highlighting exactly what you intend to do about it. You talk about leadership well how about this for an idea. YOU ARE MEANT TO BE THE LEADER. Do the job that you are paid to do.

He seems to setting himself up a fall all the time now. first we had the sideways Hogan swipe at brentford with the predictable result, and now he's come out and promised we won't play anywhere near as bad at Boro. Really? I hope the players know this. Just take it on the chin Bruce and show us on the pitch not in the papers

[Toronto Villa]

He’s coming out with crazy talk. The stuff that happens to managers when the plot has been lost. Look at the garbled nonsense that Sherwood or Lambert came out with towards the end. Same with Mourinho whenever he has been although now at Man U he has more rope because of who he is and what he’s achieved.

The countdown is firmly on for Bruce and the momentum is very much against him. He’s got a game or two left because there is nothing he can realistically do to fix what is clearly broken.

[tomd2103]

Personally i don't want us to get a permanent replacement in now. A lot of people on here seem to be coming round to the idea of building something longer-term and those kind of managers will be employed currently. Jumping in now looking at the best of the rest seems to be following the quick fix strategy again and lets face it he's not going to be able to do much more than shuffle the current staff around because of FFP situation. Come May we can put feelers out to those bosses maybe looking at a bigger project than their current clubs and go from there. For me its someone temporary for now and if we must pick an established name then he's got till May to impress us

Agree and that might just buy Bruce a bit of time.  Bringing in a new manager with the players we have now will probably see the new manager struggle as well, so it might be better holding out for a replacement until then.  I suppose Terry might be in the frame as a stop gap option.

I think there's definitely managers who could come in now and start us on the right path and we know that Bruce won't so even if the choice is to get someone in with a coaching reputation on a short term deal it would be better than staying as we are.

As is becoming clear we need to just focus on basic technique and encourage players to pass and move.  If we do it and it's enough to get us into the top 6 then the lottery of the playoffs might give us a back door route into the prem, if not we're 6 months along the road to where we want to be and will have a good idea of which players can adapt and which we need to get rid of.  If we stick with Bruce the playoff lottery is literally all we have, if we miss out or we get there and fail then it's just another 6 months of wasted opportunity.

Oh I agree Paul and I was not advocating Bruce staying, just that we are now in a bit of an inbetween state.  Trying to implement a long term plan with the squad we currently have might see a new manager not start on the best footing, so that would mean a stop gap option until the summer. 

[auntiesledd]

Personally i don't want us to get a permanent replacement in now. A lot of people on here seem to be coming round to the idea of building something longer-term and those kind of managers will be employed currently. Jumping in now looking at the best of the rest seems to be following the quick fix strategy again and lets face it he's not going to be able to do much more than shuffle the current staff around because of FFP situation. Come May we can put feelers out to those bosses maybe looking at a bigger project than their current clubs and go from there. For me its someone temporary for now and if we must pick an established name then he's got till May to impress us

Agree and that might just buy Bruce a bit of time.  Bringing in a new manager with the players we have now will probably see the new manager struggle as well, so it might be better holding out for a replacement until then.  I suppose Terry might be in the frame as a stop gap option.

I think there's definitely managers who could come in now and start us on the right path and we know that Bruce won't so even if the choice is to get someone in with a coaching reputation on a short term deal it would be better than staying as we are.

As is becoming clear we need to just focus on basic technique and encourage players to pass and move.  If we do it and it's enough to get us into the top 6 then the lottery of the playoffs might give us a back door route into the prem, if not we're 6 months along the road to where we want to be and will have a good idea of which players can adapt and which we need to get rid of.  If we stick with Bruce the playoff lottery is literally all we have, if we miss out or we get there and fail then it's just another 6 months of wasted opportunity.

I agree with you Paul. Even if a replacement manager/coach doesn't make the impact we would like by the end of the season, it Shirley can't be any reason to stick with the current manager - who looks like a million miles away from organising a promotion challenge (again). I'd imagine there'll be a number of current Prem managers who will be looking for jobs come the Summer - as chairmen react to unfulfilled &/or unrealistic expectations. Thus there will be similar options for us if a short-term appointment (also) fails to turn things around. Ultimately - and as we all know - it boils down to the powers that be to stick or twist now. I can't say I'm particularly confident TBH.

[ChicagoLion]

The decision has to be taken with the long term future of the club in mind.
I can not see how dragging the fans and players through even more humiliation does that.
This set up is rotten to the core, with a squad treading water and it’s leadership clueless.
We need a clear out and we need to start rebuilding now.
I agree with Paul, if that means a temporary situation fine as long as the problems start to get addressed and not wait until the end of the season.

[rob_bridge]

It's okay it all because of injuries.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/42493849

If we didn't have injuries we'd be fine. No other club has injuries. Look at the list it isn't all that long. By adding Gabby that is barrel scraping

[Risso]

It's okay it all because of injuries.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/42493849

If we didn't have injuries we'd be fine. No other club has injuries. Look at the list it isn't all that long. By adding Gabby that is barrel scraping

He’s a deluded twat. “I don’t want a team of mine to just crash the ball forward.” In other news, the Pope has said he doesn’t want Catholics going to mass.

[dave.woodhall]

It's okay it all because of injuries.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/42493849

If we didn't have injuries we'd be fine. No other club has injuries. Look at the list it isn't all that long. By adding Gabby that is barrel scraping

It isn't the number of injuries, it's the quality of players injured. No club wouldn't suffer from having the best defender in the league and last season's top scorer out for a long period.

[mcgrath_85]

The doc has tweeted. Don’t hold your breaths.

[brian green]

Yes, Terry has become an important player to us but he is getting on in years and was bound to struggle to play all our games.  And yes Johnny Kodjia was our most effective striker last season but he went to the ACON with an injury and came back knackered for the season.  Nobody doubts that shit happens.  What pisses me off is that we seem in many ways the architects of our own downfall.

[Toronto Villa]

It's okay it all because of injuries.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/42493849

If we didn't have injuries we'd be fine. No other club has injuries. Look at the list it isn't all that long. By adding Gabby that is barrel scraping

It isn't the number of injuries, it's the quality of players injured. No club wouldn't suffer from having the best defender in the league and last season's top scorer out for a long period.

I think most acknowledge that. However most other squads aren’t as deep as ours or as expensively assembled. While those two injuries are significant he has had more than enough resources to be doing better than he is. He picks the same players over and over again and his comments about crashing it long are absolutely mind boggling. HE spent £10m on a forward with a great goalscoring at his former club who now looks like he’s never played the game. That on Steve Bruce as is picking players like Whelan and Jedinak together. We all could see exactly what was going to happen last night when he did that. Why couldn’t he see it?

[TheTimVilla]

It's okay it all because of injuries.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/42493849

If we didn't have injuries we'd be fine. No other club has injuries. Look at the list it isn't all that long. By adding Gabby that is barrel scraping

Slight tangent from the barrel scraping, but no mention of Micah Richards in that article. Anybody know what he's up to these days?

[Tokyo Sexwhale]

The injuries excuse is partly valid because I'd expect we wouldn't have conceded the goals against Sheffield United the way we did, if Terry were in central defence, plus we're missing our best striker.  Green would also have been a great option to have - with more pace than our other attacking midfield/wide options.

It's not hard to suggest that we'd have picked up a few more points with them.

Where it falls down, is that it is Bruce's fault that we don't have a reliable backup to Chester and Terry, or to Kodjia; but somehow have about 9 midfielders who are all inconsistent or ineffective, and we have about 5 right backs and only 1 experienced left back.