Bruce Sacked at last (now official)

[Clampy]

I am more concerned that if we fail to go up, Tony Xia will depart.  Steve Bruce we can do without.  Xia has been a good owner. We will be hard pressed to replace him satisfactorily.

I can see Tony departing, but my guess would be that he takes more of a back seat and focuses on his other businesses that have more potential to make money. I think that he underestimated the job in hand of getting back in the Premier league and into the champions league

He's been here a season and a half. I'm sure he was wise enough to know that it was never going to be easy so I doubt that he underestimated anything. As for him walking away, I doubt he would give up that easily.

[brian green]

I am sure he knew it was not going to be easy but I am far from sure that he expected it to be as painfully difficult as it has become.

[Marlon From Bearwood]

I am more concerned that if we fail to go up, Tony Xia will depart.  Steve Bruce we can do without.  Xia has been a good owner. We will be hard pressed to replace him satisfactorily.

I can see Tony departing, but my guess would be that he takes more of a back seat and focuses on his other businesses that have more potential to make money. I think that he underestimated the job in hand of getting back in the Premier league and into the champions league

He's been here a season and a half. I'm sure he was wise enough to know that it was never going to be easy so I doubt that he underestimated anything. As for him walking away, I doubt he would give up that easily.

He's already admitted that he underestimated how difficult it would be to get out of the Championship. Don't forget he started off by predicting we'd be one of the biggest clubs in Europe within 5 years.

Not that I think he's going to leave, personally.

[Ad@m]

I am sure he knew it was not going to be easy but I am far from sure that he expected it to be as painfully difficult as it has become.

There's also a cultural factor to consider.

Premium car owners in the West tend to be in their 50s, having spent their whole life building up the ability to afford them.  In China the average is early-30s.

Very wealthy Chinese people are not used to waiting.  I'm sure Tone had the expectation that we'd be out of this league in year one.  Year two will be disappointing but he'll live with it.  Being stuck down here for longer won't have even crossed his mind as a serious proposition.

[sirlordbaltimore]

I am sure he knew it was not going to be easy but I am far from sure that he expected it to be as painfully difficult as it has become.

Sadly i think a lot of our supporters went in thinking it'd be easy as well.

[AsTallAsLions]

I am sure he knew it was not going to be easy but I am far from sure that he expected it to be as painfully difficult as it has become.

Sadly i think a lot of our supporters went in thinking it'd be easy as well.

Only those who'd never seen a minute of Championship football surely. Must admit I didn't think we'd do quite as badly as 13th last season but wasn't expecting us to rule the roost either. This season is a different story and we'd be at least 2nd if not for Bruce.

[chrisw1]

I am sure he knew it was not going to be easy but I am far from sure that he expected it to be as painfully difficult as it has become.

Sadly i think a lot of our supporters went in thinking it'd be easy as well.

Only those who'd never seen a minute of Championship football surely. Must admit I didn't think we'd do quite as badly as 13th last season but wasn't expecting us to rule the roost either. This season is a different story and we'd be at least 2nd if not for Bruce.

That's nonsense.  Nobody really knows but we may be second bottom it not for Bruce.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

I am sure he knew it was not going to be easy but I am far from sure that he expected it to be as painfully difficult as it has become.

Sadly i think a lot of our supporters went in thinking it'd be easy as well.

Only those who'd never seen a minute of Championship football surely. Must admit I didn't think we'd do quite as badly as 13th last season but wasn't expecting us to rule the roost either. This season is a different story and we'd be at least 2nd if not for Bruce.

That's nonsense.  Nobody really knows but we may be second bottom it not for Bruce.

Sorry but that really is nonsense for the simple reason of the squad we have. You don't have to be the greatest manager in the world to get that lot functioning.

[FranzBiberkopf]

Sorry but that really is nonsense for the simple reason of the squad we have. You don't have to be the greatest manager in the world to get that lot functioning.

My own view of the squad is that its completely unbalanced, lacking pace, and doesn't have enough goals in it to get us an automatic promotion place. Regardless of who the manager is. Its a collection of journeymen (Huttons, Snodgrasses, Taylors), old pros winding down (Terrys, Jedinaks), wasters (Gabby, Richards, McCormacks), with a light scattering of 'maybes' (Grealish, Davis, Johnstone). In other words - a classic playoff bound championship level team/squad.

That's not to say Bruce hasn't under performed/under whelmed us all throughout.

[Chris Smith]

Sorry but that really is nonsense for the simple reason of the squad we have. You don't have to be the greatest manager in the world to get that lot functioning.

My own view of the squad is that its completely unbalanced, lacking pace, and doesn't have enough goals in it to get us an automatic promotion place. Regardless of who the manager is. Its a collection of journeymen (Huttons, Snodgrasses, Taylors), old pros winding down (Terrys, Jedinaks), wasters (Gabby, Richards, McCormacks), with a light scattering of 'maybes' (Grealish, Davis, Johnstone). In other words - a classic playoff bound championship level team/squad.

That's not to say Bruce hasn't under performed/under whelmed us all throughout.

Not sure I agree with that. Looking at it which club, other than Wolves, has a more balanced automatic promotion squad?

I think we are in with as good a chance as anyone if we can keep our best players fit.

[john e]

I am sure he knew it was not going to be easy but I am far from sure that he expected it to be as painfully difficult as it has become.

Sadly i think a lot of our supporters went in thinking it'd be easy as well.

i was one of them

the standard in the championship is not very high in my view,
 i don't know why we should be struggling to come to terms with it
 with the investment made at all levels we should be pissing it, everyone will have there reasons for that but its not because the other teams around have better or more technically gifted players or have spent more money than us,
 so the reasons must lay elsewhere

all things considered it shouldn't have been a very difficult job for us to get out of this league imo

[Chris Smith]

I am sure he knew it was not going to be easy but I am far from sure that he expected it to be as painfully difficult as it has become.

Sadly i think a lot of our supporters went in thinking it'd be easy as well.

i was one of them

the standard in the championship is not very high in my view,
 i don't know why we should be struggling to come to terms with it
 with the investment made at all levels we should be pissing it, everyone will have there reasons for that but its not because the other teams around have better or more technically gifted players or have spent more money than us,
 so the reasons must lay elsewhere

all things considered it shouldn't have been a very difficult job for us to get out of this league imo

We have pretty much had to start from scratch after several years of neglect; rebuilding club from the owner down, we have changed the team management twice since relegation and bought virtually a whole new playing squad. It has been a far from straightforward undertaking.

[paul_e]

In my view, given the summer we had and the quality of players we got in we should've, under RDM, been an outside bet for the playoffs but more realistically looking at a top half finish (RDM was clearly underperforming and it was quite clear that the reason for it was an inability to see games out).  The reason I didn't think it could be much higher is that the midfield didn't look right, we needed tish to come in a vieira like driving force and putting that expectation on a guy with 20 odd games under his belt was too big a risk.

With that being rectified in the January window (by either a retained RDM or Bruce after he came in) we should've been looking at a late push for the playoffs and not going 9 games without a win probably would've put us in the mix.

After this summer the playoffs has to be the bear minimum because we've now created a squad that will only get worse (given the ages of so many of our core players) if it goes into a 2nd season.

[Clampy]

We should be a lot better off points wise than we are and we've had games where we've looked pretty ropey but we're still up there and like Hogan said in his interview, 5 points is nothing.

[paul_e]

We should be a lot better off points wise than we are and we've had games where we've looked pretty ropey but we're still up there and like Hogan said in his interview, 5 points is nothing.

Indeed, I was referring to the idea that some people didn't realise how tough it would be because, as someone who thinks we're underperforming and who said that Bruce will have been asked to make the playoffs last year and missed by a long way, I could easily be seen as someone with unrealistic expectations but it's really not the case.

Back to your point, I think we're about 7-8 points short of where we should be because I said all along that 2 points a game was the target because that's as close to a guarantee of promotion as you could get (no one has failed to get automatic promotion with 92 points since the premier league started.