Bruce Sacked at last (now official)

[sickbeggar]

We were only just above the bottom 3 when RDM was potted.

Think SB's remit last season was just to stop the rot and get us winning some games again, he said as much a few months back.

It was the start of october. We were 10 points off a play-off place with 34 games to play. Hardly the 11th hour...

I honestly think you have to look beyond that and measure the pulse of the club at the time.

We'd had years of losing every week. Coming down many thought it would stop but we started with 1 win in our first 11 which was pretty embarassing given the forward options we had even if some of the draws were yes unlucky.

Sunderland is a great example of a club where a rot dosen't stop if you get relegated so I never thought at any point last season we'd make the top 6 and in any case as a club we weren't ready for many reasons.

This season no excuses and we will make the play offs at least. Failure if we don't go up and as Chelts says SB knows the consequences of that.

Don't disagree with any of that.

[sickbeggar]

RDM was a new manager as well.

With a totally new team. Bruce benefited from the players starting to gell. Even so he went 9 games without a win in Dec/feb, and 1 win in 6 at the end of the season,

[PeterWithesShin]

Most of those were without Kod. We weren't gelling at Preston and yet within 2 games of Bruce arriving we were winning and no longer conceding late goals. RDM was a disaster, there's no way around that. And I say that as someone that was happy when we appointed him.

[sickbeggar]

Most of those were without Kod. We weren't gelling at Preston and yet within 2 games of Bruce arriving we were winning and no longer conceding late goals. RDM was a disaster, there's no way around that. And I say that as someone that was happy when we appointed him.

So it was all down to Kod? A RDM signing i think :0) I think if Bruce hadn't won in 9 games at the start of the season like he did later on, then the pressure would have been on him maybe? A disaster? Certainly if you think RDM was.  Anyway, its all down to opinions - i think any manager would have struggled to get that squad to gell early after the baggage of the last 3 or 4 seasons. I don't think RDM would have got us up but we would have been there or there abouts in the ballpark that we finished under Bruce The worrying thing is the best performers that we actually own are all RDM buys like chester, Kod, Adomah, while Bruce has added very little in players we know we can count on next season if we don't go up. It's called building a squad....

[Rudy Can't Fail]

When Bruce first arrived the biggest change he made was getting the team to put a shift in. That was enough to turn draws into wins.

[PeterWithesShin]

Biggest thing was stopping us conceding late goals, something RDM was incapable of doing. RDM has the worst win rate any full time Villa manger has ever had And he managed that in division 2 with the most expensive squad the division had ever seen which is some going.

[PeterWithesShin]

Most of those were without Kod. We weren't gelling at Preston and yet within 2 games of Bruce arriving we were winning and no longer conceding late goals. RDM was a disaster, there's no way around that. And I say that as someone that was happy when we appointed him.

So it was all down to Kod? A RDM signing i think :0) I think if Bruce hadn't won in 9 games at the start of the season like he did later on, then the pressure would have been on him maybe? A disaster? Certainly if you think RDM was.  Anyway, its all down to opinions - i think any manager would have struggled to get that squad to gell early after the baggage of the last 3 or 4 seasons. I don't think RDM would have got us up but we would have been there or there abouts in the ballpark that we finished under Bruce The worrying thing is the best performers that we actually own are all RDM buys like chester, Kod, Adomah, while Bruce has added very little in players we know we can count on next season if we don't go up. It's called building a squad....

Kod was the only player that could score, so losing him to AFCON and then injury of course affected us. And if RDM had been able to do in his 12 games what Bruce started doing after 1, stop conceding late goals, then he'd have had longer. But he didn't. 
I just don't get how RDM gets a pass as we had the hangover and they hadn't gelled and yet 3 games after he'd been replaced we'd won more than he managed in 12. RDM built a squad that currently has over £30m worth of players nowhere near the match day squad. That 3 of his 9 signings, 4 if you include Jedi, worked is hardly something to shout about.

[sickbeggar]

I don't know, if you allow a manager to spend 50m then you tend to give them more than 2 months. even the most trigger happy  premiership chairmen wait till November usually. And that was the problem, we thought we were a Man U or chelsea but in the championship, when in fact we had a load of new players mixed with the detritus left by managerial fuckwitts. Now we realise that, a manager coming in now would be given that leeway.

[sickbeggar]

Most of those were without Kod. We weren't gelling at Preston and yet within 2 games of Bruce arriving we were winning and no longer conceding late goals. RDM was a disaster, there's no way around that. And I say that as someone that was happy when we appointed him.

So it was all down to Kod? A RDM signing i think :0) I think if Bruce hadn't won in 9 games at the start of the season like he did later on, then the pressure would have been on him maybe? A disaster? Certainly if you think RDM was.  Anyway, its all down to opinions - i think any manager would have struggled to get that squad to gell early after the baggage of the last 3 or 4 seasons. I don't think RDM would have got us up but we would have been there or there abouts in the ballpark that we finished under Bruce The worrying thing is the best performers that we actually own are all RDM buys like chester, Kod, Adomah, while Bruce has added very little in players we know we can count on next season if we don't go up. It's called building a squad....

Kod was the only player that could score, so losing him to AFCON and then injury of course affected us. And if RDM had been able to do in his 12 games what Bruce started doing after 1, stop conceding late goals, then he'd have had longer. But he didn't. 
I just don't get how RDM gets a pass as we had the hangover and they hadn't gelled and yet 3 games after he'd been replaced we'd won more than he managed in 12. RDM built a squad that currently has over £30m worth of players nowhere near the match day squad. That 3 of his 9 signings, 4 if you include Jedi, worked is hardly something to shout about.

As  i said new manager bounce, that stopped for 2 months and included some hammerings. yes he did buy some duds, but tishbola, any worse than that dud we got on loan from tottenham? McCormack, still got a better scoring record than Hogan (not including Australia). Seriously i'm struggling to think of any Bruce permanent signing thats been an unqualified success.

[PeterWithesShin]

They have a near identical record, McCormack 3 in 20, Hogan 5 in 34. Both have been failures overall but at least one isn't dead money. Anyway we're just going round in circles, you think there were extenuating circumstances for RDM being shit, I think he was just shit.

[sickbeggar]

well he's dead money because of how Bruce handled it. Still a lot less forgivable than the likes of Gabby and richards. Anyway you're right, we'll agree to disagree.

[Clampy]

We were only just above the bottom 3 when RDM was potted.

Think SB's remit last season was just to stop the rot and get us winning some games again, he said as much a few months back.

It was the start of october. We were 10 points off a play-off place with 34 games to play. Hardly the 11th hour...

We're in the play off's now and it's still not good enough for some.

I think a lot of people had made their mind up about Bruce before he even walked through the door. Someone on here even said 'we won't sing his name'. I can't think why. 

[Clampy]

Most of those were without Kod. We weren't gelling at Preston and yet within 2 games of Bruce arriving we were winning and no longer conceding late goals. RDM was a disaster, there's no way around that. And I say that as someone that was happy when we appointed him.

Yep, anyone who thinks we were gelling were not at Preston. We were shambolic that day.

I personally thought at the time we got rid of him too early but I still think it was possibly for reasons off the pitch as well as on it.

[mrfuse]

We were only just above the bottom 3 when RDM was potted.

Think SB's remit last season was just to stop the rot and get us winning some games again, he said as much a few months back.

It was the start of october. We were 10 points off a play-off place with 34 games to play. Hardly the 11th hour...

We're in the play off's now and it's still not good enough for some.

I think a lot of people had made their mind up about Bruce before he even walked through the door. Someone on here even said 'we won't sing his name'. I can't think why. 

I agree with our current squad and the Money we have spent, its not unrealistic to expect to be winning the league.

When you look at what some of the teams around us have achieved with a modest budget its pretty impressive.
Sheffield United are one of those teams that have done amazingly well having only just been promoted and then loosing their captain with a serious injury for over half of the season.

I have never really liked Bruce and not for any petty reasons, but because I thought he was a limited manager who lacks invention.
I guess at the time we needed to get back to basics and it wasn't a terrible appointment, just not my preference.

Despite my reservations about Bruce that doesn't mean that I didn't think he could get us promoted and he might still.
After all There's a manager down the road that I place in a similar category, who is 7 points ahead of us with a realistic chance of winning the league.

[AsTallAsLions]

We were only just above the bottom 3 when RDM was potted.

Think SB's remit last season was just to stop the rot and get us winning some games again, he said as much a few months back.

It was the start of october. We were 10 points off a play-off place with 34 games to play. Hardly the 11th hour...

We're in the play off's now and it's still not good enough for some.

I think a lot of people had made their mind up about Bruce before he even walked through the door. Someone on here even said 'we won't sing his name'. I can't think why. 

I agree with our current squad and the Money we have spent, its not unrealistic to expect to be winning the league.

When you look at what some of the teams around us have achieved with a modest budget its pretty impressive.
Sheffield United are one of those teams that have done amazingly well having only just been promoted and then loosing their captain with a serious injury for over half of the season.

I have never really liked Bruce and not for any petty reasons, but because I thought he was a limited manager who lacks invention.
I guess at the time we needed to get back to basics and it wasn't a terrible appointment, just not my preference.

Despite my reservations about Bruce that doesn't mean that I didn't think he could get us promoted and he might still.
After all There's a manager down the road that I place in a similar category, who is 7 points ahead of us with a realistic chance of winning the league.

Well said.