Bruce Sacked at last (now official)

[Clampy]

While I am not optimistic about our chances of promotion, I am less pessimistic about another season in the Championship provided Bruce has gone and been replaced by a manager with genuine talent.  I think the inability to waste prodigious sums of money on players like McCormack, Hogan, Lansbury and Hourihane plus the withering on the vine of blood suckers like Gabby and Richards will make us a leaner, keener squad.  The luxury of leaving young players out in the cold will have to end as we cut our clothes to suit our cloth.

All that of course depends on bringing in a manager with imagination and vision.  Bring in another old sweat from the managerial merry go round and the future will be as frustratingly painful as the recent past.

A bit unfair to throw Hourihane into that bunch of names. It's not as if he cost us a fortune and he's made a contribution.

[Steve67]

Steve McLaren has already been discussed.  This is what I fear with Round. Bezzie mates with him.

Dean Smith is an interesting one.  One of our own and will get more time from fans due to this. That said, I'd want the club to be doing due diligence on whoever is available. The likes of Marco Silva have have the run the rule malarcky.  At the moment, the club has to ignore the manager for the Premier League, until we eventually get there and concentrate on getting there first. No guarantees of course.

[levico]

I think Wyness is key to the future path.  Rumours have had it that Wyness has been riding shotgun for Bruce all season.  Is Wyness the sort of man who will hold his hand up and say Bruce was an expensive mistake or will he want another gnarled old slugger manager?  We shall see.  Like our promotion prospects it is a coin toss.

I think you’re probably right, Brian. However, Dr Xia May have a different view and I wouldn’t rule out Wyness and Bruce leaving if we don’t get promoted this season.

[ozzjim]

I am not sure the exodus will be quite as extensive as is being made out. Adomah might get a prem move, as may Hourihane and there will be glances at Chester. Beyond that the biggest blow will be losing Snoddy. It will then depend on how well those can be replaced. I would be confident that the right manager could wheel and deal to get some players in. Grealish will give us another season, O'hare is ready to step up and Kodjia will be back. It will still be a top 6 squad.

[kipeye]

Weirdly, in the last few weeks I am beginning to change my view on Bruce and think he might be worth sticking with. 

[Ad@m]

I don't think the exodus will be about who's good enough for the Prem but rather who can we shift to get the wage bill down. Our revenue drops off a cliff down here and Dr Tone and Wyness are on record saying that FFP will be a problem next year.

[passitsideways]

Kodjia staying another season and coming back in form would be a massive boost, no doubt. I feel like Chester will definitely be the subject of strong interest, and it may come down to whether he wants a move or whether we get an offer that really is too good to refuse (I would say at least 10 million to start the conversation.) Terry and the loanees are obviously gone, although the likes of Onomah and Tuanzebe are probably replaceable with similar quality players. Adomah and Hourihane are the interesting ones - I don't really see either of them as Prem starter-level quality players, but I bet teams out there will look at their goalscoring records and take a chance primarily on that.

The biggest concerns would be basically building a new back 4, but other than that, keeping Kodjia and having Green and O'Hare come into the fold is a decent attacking foundation, although it would still need a couple of additions.

[john e]

While I am not optimistic about our chances of promotion, I am less pessimistic about another season in the Championship provided Bruce has gone and been replaced by a manager with genuine talent.  I think the inability to waste prodigious sums of money on players like McCormack, Hogan, Lansbury and Hourihane plus the withering on the vine of blood suckers like Gabby and Richards will make us a leaner, keener squad.  The luxury of leaving young players out in the cold will have to end as we cut our clothes to suit our cloth.

All that of course depends on bringing in a manager with imagination and vision.  Bring in another old sweat from the managerial merry go round and the future will be as frustratingly painful as the recent past.

A bit unfair to throw Hourihane into that bunch of names. It's not as if he cost us a fortune and he's made a contribution.

it doesn’t matter what he cost he’s not good enough like the rest of the midfielders he’s signed

Edit- like the rest of the players he’s signed

[Clampy]

While I am not optimistic about our chances of promotion, I am less pessimistic about another season in the Championship provided Bruce has gone and been replaced by a manager with genuine talent.  I think the inability to waste prodigious sums of money on players like McCormack, Hogan, Lansbury and Hourihane plus the withering on the vine of blood suckers like Gabby and Richards will make us a leaner, keener squad.  The luxury of leaving young players out in the cold will have to end as we cut our clothes to suit our cloth.

All that of course depends on bringing in a manager with imagination and vision.  Bring in another old sweat from the managerial merry go round and the future will be as frustratingly painful as the recent past.

A bit unfair to throw Hourihane into that bunch of names. It's not as if he cost us a fortune and he's made a contribution.

it doesn’t matter what he cost he’s not good enough like the rest of the midfielders he’s signed

He does tend to go missing in games but he's weighed in with goals. I wouldn't call him a waste of money personally.

[Clark W Griswold]

Hourahane has been a reasonable signing for the money and for this division but there is no way he's good enough for the Premier League, he'll still be with us next season presuming we don't go up.
Chester should get plenty of interest and Adomah might get some too. We will have to replace Johnstone and Terry also.

[Clark W Griswold]

While I am not optimistic about our chances of promotion, I am less pessimistic about another season in the Championship provided Bruce has gone and been replaced by a manager with genuine talent.  I think the inability to waste prodigious sums of money on players like McCormack, Hogan, Lansbury and Hourihane plus the withering on the vine of blood suckers like Gabby and Richards will make us a leaner, keener squad.  The luxury of leaving young players out in the cold will have to end as we cut our clothes to suit our cloth.

All that of course depends on bringing in a manager with imagination and vision.  Bring in another old sweat from the managerial merry go round and the future will be as frustratingly painful as the recent past.

A bit unfair to throw Hourihane into that bunch of names. It's not as if he cost us a fortune and he's made a contribution.

it doesn’t matter what he cost he’s not good enough like the rest of the midfielders he’s signed

Edit- like the rest of the players he’s signed

Wow.

[john e]

While I am not optimistic about our chances of promotion, I am less pessimistic about another season in the Championship provided Bruce has gone and been replaced by a manager with genuine talent.  I think the inability to waste prodigious sums of money on players like McCormack, Hogan, Lansbury and Hourihane plus the withering on the vine of blood suckers like Gabby and Richards will make us a leaner, keener squad.  The luxury of leaving young players out in the cold will have to end as we cut our clothes to suit our cloth.

All that of course depends on bringing in a manager with imagination and vision.  Bring in another old sweat from the managerial merry go round and the future will be as frustratingly painful as the recent past.

A bit unfair to throw Hourihane into that bunch of names. It's not as if he cost us a fortune and he's made a contribution.

it doesn’t matter what he cost he’s not good enough like the rest of the midfielders he’s signed

Edit- like the rest of the players he’s signed

Wow.

i'll give him Terry as he has done well for us and more importantly been a mentor for Chester

but that just proves my point that the best signing is a player who turns 38 this year that signed on a one year wages deal and probably wont be here longer than that

its not very good is it

[SoccerHQ]

AEM has done fine for me and I personally didn't like the signing.

It's promotion or bust in reality as others have said. Look at all the experience SB signed this summer. I doubt he's signed so many players over 30 years old at any of his previous clubs in one transfer window.

He knows he's gone if we don't go up.

[Clark W Griswold]

Weirdly, in the last few weeks I am beginning to change my view on Bruce and think he might be worth sticking with. 

If the remainder of the season is as i expect, a near miss in the play off's from one bad performance i wouldn't mind him staying as we're 'nearly there'. I do however think Xia will have other ideas, and it does also depend on how much of the squad is going to be replaced. If there are another round of wholesale changes might it be worth trying someone else? If we only really need to replace Johnstone and Terry (who certainly won't be here next season), and we keep Chester, Adomah and Snodders, and Kodjia comes back firing and Jedinak keeps up his standards it might be best to stick with the same man for continuity.
If of course we fuck it up spectacularly and end up outside of the play offs we should unquestionably fire him on the Monday after the last game.

[Clampy]

I think Snoddgrass, Johnestone, Elmo, Hourihane, Grabban and Bjarnasson have done ok for us. Each to their own if others think they're crap I suppose.