Bruce Sacked at last (now official)

[DB]

The elephant trap our board fell into when they appointed Steve Bruce was the assumption that the elements of sporting excellence are constant.  They are not.  They chose Bruce on his past record.  If the parameters were constant that is okay, but they are not.

Some months ago I tried to use a horse racing analogy to explain why I was worried about Bruce.  Lester Piggott rode the winner of the Epsom Derby 9 times.  He was the unchallenged go to man to ride you a Derby winner.  Despite that glittering accomplishment he rode for 11 years after the last winner but never won the race again.  Part of it is age, part of it is motivation, part of it is the changing circumstances of the sport, part of it is others copying what you do and doing it better.

Like so many times in the last decade those who run the Villa did not give enough serious thought to the future and rolled the dice.  "He has done it before, he will do it again" was their mantra.  Not necessarily somebody should have said.

Neil Warnock has done it before but he might do it again.

Fergie was a winner right up until he retired with a very average squad.
That said, Steve is a play-off standard coach and this will be his last chance if we don’t go up. I only hope his experience in the play-offs will help us. Watching how good we were vs Wolves and contrast today is bloody unacceptable.

[Ad@m]

Good on ya Steve, everyone’s fault but yours. Are you sure it’s not my fault. Grow a pair Steve and take some responsibility

Stop being hysterical!

I think that as manager SB should take some, if not a lot of responsibility for the poor run of games that has cost us automatic promotion

Whoosh!

[Clampy]

Whilst the manager will pay the price for his teams failures which is how it is, he has gone from watching his team take the leaders apart to struggling to beat a very shit Norwich side. They couldnt even string 5 yard passes together today. That must be frustrating for whoever the manager is.

Not just today, it’s the last ten games as pointed out on another thread.
I have felt for a while that too many have looked tired and we have a manager that does not know how to keep them fresh.
One of my biggest concerns with Bruce is the lack of time he apparently spends at Bodymore Heath.

In hindsight, he maybe should have freshened it up today and played Grabban but other than that, what was there to do? I like Onomah a lot and i've seen the abuse he gets on here.

[Meanwood Villa]

The elephant trap our board fell into when they appointed Steve Bruce was the assumption that the elements of sporting excellence are constant.  They are not.  They chose Bruce on his past record.  If the parameters were constant that is okay, but they are not.

Some months ago I tried to use a horse racing analogy to explain why I was worried about Bruce.  Lester Piggott rode the winner of the Epsom Derby 9 times.  He was the unchallenged go to man to ride you a Derby winner.  Despite that glittering accomplishment he rode for 11 years after the last winner but never won the race again.  Part of it is age, part of it is motivation, part of it is the changing circumstances of the sport, part of it is others copying what you do and doing it better.

Like so many times in the last decade those who run the Villa did not give enough serious thought to the future and rolled the dice.  "He has done it before, he will do it again" was their mantra.  Not necessarily somebody should have said.

Neil Warnock has done it before but he might do it again.

The thing about Warnock is that the recipe for success he's got, which seems to consist of being a narky bastard with a chip on his shoulder, it still works no matter the resources he has. At least at this level. There's something about him that gets the best out of certain types of player. It's a tried  and trusted method but he's obviously intelligent enough (in a football context) to adapt, otherwise he wouldn't still be going for his umpteenth promotion.

Bruce is clearly not completely incompetent. He's had some success with other clubs and on occasions he's had us looking really good. However, my suspicion is that he just stumbles on the right formula at times and doesn't have the innate drive or nous of someone like Warnock. It's all very traditional. Buy big name players, stick them in and hope for the best. Sometimes it works but there's not enough guile when the chips are down. You expect Warnock to find a solution to a problem, with Bruce it seems more down to luck.

Despite all the above I still reckon we'll do Cardiff in the playoffs. "That's the Championship" as someone once said.

[Abbeyfealeavfc]

I'm not a fan of Bruce (I wanted him gone after game 6 this season as his start as manager did not inspire me to think he would achieve auto promotion), but we are where we are and he isn't going anywhere, whilst we have the playoffs to work towards and hopefully play for. Whatever the performances of our players, I'm not going to scapegoat them, because we need all of them in the coming weeks and they don't pick themselves, that's Bruce's job. As the countdown of games continues and hopefully we make it into the playoffs Bruce and his coaching staff need to start practicing new set plays and a system of playing that will surprise our fellow contenders in what will be a new phase of the season. If he doesn't and we play like we have done over the last 5 games ( Reading 2nd half excepted) we won't last long. I know what Bruce needs to do, but do I have faith in him that he will do it? Sadly no, based on the way he allowed us to fizzle out last season after the Burton game. We are fizzling out now and have got to hope for a positive turnaround. Over to you Bruce!

[AsTallAsLions]

“The disappointing thing is we gave ourselves a wonderful chance through performances during the season and the last three of four games we have been found wanting. What that is down to, I don’t know.”

For God's sake, Steve, you're paid to know what it's down to - and anyone with eyes can tell you what was wrong with the team selection and the tactics today.

He is a dinosaur and he needs to go. Regardless of where we are next season we should be doing whatever we can to get the likes of Wagner or Dean Smith in. Somebody young with a distinct philosophy and a way of talking to the press that doesn't smack of Paul Lambert at his worst.

[olaftab]

No Steve not last 3 or 4 games but you yes YOU have been found wanting all through the season.

[Risso]

“The disappointing thing is we gave ourselves a wonderful chance through performances during the season and the last three of four games we have been found wanting. What that is down to, I don’t know.”

For God's sake, Steve, you're paid to know what it's down to - and anyone with eyes can tell you what was wrong with the team selection and the tactics today.

He is a dinosaur and he needs to go. Regardless of where we are next season we should be doing whatever we can to get the likes of Wagner or Dean Smith in. Somebody young with a distinct philosophy and a way of talking to the press that doesn't smack of Paul Lambert at his worst.

Indeed.  All of the small teams that have gone up and done OK in the Premier League (Burnley, Bournemouth, Brighton, Huddersfield etc) have a bright manager with a readily identifiable style of play and tactics.  Bruce is a dinosaur who has taken a scattergun approach to transfers that seemed to consist of buying the players who were doing OK for our rivals and not much else.  Thoughts as to how to best arrange them seem not to have crossed his mind much.

[wittonwarrior]

What  people fail to note is that Steve Bruce in the 18 months he has been at the club has had to turn the whole mentality around, has  had to recruit probably players given his own ideas he would not have gone for and has had to endure an  awful high expectation. 

There is not the calibre of manager around like in the days of Ron Saunders, Shankly, Bertie Mee etc. 

Lets not become a Leeds and sack manger after manager just because we cannot reach Mecca in a season.

[SoccerHQ]

What  people fail to note is that Steve Bruce in the 18 months he has been at the club has had to turn the whole mentality around, has  had to recruit probably players given his own ideas he would not have gone for and has had to endure an  awful high expectation. 

There is not the calibre of manager around like in the days of Ron Saunders, Shankly, Bertie Mee etc. 

Lets not become a Leeds and sack manger after manager just because we cannot reach Mecca in a season.

He had pretty much a free pass last season to shake up the squad.

We've allowed him to sign many 30 year + players who won't  be playing for us in 18 months.

If we don't go up he has to go. Problem is next manager will have a pretty difficult job as he'll have to rebuild the squad with far less money than SB or Di Matteo had and the expectations will still be minimum play offs.

[Risso]

What  people fail to note is that Steve Bruce in the 18 months he has been at the club has had to turn the whole mentality around, has  had to recruit probably players given his own ideas he would not have gone for and has had to endure an  awful high expectation. 

There is not the calibre of manager around like in the days of Ron Saunders, Shankly, Bertie Mee etc. 

Lets not become a Leeds and sack manger after manager just because we cannot reach Mecca in a season.

Steve, is that you?

[wittonwarrior]

 

What  people fail to note is that Steve Bruce in the 18 months he has been at the club has had to turn the whole mentality around, has  had to recruit probably players given his own ideas he would not have gone for and has had to endure an  awful high expectation. 

There is not the calibre of manager around like in the days of Ron Saunders, Shankly, Bertie Mee etc. 

Lets not become a Leeds and sack manger after manager just because we cannot reach Mecca in a season.

Steve, is that you?

[Richard E]

What  people fail to note is that Steve Bruce in the 18 months he has been at the club has had to turn the whole mentality around, has  had to recruit probably players given his own ideas he would not have gone for and has had to endure an  awful high expectation. 

There is not the calibre of manager around like in the days of Ron Saunders, Shankly, Bertie Mee etc. 

Lets not become a Leeds and sack manger after manager just because we cannot reach Mecca in a season.

Two seasons.

[Toronto Villa]

What  people fail to note is that Steve Bruce in the 18 months he has been at the club has had to turn the whole mentality around, has  had to recruit probably players given his own ideas he would not have gone for and has had to endure an  awful high expectation. 

There is not the calibre of manager around like in the days of Ron Saunders, Shankly, Bertie Mee etc. 

Lets not become a Leeds and sack manger after manager just because we cannot reach Mecca in a season.

Warnock has had nothing to work with and took a team in the bottom three to what now looks like the PL in less time than Bruce. Newcastle was chaos when they came down and they went straight up. Bruce has no excuse for failure yet again.

[olaftab]

Wittonwarrior that’s is the best tongue in cheek post I have seen unless your id has been stolen by a SHA or Tesco bags fan.