Bruce Sacked at last (now official)

[clash city rocker]

It's the hope that kills you and the frustration that annoys you.Once this season is over we as a club need to have a clear strategy regarding managers and players. The next couple of months are massive for us so it's just a case of hoping we go up via the play offs but then we know what hope does.

[KevinGage]

One thing in Bruce's favour (though I'm in broad agreement with Brian's post) is that we are no longer a soft touch on his watch.

Yes, we are a streaky side.  But even that streakiness represents progress.

Compare and contrast with the constant embarrassment of most home games from about 2011 onwards, with tinpot clubs with their tinpot fans regularly celebrating at Villa Park and generally taking the piss. The nicest, most hospitable club in all four professional divisions.

Is he the architect for the sort of major rebuild we'll need should we go up or even stay in this league?  Fcuk no.

But we (somehow) still have a better than average chance of going up in a few weeks.  When you consider how many performances we have seen like yesterday, that doesn't quite tally with me.  But if Fulham secure second spot, its as big an opportunity as we might have for a few years.

What does it take; two wins out of three?  (maybe just one win, if we did Cardiff on penalties in the final).  As hit and miss as we are, we should be up to that.

[mike]

It will be a departure ‘by mutual agreement’ once we lose in the play offs. He doesn’t deserve to be humiliated because he isn’t a cock. In the unlikely event we win the play offs, I can’t see him going.

[JUAN PABLO]

Anyone with the squad he has at his disposal who is not going up automatic and 16 points behind Wolves at this very time has failed.   

He might get us up in the play offs  and I will thank him for that but Id thank him too If he would do one after that .

[KevinGage]

It will be a departure ‘by mutual agreement’ once we lose in the play offs. He doesn’t deserve to be humiliated because he isn’t a cock. In the unlikely event we win the play offs, I can’t see him going.

Jesus, he'd have to go.

Fourth- sixth best team in the Championship - despite the financial advantage he had. The gulf from that to being a vaguely competitive top flight side is too vast. A manager with ideas firmly rooted in the pre millennium era is at a distinct disadvantage.

Warm handshake, a heartfelt thanks and a big juicy pay-off. 

Which -should he secure promotion via the play-off's- he will be the first Villa manager for about 20 years to actually earn it.

[ez]

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.

You won't survive in this thread long with that attitude.

There are only 2 rules to this thread.

1.  We win a game it's all down to Steve Agnew ***
2.  We Lose A Game Steve Bruce is shit it's all down to him.

*** Rule 1 was amended after the appointment of Steve Agnew,  Original rule was We Win a game Bruce got lucky.

But that's just not true. When they have played well, by-&-large the team & the Manager get the credit they deserve. When they put in the kind of gutless, pathetically inadequate display that we've seen of late: they get called out. And rightly so.

I'm as gutted as everyone else when we lose, but so many fans on here reckon that the answer is sacking the manager. It is not.

I think it's a measure how important promotion is to us this season. Failure being unthinkable.

[ColinMac]

If we get promotion he should still go. We brought him in to get promotores, if he does it then job done.

If we go up, the playing personnel will change as they are not good enough for the premier league , why should it be any different with the manager?

[VinnieChase84]

Huddersfield got promoted without even winning a game in the play offs so anything can happen

[Chris Smith]

If we get promotion he should still go. We brought him in to get promotores, if he does it then job done.

If we go up, the playing personnel will change as they are not good enough for the premier league , why should it be any different with the manager?

I don’t think the board will see it that way. If he gets us promoted, however it is done, them he will have achieved the target set. I can see the arguments for change as it will then be a completely different job to the short termism of getting promoted. They might see it as too much disruption to change manager and half the squad ahead of a difficult first season up. If they do stick with him though I would hope that they are giving serious thought to succession planning.

[ez]

There's no chance he'll stop if we fail to go up. The pressure on him next season would be off the scale. Things could be toxic if we were not off to a flyer.

[OzVilla]

My guess is if we go up he’ll get to start the season as manager. If we don’t make the play offs or go out In in straight sets I think he’ll be gone. If we lose in a tight game in the play off final I think he might just hang on.

[curiousorange]

At this moment in time, the reason I want us to be promoted is almost entirely financial. In terms of football, I fear we'll be like that Derby side in 2007 or whenever it was, that almost got promoted by accident and looked completely out of their depth. A lot of that opinion is based on the way we've played under Bruce, and there's no question if we win the playoffs he'd be given the start of the season, no matter how logical it might seem to replace him with a different manager with different ideas for a different league.

[KevinGage]

He might even take the decision out of our hands.

On at least two occasions this season (before Barnsley and Boro away)  he was apparently told win or else.

Usually when a manager get's to that stage, they're past the point of no return. So it's credit to him that on both occasions we went on decent runs.  But he might view that as a lack of faith; the powers-that-be not really being totally behind him.

That coupled with the family issues he has had to contend with would be ample reason for many to bail. 

Does he really need the aggro at his age.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

He'll be gone next month come what may. The thought of giving him another season and then looking to replace him in October is exactly the kind of lack of vision that got us in this mess to begin with. Wyness may argue for keeping him but I doubt his opinion carries the same weight with Xia it did 12 months ago.

[London Villan]

Where does the ultimatum info come from KG?