Bruce Sacked at last (now official)

[Rudy Can't Fail]

One of my wolves supporting colleagues tells me Nuno joined them a year ago today... he is still in shock at the 12 months they have had. The manager is the most important person in all this, and yes they did have an excellent midfield, but at the start of the season not many would have predicted that very ordinary players would look like world beaters, a well travelled Barry Douglas, Danny Batth, John Ruddy was a bit of liability when they signed him, and they didn't really have a killer striker all season.  Finished 16th or 17th under lambert a year ago to romping the league from November onwards.

I'd suggest that the most important person in Wolves's season was that agent.

And you'd be wrong. At every club, it's always the Manager, in Wolves case, which is well documented, Espirito Santo was on their radar for a long time and he arrived, prepared. No "there or there abouts".

Surprisingly naive of you, Mark.

NES wouldn't have been there in the first place without Mendes, and nor would the excellent players they managed to get in. Wolves don't get to go shopping at Atletico Madrid, Monaco and Valencia without some extreme dodginess going on.

WRONG AGAIN.

Suddenly, overnight he became a great manager? Wolves had been on his trail for a long time, it's well documented. NSE found the whole idea very insulting, and on that, I agree with him. What's more insulting is they managed to turn it around with such a poxy little club  like Wolves.

We're Aston Villa, we'll buy our way out of this shit. But to give every other club a chance, we'll hire Steve Bruce.

Who hated with a passion, McLeish but you've always been supportive of Bruce? Thats's naive for me. Like those that thought MON was doing a great job? Can we move on to the 21st Century? It's long overdue and right now, unless we do, as my Swiss friend says, 'we're fooked'.

[tomd2103]

Some might argue it took him over 3 years and got a couple of lucky breaks in finding the new version of Gareth Bale and decent loan signing.  Hardly the stuff of a managerial genius.

The loan signing of Mitrovic was an inspired one and he just seemed to bringing it all together.  They looked a dangerous side at Villa Park earlier in the season, but didn’t have the threat up front. 

[PeterWithesShin]

It isn't wrong though Rudy, it's common knowledge about the relationship between Mendes and Nuno, and how potentially dodgy some of the other stuff at Wolves is.
For example, Fosun own Wolves, the chairman of Fosun controls Foyo Culture, Foyo Culture own a stake in GestiFute, GestiFute was started by Mendes.
If I were a Wolves fan, besides wondering how my life went so wrong I supported Wolves, i'd want answers and transparency about what's actually going on at my club.

[ozzjim]

They won't care while they are winning. Mendes is the sole reason Wolves got Nuno, Costa, Neves.... Etc... None of them would be at Wolves without Mendes. Their fans know that too. Wolves bet the house on promotion this season and win, we lost.

[VinnieChase84]

It isn't wrong though Rudy, it's common knowledge about the relationship between Mendes and Nuno, and how potentially dodgy some of the other stuff at Wolves is.
For example, Fosun own Wolves, the chairman of Fosun controls Foyo Culture, Foyo Culture own a stake in GestiFute, GestiFute was started by Mendes.
If I were a Wolves fan, besides wondering how my life went so wrong I supported Wolves, i'd want answers and transparency about what's actually going on at my club.

In fairness to them now, we probably have just as many answers we don’t know about our owner

[PeterWithesShin]

I would, same as some of us started questioning the General about our finances even though we were top 6 etc.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

As I've mentioned previously, it's hard to win the league etc, without a 20+ goalscorer in your team.

We had 6 month Albert. Why, I have no idea.

"Albert, you're doing well but you need to drop back 50 yards".

"Elmo, as we did at Hull, we will launch every goal kick to your head to head on in a forward direction"

"Josh, I know you've captained England at every level at defensive midfielder but I want you to play right wing".

"Birkir, you were great tonight but I want you to be an attacking winger".

"Chris Samba, I like you but no matter what problems we have at centre half, for me you will always be a striker for the last 3 minutes".

"Jordan, you scored lots of goals last season, go on now and score lots of goals"

"Jordan Lyden, I've heard lots of good things about you..you scored the other day so I think you should be a striker or attacking midfielder".

"Callum O'Hare, we don't need you, we've got Jack. Piss off!"

"Glen, despite your birth certificate I think you're a potential U21 player. When you see the ball, chase it".

"Axel, I hear you prefer centre half or defensive midfield? You'll be playing right back. Good luck."

"Connor, great hattick. Superb. Next game you'll be playing defensive midfield."

"What's wrong, Boss? We already have 3 right backs on the bench."

I could go on, tactically, the man's a clown. Lovely chap that he is but McLeish would be insulted with the comparison.

[olaftab]

The manager was only there because of Mendes.

WRONG.

Now there is a surprise!

[Ads]

The manager was only there because of Mendes.

WRONG.

FOSHUN's relationship with Mendes had everything to do with Mendes clients being there. Capitalising it to me or Paulie doesn't make your opinion any stronger.

[mr underhill]

I don't care about Wolves. I am rather surprised, however, that Steve is still with us.

[Nelly]

Same here. Its almost as if Villa want to keep Bruce as manager. Someone on twitter made a salient point: if Bruce couldn't get us up with a shed load of money, how are people expecting him to do it on a shoestring budget? We bet everything on him and he couldn't do it. Time for a change of tact.

[footyskillz]

I posted in another thread (championship 18/19) about Lampard taking up with Derby

I have to say I look on with envy as I think he ll be very successful.

We re being left behind with Bruce.

A young manager who knows the needs of the dressing room having recently played.

I also like his talk. As a player he worked hard in matches and on training ground to achieve what he did. Granted Bruce was a fine player in his day with man utd they say but Lampard on another level.
And importantly recent retired so knows the games has the contacts.

How he talks about style of football I wanted to hear Bruce say this sort of thing. And of course implement it.

 From his press conference.

For me, that is attractive football, moving the ball, aggressive football with and without the ball.

"So, really, I want a fast game.Sometimes you can talk about attractive possession football and it can be pretty slow, we have all seen that.

"So what I am going to work on from day one, and every day in training to translate onto the pitch, is a fast-paced game with and without the ball.

Hopefully that can bring excitement, that can bring goals and hopefully in this league we will have enough aggression about us as well

When I talk about fast paced, a fast game - and I was never the quickest player! - I mean I want people that are intelligent and fast in their mind, and hopefully on the pitch."

I want to play attractive football, that is an easy statement, who doesn’t?

" I also want the other side which is is hard work, aggression, fast pace which takes up hours of work on the training ground.

"The balance of that is important to me. If you get the right mix of both sides of the game, you can entertain the fans, score goals and win games."

Fast football, hard work with intelligent and entertainment in our  play now how we love at the villa.

Feel we missed an opportunity there with Frank.

[footyskillz]

With Bruce we get talk of " there or thereabouts" "give fans something to shout about" and "we re Aston villa" so old fashioned speak.

I want a modern younger manager like a Lampard who knows today's game has less experience granted but  will be less cliche perhaps!!

[DB]

Bruce has had never much money to spend though. I think that was an issue at the start of the season, we had too many players bought in and took a while before we had a settled team. By which time we were playing catch-up. Maybe it will work out better for him with a trimmed down squad.

[footyskillz]

I'm sorry Bruce has had his day.

Outdated tactics and play.

His squad was best in league and any trimmed down version won't bring success as he won t have the match winners to get us out of positions.

Mainly likes of snoddy Albert and Grabban.

However Hourihane could flourish if becoming main man though its not much responsibility he takes in matches.

Like to see him on set plays next season now snoddy has moved on.

But Bruce prefers experience to youth= I don't think he developed much so worried how he'll bring through academy players.

The young signing Bree I hope is given chances and maybe some more considering our plight with ffp.

I not sure Bruce can do much more than he already has.