Bruce Sacked at last (now official)

[Risso]

Bruce's "stability" has played its part in the dire circumstances we now find ourselves in.

[Brassneck]

Do you mean by offering players lucrative contracts?  That's not his fault - Every manager would do that.  It's for others to determine whether the wages suggested are sustainable or even affordable.

besides, I'm looking at the picture from this point onwards, not what has happened previously.

[old man villa fan]

One of the my reasons  (and there are many) for getting rid of Bruce is, having failed twice and been retained, what motivation would he have in a 3rd season.  Even less so with no money to spend.

[SheffieldVillain]

Do you mean by offering players lucrative contracts?  That's not his fault - Every manager would do that.  It's for others to determine whether the wages suggested are sustainable or even affordable.

Is wasting £12m on Hogan and Lansbury his fault? Buying more right backs when we already had a squad of them?  Or it for others to determine which players we buy as well?

[Toronto Villa]

Bruce's "stability" has played its part in the dire circumstances we now find ourselves in.

To find ourselves with this fragile reprieve from the abyss only to wake up from the misery of it all with Bruce still in charge, someone who has been given almost 2 full seasons to get us promoted isn't stability. It's an acceptance of our decline and of mediocrity. Wigan would be happy with Bruce's stability or Hull. We shouldn't or we will quickly become them.

[Brassneck]

Do you mean by offering players lucrative contracts?  That's not his fault - Every manager would do that.  It's for others to determine whether the wages suggested are sustainable or even affordable.

Is wasting £12m on Hogan and Lansbury his fault? Buying more right backs when we already had a squad of them?  Or it for others to determine which players we buy as well?

Hogan has been a terrible signing and a major contributory factor to why we failed to go up last season.  Bruce must take responsibility for that one.  Lansbury was a good deal at the time, given his contract was almost up and we didn't pay that much for him.  Elmo has also shown to be a good signing for the money paid.

Bruce's job is to identify players and ask that we sign him.  His job is not to determine whether we can afford to pay them throughout the duration of the contract.

[ktvillan]

How about a 21st century version of Little/Evans/Gregory in
Laursen/Mellberg/Petrov?
I wouldn't mind the Tinker man at Villa Park - not sure how old he is now though

I really don't buy into this former player route, it's old hat and it fails way more often than not.  There aren't too many successful clubs in this country at least who are managed by former players of the same club.  As for needing experience, well Bruce has that and look where it's got us.  What we need is talent.     

It didn't really fail the last two times we tried it though.

The last time being when, late 90s when we appointed Gregory?  A different era, and one in which many clubs did the same.  The more successful ones have moved on.

[SheffieldVillain]

Do you mean by offering players lucrative contracts?  That's not his fault - Every manager would do that.  It's for others to determine whether the wages suggested are sustainable or even affordable.

Is wasting £12m on Hogan and Lansbury his fault? Buying more right backs when we already had a squad of them?  Or it for others to determine which players we buy as well?

Hogan has been a terrible signing and a major contributory factor to why we failed to go up last season.  Bruce must take responsibility for that one.  Lansbury was a good deal at the time, given his contract was almost up and we didn't pay that much for him.  Elmo has also shown to be a good signing for the money paid.

Bruce's job is to identify players and ask that we sign him.  His job is not to determine whether we can afford to pay them throughout the duration of the contract.

No, his job is to identify parts of the squad which need upgrading, identify good players, ask that we sign them and then use them to their best ability. Which part of that do you think he has succeeded in? Because had he succeeded in that, we'd be in the Premier League and a good deal better off financially. 

That's why he has played his part in the dire circumstances we now find ourselves. And if keeping a manager who has failed at all of the aforementioned parts of his job not to mention his abject failure at using our youth players is 'stability', we are to put it mildly, fucked.

[Brassneck]

You still don't understand do you?

For the 3rd time, I haven't stated that Bruce has succeeded.  I have stated that in my opinion, it would be better to keep him during this period of instability.

In case you hadn't noticed, we are way past the stage of being mildly fucked.

[ktvillan]

Bruce's job, along with Wyness and Round,  is also to have a plan and strategy for building a sustainable squad in terms of both finances, age and playing ability, as well as to get us promoted.  I don't see that he's been particularly successful in any of that, and he's outright failed in much of it.   He's part and parcel of the shit or bust approach that has got us into this mess.  To keep him would be madness in my view, we need to start afresh and put some longer term foundations in place, including good coaching and medium to long term planning at every level, especially first team level.  If Villa are serious about this Villa Engine malarkey then Bruce is categorically not the right man to be the standard bearer.   I don't see that Wyness is the man to take it forward either, since Bruce was his recruit and he has overseen the shittiness and almost bustiness.  The pair of them need to do one, and the club needs to stop being a fuckwit has-been and business dunce magnet.

[Chris Smith]

I think under the current circumstances, Wyness suspended and financial uncertainty around the club as a whole,  we are going to find it difficult to attract the type of manager we hope for. I think those wider issues need to be dealt with before decisions are made on the manager.

[ozzjim]

I think under the current circumstances, Wyness suspended and financial uncertainty around the club as a whole,  we are going to find it difficult to attract the type of manager we hope for. I think those wider issues need to be dealt with before decisions are made on the manager.

Same here. Unless he walks of course.

[Steve67]

For stability purposes and the fact that Bruce seems to be able to attract good quality loan players, we might keep him.  That said, if this Villa engine thing is going to be sustainable, we need someone who can engineer the club from bottom to top.  Some might say that this is Steve Round's job but I think the Manager needs to buy in to that philosophy.  Bruce is selfish and does things his way.  Wyness and Round have bought into what Bruce offers and not the other way around.  I read a comment on Newsnow a few minutes ago about Bruce leaving clubs in a mess.  I agree in Villa's case and hope that Tony is sounding out other clubs and their Manager's to see if they are interested in joining this club. 

[SheffieldVillain]

You still don't understand do you?

For the 3rd time, I haven't stated that Bruce has succeeded.  I have stated that in my opinion, it would be better to keep him during this period of instability.

In case you hadn't noticed, we are way past the stage of being mildly fucked.

I didn't say we are mildly fucked though, did I? Try reading the sentence properly before attempting to be condescending. I said 'we are, to put it mildly, fucked.'

You also said that Bruce wasn't partly to blame for the financial problems. That's the bit I'm disagreeing with you on.

[RichardBatchelor]

Do you mean by offering players lucrative contracts?  That's not his fault - Every manager would do that.  It's for others to determine whether the wages suggested are sustainable or even affordable.

Is wasting £12m on Hogan and Lansbury his fault? Buying more right backs when we already had a squad of them?  Or it for others to determine which players we buy as well?

Logically, no need to argue on this. You’re absolutely right. Hogan and Lansbury are poor judgement by the manager, and the other poster is right that the contract issue isn’t.