Bruce Sacked at last (now official)

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How, as a football fan do I do that? Which was the context you made the comment.

[old man villa fan]

Stop accepting mediocrity.

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How have I accepted mediocrity when I have stated I will never tire of winning?

I don't believe that was an answer to the question I posed.

[Allan C]

What does 'stabilise the club' even mean though? People keep using the term stability but what stability has he given us?  We've had, I reckon, the highest churn of players I've ever seen at the club over the last 3 summers and Bruce was no exception. We're also looking at yet another summer of massive changes on the playing side because of his choices last year so where's the stability he brings?  The club as a whole isn't going to get any either if we have a 'villa engine' playing 1 way at all levels below the first team but with no meaningful effort to bring that style at the highest level, that in itself is instability because everyone acknowledges that it needs to be addressed eventually but we want to kick it down the road over and over again so we can be 'stable'.  It's nonsense, we only get stability by setting a mid-long term plan and working towards it, Bruce isn't the person to do that.  The board needs to be sorted out but we haven't got time to let things on the playing side drift for weeks whilst we sort that out.

Spot on

[brian green]

Exactly right Paul.  As I have said before about the pursuit of stability Denis Healey defined the dangers when he was pressed to devalue the pound in a series of downward measures in attempts to stabilize the currency.  You end up with the stability of the graveyard.  In all things, including football, there has to be renewal, there has to be growth, there has to be improvement.

Like riding a bike.  Try to stand still and you fall over.

[ktvillan]

Third highest scorers in the Second Division.  Perhaps we should add to the list of our honours.

All he is saying is lack of goals can't be used as a barometer as to whether the football was entertaining or not, given we were amongst the highest scorers in the league.

There's loads to beat the team up about from last season, but a below average goal count isn't one of them.

The fact that 1.56 goals per game was well above average for the division is more an indictment of the desperately poor quality of the division than evidence that we played decent football.  And all the more reason why our expensive squad should have been able to achieve promotion.

I think when you're using terms such as well above average and finding a reason why that cannot be good thing is some pretty extreme bias.

The football wasn't anywhere near as bad as you're exaggerating it to be. At times it was blunt and lacking ideas, but the majority of times it was perfectly fine and on ocassions excellent.

 We created, escpailly at home and scored, a lot. Often away from home we wouldn't impress ourselves as we can with enough regularity, but it's the best it has been for 8 years. It doesn't mean we played as good a stuff as Fulham or the Wolves.

If anyone is interpreting the figures with bias and exaggerating  it's those who think 1.56 goals per game and 27 games where we scored 0 or 1 = proof that we had an exciting season and played good football.     The football had me looking at my watch after 20 minutes to see how much more I had to endure.  It was mostly dire.  When we did let the shackles off all too rarely we showed we were capable of handing out some thrashings, but as I said, it was all too rare.  Comparing it to the last 8 years is like saying a quadraplegic is fit and healthy because he's not completely dead.  We were more competitive and won more games for sure, but you would expect that in a lower division having spent a fortune.  Doesn't mean it was good to watch.

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It wasn't mostly dire at all. Goals equal excitement for me, but the ebb and flow of a game and pressure and anticipation on it is similarly entertaining. That we out scored nigh on everybody only adds to that.

Were you at Bramell Lane? A game where we didn't click, created a few second half, but there was plenty of excitement from the knife edge the game was on and then boom- ecstasy. Look at the away end, the ripple of limbs flying everywhere, a pitch invasion, your head pounding from shouting- that's the antithesis of dire and that wasn't a particularly action packed game.

You're prone to some really gross exaggerations, in both the French and US meaning of the word it seems.

[pbavfckuwait]

Apart from the complete financial meltdown we are in, this conversation is roughly the same as this time last year, some wanted Bruce in, some wanted him out ( I wanted him out). The main reason by the outers was the lack of attractive football with the assets he had available. But the one thing that played in to his favour was his record of getting clubs promoted, well this season he is not going to be able to bring in Premier league experience and once the shelves have been emptied by August of anything worth selling, I cant see (my opinion) who in their right mind, thinks this guy is going to have the ability, courage and adaptability to have his ideas work on a very young and inexperienced squad.
Apart from the stripping of assets by to many tossers to mention, he could wreck the careers of god knows how many of our unproven, but just maybe talented youngsters.
Whats happening financially we can only hope that Dr. No has some way of sorting it, but the one thing Dr can do, is make sure that the ENGINE we hear about has a chance of ignition, that is not gonna happen with Mr. Nice personality, carried himself superbly under difficult family circumstances, Steve old but tryed Bruce.

[Damo70]

We seemed to put in better performances away from home than at home last season. Very much like our promotion season under SGT. As for the manager situation, under normal circumstances I would stick with Bruce. However, on a reduced budget although Bruce works the loan market well we would need a 'silk purse out of a sows ear' kind of manager. SGT was one of those to an extent and Warnock has just done exactly that kind of job at Cardiff. You could also probably including Dean Smith in that category.

[kippaxvilla2]

We sound like whinging Arsenal Tarquins at times.  I was critical of us and him last season but I enjoyed competing for something at last.  We’ve no chance ever in my lifetime I don’t believe of competing at the top end of the PL and trust me we would all soon be moaning if we had to cope with mid to lower PL table mediocrity.  I remember we were moaning when Gregory got us playing out humdrum 1-0’s at home and that was at a time of relative success. 

[Hookeysmith]

TV summed it up perfectly in the first post of the post match thread when he said the final was the perfect microcosm of the season.  A falling short through negativity and excessive caution.

100% spot on for me

I will also add that I am not in anyway gutted that we failed to go up - I could imagine another fixture issue where I would look and think " we will not get a point in that month" or on day one checking who the last 6 games are in case we are in another relegation scrap.
I WAS gutted at the fact we went with the most predicted plan of all - sit tight and nick one.

Although we have a huge uncertainty over our immediate financial future - we can rest assured if Bruce stays then he will not have a complete change in ethos or method - it will be the same but this time with a lot more excuses to fall back on

[eamonn]

Nah, home performances were much better.

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What happens if the alternate to Bruce, which is a nebulous idea or aspiration rather than a candidate or candidates, doesn't get us promoted in 18 months or 2 seasons? Do we keep rolling the dice?

Bruce came up short and if there's something better out there, great. The past week or so has seen me re-think back and forth a number of times on Bruce and I see him as out best prospect to get out the division next season.

He can work to a budget, he can bring young players through and I don't see more flux as the answer given everything else that is going on.

A better 45 minutes against Fulham or better at Cardiff or Fulham and we were up. It's fine margins, but on balance I'd prefer him to get more time.

[sirlordbaltimore]

It wasn't mostly dire at all

Agreed, it was an enjoyable season. I'm sure some folks are just absolutely determined not to enjoy anything because it's only the EFL

Well, they're going to have a very depressing few years ahead if they keep up that attitude.

We're a Championship club playing Championship sides every week. You either try and enjoy what's in front of you for what it is or don't.

I shall continue to fingers crossed.

[old man villa fan]

If we hadn't got the rub of the green in two matches in Sheffield and a couple of others, we might not have made the play-offs.

We finished where we deserved to be over the season.