Bruce Sacked at last (now official)

[AsTallAsLions]

Yes Bruce was basically saying the fans were panic merchants

He was absolutely spot on to be fair. We do have a large portion of knicker wetters

Oh really ?
Well, those knicker wetters were right though, weren’t they?

Clearly not, as we turned it around, and most of them then starting backing him until the next loss before shitting themselves all over again. You only have to look through the threads.

So who was right and who was wrong?

[Chinchilla Bathhouse]

Yes Bruce was basically saying the fans were panic merchants

He was absolutely spot on to be fair. We do have a large portion of knicker wetters

Oh really ?
Well, those knicker wetters were right though, weren’t they?

Clearly not, as we turned it around, and most of them then starting backing him until the next loss before shitting themselves all over again. You only have to look through the threads.

Turned it around? People were worried we wouldn't go up and would be in a mess. We didn't go up and we're in a mess. How is that turning it around? The fans were right to worry.

[sirlordbaltimore]

You surely aren't blaming Bruce for the finances of the football club? especially seeing as he's in the black during his reign. It's hardly on his head.

I also don't blame him for there being three better teams than us last season. That's football. We don't have a divine right to finish above anyone.

There may be 20 above us next season or there may be none. Time will tell.

[Chinchilla Bathhouse]

I'm blaming Bruce for his tactical ineptitude that saw us fail to win promotion, and for arrogantly dismissing the worries of fans who could see that his tactical ineptitude would probably fail to win promotion.

[andyh]

Yes Bruce was basically saying the fans were panic merchants

He was absolutely spot on to be fair. We do have a large portion of knicker wetters

Oh really ?
Well, those knicker wetters were right though, weren’t they?

Clearly not, as we turned it around, and most of them then starting backing him until the next loss before shitting themselves all over again. You only have to look through the threads.

If you are going to quote my post, at least have the decency to post all of it and not the bit that you think suits your argument .

[Rudy Can't Fail]

I'm blaming Bruce for his tactical ineptitude that saw us fail to win promotion, and for arrogantly dismissing the worries of fans who could see that his tactical ineptitude would probably fail to win promotion..

...which would leave us in a financial shit storm.

Other than that, he got us 'there or there about'. Bravo, Bodger!

[robleflaneur]

You surely aren't blaming Bruce for the finances of the football club? especially seeing as he's in the black during his reign. It's hardly on his head.

I also don't blame him for there being three better teams than us last season. That's football. We don't have a divine right to finish above anyone.

There may be 20 above us next season or there may be none. Time will tell.

So having a manager has no effect ?There just happens to be x number of teams better than you.Burnley under Sean Dyche just have 6 better squads than them.
Returning from Stoke in 81 and Villa were top.Jimmy Armfield was asked on radio the difference between Villa and Ipswich ,'The manager',he replied.
Might as well stuck with Tactics Tim,if we follow your logic.As others have stated,Villa ought to have been in Fulham's faces from the kick off.That's nothing to do with Bruce.That's football.

[brontebilly]

Bruce has in a very large way contributed to the shambles. He hasn’t got us promoted in two seasons and many of the players he bought to do that are on inflated contracts. Him staying isn’t a credit to him at all. He will be incredibly fortunate to be afforded that opportunrit.

Like any manager he'll work to the budget given to him. He had a lot of damage to repair from years of in-fighting, dressing room splits, inflated ego's etc. Getting to the play off final wasn't an entirely unsuccessful season. The trouble of course was, as is increasingly evident, our owners gambled everything on going up.
I think short of a takeover where someone can put in place a sustainable long term plan and not merely shite out 100 million and say we'll be up there with Barca in a couple of years, we'll be unable to attract any manager better suited to a Championship scrap than Bruce.

In the current situation I cannot see the positive aspect of changing. And lets not forget who's going to be picking any new potential manager.

There seems to be a school of thought that, because of our financial troubles, struggling or even a relegation battle is the likely prognosis for the coming season, and that this is justification for keeping solid old safety first tactical bypass boring bastard Steve.  You may have guessed that I don't subscribe to that view, I still think we'll have a decent squad (as good as Cardiff's this season anyway) if the younger players can be brought through and we tap the full potential of others. I  think this "better keep Steve" mantra is panic merchant stuff.  I say bollocks to it, bollocks to Bruce and let's go for it with someone who knows how to coach, inspire, motivate and take the game to the opposition with a bit of tempo and bravura.   Next question no doubt will be "but who would take it on?".  We're Aston Villa for fuck's sake.

Club goes into Financial meltdown because we kept Steve Bruce and the answer is - keep Steve Bruce

Ridiculous statements like the above do the Bruce out at all costs brigade no favours.

[john e]

You surely aren't blaming Bruce for the finances of the football club? especially seeing as he's in the black during his reign. It's hardly on his head.

I also don't blame him for there being three better teams than us last season. That's football. We don't have a divine right to finish above anyone.

There may be 20 above us next season or there may be none. Time will tell.

he's spent all the money he bought in on bang average fodder that we would be lucky to get 10 % back on what we paid for
you notice the only saleable assets are players he didn't buy

he's an absolute disaster when given money to spend, he's wasted the lot and built nothing for the future apart from mostly a load of old heads on mega wages

so yeah I blame him just as much as anyone else he's a big part of the reason we are in the shit

[brontebilly]

You surely aren't blaming Bruce for the finances of the football club? especially seeing as he's in the black during his reign. It's hardly on his head.

I also don't blame him for there being three better teams than us last season. That's football. We don't have a divine right to finish above anyone.

There may be 20 above us next season or there may be none. Time will tell.

he's spent all the money he bought in on bang average fodder that we would be lucky to get 10 % back on what we paid for
you notice the only saleable assets are players he didn't buy

he's an absolute disaster when given money to spend, he's wasted the lot and built nothing for the future apart from mostly a load of old heads on mega wages

so yeah I blame him just as much as anyone else he's a big part of the reason we are in the shit

How much has Jack Grealish's value increased Bruce took over?

Not to mention that the majority of the relegated side were culled during Bruce's time (Ayew, Westwood, Bacuna, Gestede etc), funding most of his new signings and player wage bill.

He made one huge mistake on Hogan, which if we had a functioning board, should never have been allowed to happen. Lansbury too was another lazy signing, complete waste. The other permanent signings (Hourihane, Bree, Elmo, Whelan, Bjarnasson, Taylor) were a mixed bag but in the main made positive contributions last season for what they cost us.

When Bruce is forced to manage a limited budget, he does his best work. The loans were in the main excellent additions and it's the only market we are likely to be working in this summer.

Any young and progressive manager would be well advised to stay well aware from VP this summer.

[robleflaneur]

You surely aren't blaming Bruce for the finances of the football club? especially seeing as he's in the black during his reign. It's hardly on his head.

I also don't blame him for there being three better teams than us last season. That's football. We don't have a divine right to finish above anyone.

There may be 20 above us next season or there may be none. Time will tell.

he's spent all the money he bought in on bang average fodder that we would be lucky to get 10 % back on what we paid for
you notice the only saleable assets are players he didn't buy

he's an absolute disaster when given money to spend, he's wasted the lot and built nothing for the future apart from mostly a load of old heads on mega wages

so yeah I blame him just as much as anyone else he's a big part of the reason we are in the shit

How much has Jack Grealish's value increased Bruce took over?

Not to mention that the majority of the relegated side were culled during Bruce's time (Ayew, Westwood, Bacuna, Gestede etc), funding most of his new signings and player wage bill.

He made one huge mistake on Hogan, which if we had a functioning board, should never have been allowed to happen. Lansbury too was another lazy signing, complete waste. The other permanent signings (Hourihane, Bree, Elmo, Whelan, Bjarnasson, Taylor) were a mixed bag but in the main made positive contributions last season for what they cost us.

When Bruce is forced to manage a limited budget, he does his best work. The loans were in the main excellent additions and it's the only market we are likely to be working in this summer.

Any young and progressive manager would be well advised to stay well aware from VP this summer.

Some good points about his selling ,buying and Grealish's improvement.What you have missed out is the expenditure on half a team of loanees.Terry,Johnstone,Snodgrass,Grabban
Tuanzebe and Onomah.His actual buys ,at best,you say are a mixed bag.However,it was the use of the talent at his disposal that was shocking and with a more progressive manager we would have been promoted automatically.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

You surely aren't blaming Bruce for the finances of the football club? especially seeing as he's in the black during his reign. It's hardly on his head.

I also don't blame him for there being three better teams than us last season. That's football. We don't have a divine right to finish above anyone.

There may be 20 above us next season or there may be none. Time will tell.

he's spent all the money he bought in on bang average fodder that we would be lucky to get 10 % back on what we paid for
you notice the only saleable assets are players he didn't buy

he's an absolute disaster when given money to spend, he's wasted the lot and built nothing for the future apart from mostly a load of old heads on mega wages

so yeah I blame him just as much as anyone else he's a big part of the reason we are in the shit

How much has Jack Grealish's value increased Bruce took over?

Not to mention that the majority of the relegated side were culled during Bruce's time (Ayew, Westwood, Bacuna, Gestede etc), funding most of his new signings and player wage bill.

He made one huge mistake on Hogan, which if we had a functioning board, should never have been allowed to happen. Lansbury too was another lazy signing, complete waste. The other permanent signings (Hourihane, Bree, Elmo, Whelan, Bjarnasson, Taylor) were a mixed bag but in the main made positive contributions last season for what they cost us.

When Bruce is forced to manage a limited budget, he does his best work. The loans were in the main excellent additions and it's the only market we are likely to be working in this summer.

Any young and progressive manager would be well advised to stay well aware from VP this summer.

I've never had a problem with his signings, no manager ever gets it 100% but his problem is not with his signings, it's what he does with them.

[paul_e]

How much has Jack Grealish's value increased Bruce took over?

Not to mention that the majority of the relegated side were culled during Bruce's time (Ayew, Westwood, Bacuna, Gestede etc), funding most of his new signings and player wage bill.

He made one huge mistake on Hogan, which if we had a functioning board, should never have been allowed to happen. Lansbury too was another lazy signing, complete waste. The other permanent signings (Hourihane, Bree, Elmo, Whelan, Bjarnasson, Taylor) were a mixed bag but in the main made positive contributions last season for what they cost us.

When Bruce is forced to manage a limited budget, he does his best work. The loans were in the main excellent additions and it's the only market we are likely to be working in this summer.

Any young and progressive manager would be well advised to stay well aware from VP this summer.

I've never had a problem with his signings, no manager ever gets it 100% but his problem is not with his signings, it's what he does with them.

On a one by one basis every signing seems ok but when you put them together it looks less impressive. When he arrived we had Amavi as the only left back and Hutton and RDL as right backs. He replaced Amavi with Taylor (just as bad a signing as Hogan in my opinion) and then added 2 more right backs. In midfield we needed signings to replace Gardner, Westwood and Tish but we had Jedinak and Grealish ready to start regularly and a few kids who were looking for gametime. That didn't mean we needed to sign, over 6 months; Hourihane, Bjarnason, Lansbury, Whelan and Onomah.  You could take 2-3 of those away and we wouldn't be significantly weaker.


The lack of planning around his signings and how they're going to form a team mirrors his lack of planning about how the squad will look next season and his lack of planning over what type of midfield is best suited for the opposition. Everything is always reactive, he lands on a team that works and sticks to it until it doesn't, then he repeats it, that's why he gets runs of wins followed y runs of defeats.


As for the line about Grealish, I think it's a massive stretch to put his development down to Bruce, he's been regarded as a fantastic prospect for years and was on the verge of fulfilling it for a couple of years.  Bruce has played a part in his development but as one of 7-8 people over a number of years.

[ktvillan]

Yes Bruce was basically saying the fans were panic merchants

He was absolutely spot on to be fair. We do have a large portion of knicker wetters

Oh really ?
Well, those knicker wetters were right though, weren’t they?

Clearly not, as we turned it around, and most of them then starting backing him until the next loss before shitting themselves all over again. You only have to look through the threads.

You make no sense.  He accused them of being panic merchants because they were saying he was on the road to failing to get us promoted.  And far from being panic merchants, they were spot on, and Bruce was patently wrong.

[ktvillan]

You surely aren't blaming Bruce for the finances of the football club? especially seeing as he's in the black during his reign. It's hardly on his head.

I also don't blame him for there being three better teams than us last season. That's football. We don't have a divine right to finish above anyone.

There may be 20 above us next season or there may be none. Time will tell.

Weak arguments.   He signed expensive flops and signed ageing expensive loan players and it was this approach that entailed losing a lot of money each month.  Admittedly he should not have been allowed to do it by Xia and Wyness but it was his strategy.

the fact that there were three teams better than the most expensive squad in the league tells you all you need to know about Bruce's failure.