Bruce Sacked at last (now official)

[clash city rocker]

Bruce won't get us back into the premiership.

Why not?

He only failed by one goal against the so called Fulham genius.

but he failed

big squad on top wages and finished 4th

his job was to get promoted with that team and he hadnt a clue in that final game

our average age was 30 , fulham's was 25  ..   

maybe If we hadnt been so poor after Wolves and did his job properly we might have got automatic instead of being in the play offs scoring one goal in three matches  . That team had to get up this season and he could not do it .

We will struggle if we keep Bruce

He failed over 18 months not just one game.

[Mister E]

Bruce hasn't provided stability, because we've now got to build a new side again, as he put no thought or planning in for the future beyond the end of the season just finished.
His football is mostly outdated, as shown very evidently in the Play Off final when he was completely outhought by a much more forward thinking coach.
He's no good in bringing through kids, and the players he bought (as opposed to loaned) were on the whole, very ineffective.
About the only thing he was good at was using his contacts to bring in some very good loan players, but that wasn't enough to get us up.  And now it's failed as a policy, we've got a big rebuilding job to do.

Pretty much sums it up for me.
The only proviso I’d offer is that he may have been a very specific brief by the owner to get us up at all costs, and forget the future.
If so, it failed on two counts.

[sirlordbaltimore]

In your desperation to defend Bruce at all costs, you haven't really thought that one through have you?

Makes complete sense to me.

We have a fine crop of youngsters right now, very few of which we’re ready to be called up to regular first team football last season.

Since then they’ve grown together as a group challenging for promotion and cups with our U23 side, with most if not all also getting a quick glimpse at first team football during last season.

By bringing loans in, which were very much needed due to us not being able to spend on transfer fees last summer, Bruce plugged the required gaps with solid pros without having long term contracts hanging around our financial necks if things didn’t go quite to plan on the pitch (which we have now seen)

We know Snodgrass only came in as Green got injured early on, and if he hadn’t then we wouldn’t have seen Snoddy.

We know Grabban only came in as we were without Kodjia and unable to buy a replacement. We also know he only came in to take the pressure off Davis, who despite coming in and doing really well initially was clearly finding it hard to keep up the form he’d started with, especially once the grumble brigade started getting on his back. Classic move by Bruce to take the pressure off him and to introduce Grabban, who knew his way around this league.

So, it’s as clear as day to me that Bruce has kept the young ones happy, hungry for more first team chances and left them to mature in meaningful U23 matches which will not only have bonded them as players and people but also given them a taste for chasing promotion and cups and given them all some great experience to take forward.

Hard to fault that but i’m 100% sure someone will of course (no guesses required)

[sirlordbaltimore]

He failed over 18 months not just one game.

He said he'd get us there or thereabouts ... and he did.

There were three better sides than us last season.

It's not a crime.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Just out of interest, has anybody at the club actually spoken to Bruce this summer?

his son

I've just seen a twitter photo from this afternoon and he's still on holiday in what looks like Vilamoura marina. He told the Villa fan he had the photo with "we're in real trouble" so I imagine he's being kept in the loop as to the goings on. Not much he can do from Villa Park that he can't do from there.

[PaulWinch again]

He failed over 18 months not just one game.

He said he'd get us there or thereabouts ... and he did.

There were three better sides than us last season.

It's not a crime.

He’s not the one dictating the expectations of his performance. Him saying he’d get us there or there abouts doesn’t mean that was an acceptable result. It wasn’t, promotion was the target nothing else.

[cheltenhamlion]

He failed over 18 months not just one game.

He said he'd get us there or thereabouts ... and he did.

There were three better sides than us last season.

It's not a crime.

He’s not the one dictating the expectations of his performance. Him saying he’d get us there or there abouts doesn’t mean that was an acceptable result. It wasn’t, promotion was the target nothing else.

Indeed. He also guaranteed the play offs as a condition of his continuing employment in his first season and survived because Wyness liked him. We had far better candidates willing to come who wouldn't guarantee that.

So to short term plan it, him fuck it up, rinse and repeat the next year, is not acceptable. Nor is it for the board to keep the bugger on I might add.

[sirlordbaltimore]

Indeed. He also guaranteed the play offs as a condition of his continuing employment in his first season and survived because Wyness liked him. We had far better candidates willing to come who wouldn't guarantee that.

and where does this information come from?. if he'd guaranteed that (impossible obviously) then he'd have had a clause in his contract which meant the sack if he failed no doubt, meaning the club wouldn't have to pay him off

[SheffieldVillain]

He failed over 18 months not just one game.

He said he'd get us there or thereabouts ... and he did.

There were three better sides than us last season.

It's not a crime.

No-one said it was a crime.

We know there were three better teams than us last season. It was Bruce's job to ensure there weren't. That's the point.

[sirlordbaltimore]

He failed over 18 months not just one game.

He said he'd get us there or thereabouts ... and he did.

There were three better sides than us last season.

It's not a crime.

No-one said it was a crime.

We know there were three better teams than us last season. It was Bruce's job to ensure there weren't. That's the point.

You can't just magically be better than other teams because we're Aston Villa.

Who saw Wolves or Fulham being that good last season. Or even Cardiff ?

Who saw us being that good in 80/81?

Happens. There is no magic wand unfortunately.

[PaulWinch again]

But that’s the point Bruce failed to make us good enough and he built a squad with one goal. It’s now fallen apart and we have a huge rebuild job and no money to do it.

[Chinchilla Bathhouse]

He failed over 18 months not just one game.

He said he'd get us there or thereabouts ... and he did.

There were three better sides than us last season.

It's not a crime.

No-one said it was a crime.

We know there were three better teams than us last season. It was Bruce's job to ensure there weren't. That's the point.

You can't just magically be better than other teams because we're Aston Villa.

Who saw Wolves or Fulham being that good last season. Or even Cardiff ?

Who saw us being that good in 80/81?

Happens. There is no magic wand unfortunately.

You keep banging on about magic. Good management won us the title in 81. It got Wolves, Fulham and Cardiff up. It would have got us up too if we'd had any.

It is indeed unfortunate that there's no magic wand available because apparently that was the best chance Bruce had of getting us promoted. Although were it possible to buy a magic wand he'd have probably blown the whole budget on a rusty old spoon instead.

[SheffieldVillain]

He failed over 18 months not just one game.

He said he'd get us there or thereabouts ... and he did.

There were three better sides than us last season.

It's not a crime.

No-one said it was a crime.

We know there were three better teams than us last season. It was Bruce's job to ensure there weren't. That's the point.

You can't just magically be better than other teams because we're Aston Villa.

Who saw Wolves or Fulham being that good last season. Or even Cardiff ?

Who saw us being that good in 80/81?

Happens. There is no magic wand unfortunately.

And why do you think Cardiff were so good? Did they have better players than us? No, they had a manager who did a better job.  It's not a magic wand, it's effective management.

[JUAN PABLO]

He failed over 18 months not just one game.

He said he'd get us there or thereabouts ... and he did.

There were three better sides than us last season.

It's not a crime.

one was Cardiff and they made our squad look like Manchester City

[CT]

Just out of interest, has anybody at the club actually spoken to Bruce this summer?

his son

I've just seen a twitter photo from this afternoon and he's still on holiday in what looks like Vilamoura marina. He told the Villa fan he had the photo with "we're in real trouble" so I imagine he's being kept in the loop as to the goings on. Not much he can do from Villa Park that he can't do from there.

Yep, I saw that photo too. If he'd told me "we're in real trouble" I'd probably have just asked him to what extent. Sounds grim anyway.