Bruce Sacked at last (now official)

[tomd2103]

If (and it's a big one) Bruce gets 1-2 more loans in of the right type (a left back and, if he won't use tuanzebe there, a centre back) then the squad come the weekend will be in a better place than it was when they decided to stick with him (and therefore better than a new manager would've had) so the decision will be justified for me because I'd rather a new guy come in with a fairly complete squad but 6-7 points off the pace than come in with huge gaps and very little time to fix them whilst also assessing current players and setting up training, etc.

I think the attacking players in the squad are good enough that we could easily go on a run of 15+ without defeat so I'm not massively worried about a small gap, I just can't imagine us being outside the top 10 so I think the jump to get at least the playoffs will be manageable for a decent manager.

The international breaks provide a window of opportunity for managerial changes without too much disruption.  There is an international break at the start of September, October and November and should we still be unconvincing by the latter of those, he might be in trouble.  As long as we remain in the play off positions or higher I think he will be fine.

[Leicester_Villian]

Bruce should have been sacked in May - he had failed and the supporters were unhappy ...
The only reason he didn't go in my view is the Club could not afford to pay him off
The new owners came in 2 weeks before the season - my impression was they wanted change but decided the season was too close to start
They appear sensible businessmen who will not tolerate failure
I think they have written this season off and Bruce will survive until October when a new manager will come in with time to look at the squad and make changes in January
If we are close enough to 6th in January a new manager would have a chance of promotion
However if Bruce stays this season will be a total write off and possibly next season while a new manager gets his own team in place

[The Edge]

In over 1200 pages almost everything about this inadequate manager has been said many times over and despite failing badly he is still in place to fail again. Mind boggles.

Because he turns it around, then let’s go of the steering wheel, gets shouted at and then turns it around again, then let’s go. Rinse and repeat.

Keep shouting for him to go and perhaps he won’t let go of the wheel. He’s never quite done enough wrong to be sacked.

Very well put.

[mr underhill]

with one or two notable exceptions  every manager in the world is  living on borrowed time. Steve's no exception.

[Malandro]

Do you really think they have written this season off? I doubt it.
This squad should be winning the league.

[mr underhill]

but it won't.

[Malandro]

but it won't.

Not under these circumstances, no.

[john e]

with one or two notable exceptions  every manager in the world is  living on borrowed time. Steve's no exception.

its a bit like saying everyones going to die
but some are closer to it than others

[Clampy]

The trouble is, if we don’t go up this season, FFP will become even more of an issue next season. They’ve clearly been through the books and done what they can this year, but you can only do that once. Next year will be the first with no parachute payments at all and everything becomes even harder then.

Yep. We absolutely have to go up this season. My fear is that we've already blown it by retaining Bruce over the summer (not necessarily that Henry moment a fortnight before the season started, but before that). For us to change in the way we needed to we'll have needed a great manager to come in and do the pre-season - we all saw what not having a pre-season did the year we went down - and that will have already set the tone for this season.

I'm not sure chopping and changing will actually help at all now unless we really have a plan for instant succession that works out beautifully, so short of that I think we've pretty much got what we've got now. I just hope it's good enough.

I don't think we were in a position to get rid of Bruce in pre-season to be honest, especially before the takeover happened.  If the off the field turmoil had not happened, he should have gone in the immediate aftermath of the play off final defeat, but to borrow a great line from The Sopranos we couldn't "go into the unknown not knowing". 

I think the takeover happened too close to the season for a change to be made at that point, so he remained in position.  What concerns me most about the last few weeks is that the same problems  are cropping up that have been present throughout his time here.     

Agree with that. It made absolute sense to keep him here during the off the pitch palaver. Under normal circumstances, he would have gone after the final without too many complaints. I think Dave sums it up pretty well in his post.

[Brend'Watkins]

Maybe the owners know that he needs to go too but they also know that we need a much better replacement lined up and hopefully that's what they're doing and have been doing.  Bruce going and Calderwood taking the reins is not a nice thought.

[Clampy]

Back on to Grealish briefly, I think one of the things that has made him improve is the injury he had. It wasn't your normal football injury, it sounded horrific and I think it might have scared him a bit. I think Bruce can take some credit as well because Grealish seems to like playing under him. Whoever and whatever the reason is though, I'm glad he's still here because he's a bloody good footballer.

[cheltenhamlion]

I am not churlish enough to deny Bruce some credit for the turnaround in Grealish. He deserves a pat on the back there.

And I am pretty sure he goes nowhere as long as we are on touch for promotion and a new CEO is not in place. When they had a view on punting him out after they took over, a longer term view was taken and they aren't for turning on that unless it goes disastrously it seems. I can live with that.

It doesn't mean I want the archaic arse in charge any more than I did on Saturday mind.

[Marlon From Bearwood]

The problem with that ( and I totally understand it by the way), is that it means that we’ll probably plod along doing well enough to not be able to sack him, whilst still underachieving and never looking like genuine top 2 contenders.

The big risk then being that we repeat last season - make top 6, lose in play offs, lose some players, start all over again. 

[ChicagoLion]

I think we need to be doing better than a shot at the play offs for Grealish to stay come January.
I hope we find a good CEO soon.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Bruce should have been sacked in May

2016