Bruce Sacked at last (now official)

[dave.woodhall]

I disagree with every post above, even the ones that contradict each other.

You're wrong.

I'm right.

[ASHTONVILLA]

Glad he has gone, was an awful appointment and should have gone at the end of his first season.

Do not see the fuss over the cabbage, which did not hit anyone or even come close. It was funny.

I hope Villa do not manage to make another terrible appointment, nervous few days I guess.

[olaftab]

Bruce is nowhere near the worst manager we have ever had.

However he simply wasnt good enough.

Sorry rob I can not think of a worse performing manager in the second division than Bruce but then again I don’t know much about the season we got relegated from second to third.

[olaftab]

I disagree with every post above, even the ones that contradict each other.

You're wrong.

I'm right.

You could be all right but I think you are all wrong.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

I disagree with every post above, even the ones that contradict each other.

You're wrong.

I'm right.

Except when you're wrong, which is always.

[olaftab]

43% win rate with the resources at his disposal was poor. Promoted managers get around 60% plus, Bruce had too many spells of not winning games and seemingly losing the team from one week to the next. No one player looked like they knew their role either. Just poor.

As for the pundits all coming out lambasting the club for sacking him, they are not objective at all.

As I have said and bored you all, his promotions were achieved in poor performing seasons. He has never delivered more than 1.8 avg points per game. 2.0 is the standard he never threatened either then or in past two seasons with us and was unlikely to do so this season. A truly false messiah.

[brian green]

As I have said and also bored you all, the 43% win rate was achieved against second class opposition.

[cheltenhamlion]

The Mail on Sunday's Oliver Holt: "Spoke to Steve Bruce at Craven Cottage six months ago, two weeks after his dad had died. He was grace personified. His mum died soon after. He was still giving everything for the club. Last night, some moron of a 'fan' threw a cabbage at him. Sometimes, football stinks."

A cabbage and family deaths have nothing to do with Steve Bruce and his Aston Villa failure.

Would have to agree and the signs were there long before his sad circumstances with his family arose.  On reflection, he got off very lightly after his first season, as he had plenty of time and money to turn things around, and ended up wasting both. 

That said, I still maintain he deserves a lot of credit for the way he conducted himself during such a difficult family time.     

I agree on both scores. I might sound like a heartless bastard but I am fed up of the death of his parents being used to excuse the tripe served up on the pitch. It was shit before then as well.

The nearest equivalent I can think of is when my mother in law died. She wasn't much older than Bruce and it rocked the family to its core for months.

I didn't turn up at work though and ask our most senior investigator to water the plants and have Pat the cleaner representing us at trials.

[Risso]

Jose Mourinho has won the Champions League twice, 8 league titles in 4 different countries and numerous domestic cups.  How dare Manchester United even think about getting rid of him.  Said no half arsed journalist or two bit pundit this week.

[brian green]

Agree 100% chelts.  I hate personalizing examples but I lost my mother, my father and my brother in close succession.  What would they have said in Covent Garden or Spitalfields if I had said "sorry that all the fruit and veg I am sending you is crap but I have had family bereavements".  They would have said we are very sorry to hear that but we are in the fruit and veg business.  Yours are crap.

[four fornicholl]

Agree 100% chelts.  I hate personalizing examples but I lost my mother, my father and my brother in close succession.  What would they have said in Covent Garden or Spitalfields if I had said "sorry that all the fruit and veg I am sending you is crap but I have had family bereavements".  They would have said we are very sorry to hear that but we are in the fruit and veg business.  Yours are crap.

Faultless punctuation! Apart from veg, there must be something missing. 

[hilts_coolerking]

I don't there's many suggesting that the death of Bruce's parents was directly responsible for us being mediocre.  More that it clearly affected him very badly, and what with the bitter disappointment of the playoff final, the uncertainty over the summer and the pressure he found himself under this season, all those factors combined to utterly muddle his mind more or less to the point where he didn't know what he was doing.

He needs a long break from football but whether he'll take one remains to be seen.

[Brend'Watkins]

As soon as the new man comes in and starts winning games in a style you’d expect from this squad you will see the same people who are backing Bruce change their tune. “Boring” , “predictable”, “stale” and suchlike littering their reports.

[Clampy]

I don't there's many suggesting that the death of Bruce's parents was directly responsible for us being mediocre.  More that it clearly affected him very badly, and what with the bitter disappointment of the playoff final, the uncertainty over the summer and the pressure he found himself under this season, all those factors combined to utterly muddle his mind more or less to the point where he didn't know what he was doing.

He needs a long break from football but whether he'll take one remains to be seen.

Agree with that. A parting of the ways was best for all concerned.

[PaulWinch again]

I don't there's many suggesting that the death of Bruce's parents was directly responsible for us being mediocre.  More that it clearly affected him very badly, and what with the bitter disappointment of the playoff final, the uncertainty over the summer and the pressure he found himself under this season, all those factors combined to utterly muddle his mind more or less to the point where he didn't know what he was doing.

He needs a long break from football but whether he'll take one remains to be seen.

Agree with that. A parting of the ways was best for all concerned.

Indeed. You get the feeling when time is up, and it was.