Welsh Press-er

[dave.woodhall]

And still they come.

http://thebirminghampress.com/2017/08/2/

[Toronto Villa]

Welsh de-presser. And the knives are out because yesterday was abject, not a thrilling, hard fought game where we got pipped to the finish line. We got thoroughly humiliated. One more of them and Bruce will be binned, if not physically by the club, mentally by the remainder of the fans who still are willing to give him a shot.

[ASHTONVILLA]

Every manager eventually has a game where you realise they can't turn it around. Big Ron it was Coventry, RDM it was Preston, Bruce was Cardiff.

He has no answers.

[ciggiesnbeer]

We know who were are and we are a lot better than getting thrashed in the second division by a poor warnock side.

I am glad the (imaginary obviously) knives are out. Villa fans are rightfully impatient and refuse to accept this latest decline.

If you are going to play ugly football then when you start losing then you have very little good will to fall back on no matter how pleasant and intelligent a person you are (and Bruce is both).

Xia needs to make the change now. Lets get it done. Nobody needs to be hurling abuse at Bruce, its just not worked out and he needs to go with a handshake and his payoff. Lets move on and get a progressive and technical manager who can rebuild this club.

[brian green]

Melancholy stuff.  Deeply sad.

[passport1]

A couple of years ago I sensed the same malaise surrounding the club that lead to the 70s wilderness.  At the time my comments were described as OTT. Nothing I have seen in the interim has altered my opinion  . Back then we were regularly described as 'a sleeping giant'. We need to be careful this time that the giant doesn't fall into a coma.

[PeterWithesShin]

Good read as usual Dave. That last bit is quite sobering, us winning at Reading will be seen as a surprise, us losing to Cardiff wasn't really one.

[Steve67]

Excellent piece Dave. I have said it before and I say it again, I hope those who run the club actually read your articles. We are often quick to jump the gun but you offer a voice of reason and one that represents us Villa fans, therefore, Wyness and Xia really do need to take note.

[Matt Collins]

Very good - balanced but dejected. I agree the stuff about Bruce being outdated is ludicrously overdone. I wonder if this is how Leeds have felt for a while. There's a malaise that has both a clear route cause (bad financial decisions) yet is also impossible to pin down.

There's just no way that Bruce's track record and that of the bulk of our squad suggests we should be anywhere near this bad

[PeterWithesShin]

Sometimes managers do lose it, and it can be pretty quickly. Moyes, Super Ron and Brian are just a few who went downhill fast.

[Woofles The Wonder Dog]

Should a manager’s future be in doubt after two games? Probably not, but Villa haven’t done logic since about 2009 so I doubt we’re going to start now.

Ordinarily I'd agree with this, but it's not just two games is it? There's been a pattern here for some while, and the pre-season (that I for one was all for giving him) has borne nothing.

Nice title btw!

[tomd2103]

I think this particular paragraph definitely has some resonance:

Should a manager’s future be in doubt after two games? Probably not, but Villa haven’t done logic since about 2009 so I doubt we’re going to start now. Twelve months ago perceived wisdom was that we needed a manager who knew the Championship. We eventually got one whose record at this level is second to none but now, it seems, his methods are outdated. He got promoted five months before getting the Villa job and I’m not aware of any tectonic shift in football between May and October 2016 yet Bruce has rarely looked capable of doing what he was employed for. As the modern saying goes – you had one job…

I think the answer to the first question of course should be no, but he is being judged on more than two games.  I would have definitely expected to see some improvements from last season, but there haven't been in the first two games and alarmingly the same problems that dogged us last season are still apparent.  As for his record in the Championship, well it seems that not only are British managers with a more traditional approach being squeezed one-by-one out of the Premier League, it seems that they are also being squeezed out of the higher reaches of the Championship as well. 

[Matt Collins]

For me the hull game was still an improvement on last year

But Saturday was as bad as the very worst of last season

I'm expecting better v reading but whether we take our chances is another point

[Fin Feds Dad]

This current collection of players don’t deserve us. And we certainly don’t deserve them.

Nail on head,  again,  Dave .

[eamonn]

In fairness, I think Dave knows he's being judged on more than two games hence the mention of no major changes in football tactics between summer and autumn last year ie during his spell between his current and last jobs. Just that two games of the current season happen to have gone.