Christian Purslow - Resigned

[ktvillan]

He's been here nearly two years and we look no closer to a promotion winning side than when he came, yet you think we should stick with him in the longer short term?  He's failed, and even if he somehow gets this massively unbalanced squad up it will be on unsound foundations.  Why not start asap to put things right and start heading in the right direction?  I'd be prepared to forget promotion this season if I could see we were making progress in the right direction for the longer term.

[Three Spires Villa]

He's been here nearly two years and we look no closer to a promotion winning side than when he came, yet you think we should stick with him in the longer short term?  He's failed, and even if he somehow gets this massively unbalanced squad up it will be on unsound foundations.  Why not start asap to put things right and start heading in the right direction?  I'd be prepared to forget promotion this season if I could see we were making progress in the right direction for the longer term.

Correct

[Hookeysmith]

He's been here nearly two years and we look no closer to a promotion winning side than when he came, yet you think we should stick with him in the longer short term?  He's failed, and even if he somehow gets this massively unbalanced squad up it will be on unsound foundations.  Why not start asap to put things right and start heading in the right direction?  I'd be prepared to forget promotion this season if I could see we were making progress in the right direction for the longer term.

Hear hear

As much as I want out of this league all I want is a hope and pride back in my team

[old man villa fan]

Any long term planning must start with the present. Firstly you define the periods for short, medium and long term. You then work on a sliding scale of how much of the long term starts now up to your full long term strategy at the end of the transition period. I have not seen one thing since Bruce came here that contributes to a long term sustainable and successful result.

We have to start now. You cannot put it off as you will never get to your ultimate aim.  The view of getting rid of Bruce when we get promoted is just fantasy. If we haven't got the b**** to get rid of him now, we have got no hope of somebody doing it after a successful promotion. It would only happen after a slide back down.

[paul_e]

Any long term planning must start with the present. Firstly you define the periods for short, medium and long term. You then work on a sliding scale of how much of the long term starts now up to your full long term strategy at the end of the transition period. I have not seen one thing since Bruce came here that contributes to a long term sustainable and successful result.

We have to start now. You cannot put it off as you will never get to your ultimate aim.  The view of getting rid of Bruce when we get promoted is just fantasy. If we haven't got the b**** to get rid of him now, we have got no hope of somebody doing it after a successful promotion. It would only happen after a slide back down.

Yeah, that was always my problem with the "we'll deal with that when we're promoted" view. What would've actually happened is he'd have spent a fortune on average players in the summer, we'd have coached them and set the team up just as badly as he is doing now and we'd have stunk the league out sitting firmly in the bottom half until he got sacked in about February to be replaced with someone to make sure we avoided relegation. The new guy would, therefore, have been someone like Big Sam with a reputation for avoiding the drop and we'd have been stuck in exactly the same cycle as we were before we were relegated with a similar squad of average players in their late 20s/early 30s with no sell-on value.

[260475]

Doesn't always take poor results to make a change of direction. Can usually map out the s,m,Lt plans, and if there is no immediate buy-in then ways can be parted. If the new owners are shrewd sports team owners, and CEO good at what he does, then they'll be getting all of the strategic stuff sorted first, and then making those changes. On that basis, I'm not expecting (or wanting) immediate promotion this year. I was for 'give Bruce a chance', but I don't see young lads having freedom to learn, as long as they aren't stuffed every week, rather more old guard no value blockers. Terry was great last season, but it takes the piss to line a 37 year olds bank balance any more. If he coaches then should be at appropriate rate, Say £100kpa max.

[tomd2103]

He's been here nearly two years and we look no closer to a promotion winning side than when he came, yet you think we should stick with him in the longer short term?  He's failed, and even if he somehow gets this massively unbalanced squad up it will be on unsound foundations.  Why not start asap to put things right and start heading in the right direction?  I'd be prepared to forget promotion this season if I could see we were making progress in the right direction for the longer term.

No, I think he should have gone after the play off final yet can understand why he wasn't sacked given the circumstances.  As I said, I think he was brought in with the short term goal of getting us up and keeping us up for a season or two, but he has failed to do that. What concerns me most about the season so far is that the same problems that have plagued us during his time here are still present and I agree with you that we don't really seem any closer to automatic promotion than we did when he first arrived.  Therefore I think a change is required.     

I was talking more about the general approach of the hierarchy at the club in the previous post.  Let's say Bruce is sacked in the next few weeks - what would their approach be?  Would they still look to have a good crack at promotion this season and go for a more short term approach or would they not prioritise promotion and look to begin implementing a longer term plan?   

[RussellC]

The bottom line for me, is that there is literally no tangible progress thus far, and no cohesive strategy going forward.  He’s spent all summer talking about not adopting the ‘sticking plaster’ approach to team-building again, but then systematically replaced players that we actually own with loan-signings from other clubs- exactly the same as he’s done for the last 2 seasons.

I’ve seen mention of the clubs strategy to be to aiming for promotion within 2 years, but surely if we don’t go up this season we’re going to even deeper in the FFP mire having spent a fortune on the likes of Abraham, El Ghazi and Bolasie’s salaries with no long-term return.

I’m honestly now at the stage with Bruce where every day that he’s in charge will seem like a day wasted.

[berneboy]

He's been here nearly two years and we look no closer to a promotion winning side than when he came, yet you think we should stick with him in the longer short term?  He's failed, and even if he somehow gets this massively unbalanced squad up it will be on unsound foundations.  Why not start asap to put things right and start heading in the right direction?  I'd be prepared to forget promotion this season if I could see we were making progress in the right direction for the longer term.

Hear hear

As much as I want out of this league all I want is a hope and pride back in my team

I agree with both comments. Go, Mr Bruce, go.
Please.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

I’m honestly now at the stage with Bruce where every day that he’s in charge will seem like a day wasted.

I've felt like that since the day he was appointed.
I remember the mantra, "The football may be ugly but he'll get us up"? Well, they were half right and the less said about 'stability' the better. The only positive I can draw from today is that most have now reached the same conclusion - he's not up to the job and with each passing day we're that bit closer to getting rid of him.

[paul_e]

I’m honestly now at the stage with Bruce where every day that he’s in charge will seem like a day wasted.

I've felt like that since the day he was appointed.
I remember the mantra, "The football may be ugly but he'll get us up"? Well, they were half right and the less said about 'stability' the better. The only positive I can draw from today is that most have now reached the same conclusion - he's not up to the job and with each passing day we're that bit closer to getting rid of him.

Amen.

[Ads]

I think it's in arguable that we're better than we first came in and were very close to being a promotion winning side last season.

I'm surprised that distortion has met with universal approval.

I think you can acknowledge the above facts and still think his time is up.

[paul_e]

I think it's in arguable that we're better than we first came in and were very close to being a promotion winning side last season.

I'm surprised that distortion has met with universal approval.

I think you can acknowledge the above facts and still think his time is up.

I'm not sure you can simplify it that much. Last season is irrelevant because, as Bruce himself has said, nearly half the team that played the final have gone, so whilst that squad got close we've seen no real benefit from it. From there I think Gollini, Amavi, Baker, Chester, RDL (effectively the best back 5 we had when he arrived) is better than the unit we have now. Centre midfield is clearly stronger, RDM got that completely wrong. Up front it's pretty hard to work out because we have a lot of unknowns and 3 of the 4 that will be involved don't belong to us. So whilst I don't think we're worse I wouldn't say we've improved massively either, certainly not in any way that will matter come June when we, once again, lose 'half the team'.

[Steve67]

I think it's in arguable that we're better than we first came in and were very close to being a promotion winning side last season.

I'm surprised that distortion has met with universal approval.

I think you can acknowledge the above facts and still think his time is up.

Nearly won promotion?  I appreciate that we were one game away but it's a bit like saying 'hey, I nearly won the lottery, the house next door won five mill'. 

[Damo70]

Have we heard any words of wisdom or rallying cries from Mr Purslow yet? How many more weeks does he have to be here to be our longest serving CEO in recent times?