Dean Smith - Confirmed

[Toronto Villa]

Given the resources at his disposal relative to the rest of the league, he did a terrible job. Most of the time we played some awful stuff. Really crap football where he was bailed out by last minute heroics and moments of individual magic. And he combined his blandness with a condescending attitude to anyone who would dare to criticize him. Like somehow we were lucky to have him.

I don’t hate him. He played his part in stabilizing the club at a shit time. But let’s not suggest for a second he did anything more than that or anything extraordinary that say, a Neil Warnock couldn’t have done.

[Marlon From Bearwood]

Well, quite. Especially considering Warnock took over at Cardiff at the same time Bruce took over at Villa and then managed to get a far inferior squad promoted.

[AsTallAsLions]

Agreed. On the surface it doesn't look like a terrible job, which is why most neutrals or fans of other clubs think it strange when many Villa fans are/were so critical of him.

But most people don't consider the fact that he had spent a fortune by Championship standards on a multitude of central midfielders and strikers who flattered to deceive, and filled the rest of the team with loans + 1 year of John Terry. When he then failed to get us up, it was an unmitigated disaster for the club.

The play-offs were the very least we should have been achieving. That wasn't an accomplishment, that was the minimum requirement. He then failed to win it with an altogether abject performance at Wembley, devoid of any discernible tactics whatsoever. He was crap.

[chrisw1]

The arguments about Bruce will go on forever.  Lots of relegated teams struggle to get back up and whilst he was given a lot of resources we were starting from an incredubly low ebb.

I felt getting us to the play-off final was about par.  We lost playing pretty poor football and he absolutely should have gone after that and no doubt would have done if the finances hadn't imploded.

Overall he did ok.  I still feel we could have carried on dropping and he did turn that round and give us some good times.  But I agree the football was not good enough and was relived when we made the change.

[paul_e]

I get that, for some, he did a decent job but I just can't agree, he had 1 job which was to get us promoted, he got nowhere near in the first season, bottled it in the 2nd season and was on track to finish mid-table in his third having left us with the weakest defence in the league. In that time he very nearly wasted the best home-grown player in a generation and, lets not forget, this summer we were left with about 12 first team players because of his abysmal squad management, which forced Smith to sign pretty much an entire team to just give us the depth to stand a chance of surviving.

[LeeB]

Every time he's spoken since leaving it's been how strapped we were after the play off final, without any reference to the £20m or so he spunked in his first window on shite that offered absolutely fuck all, hugely expensive loans of Terry, Snodgrass and Bolaisie, and made even more stark when one of the first window signings has actually looked half decent under the man that followed him (Lansbury).

Steve Bruce can fuck off, hopefully with a hiding.

[Flin5tone]

It was Bruce signings that got us up, as pointed out by DS after the Play Off Final.

We never gave up in games under Bruce, the play off final was very disappointing but we had some great  days and nights too.

He'll easily keep Newcastle in this league. It depends if you leave the villa bubble, all the pundits on soccer Saturday hit the nail on the head for me, we're predictable and all the defending is last ditch, we've no real style and take away mcginn and jack and we have nothing. That's not a criticism of Dean as even if we go back down we should keep him.

Big one tonght!  I'll be clapping SB when he emerges from the tunnel and thanking him for his services at a very bad time personally for him

[AsTallAsLions]

It was Bruce signings that got us up, as pointed out by DS after the Play Off Final.

We never gave up in games under Bruce, the play off final was very disappointing but we had some great  days and nights too.

He'll easily keep Newcastle in this league. It depends if you leave the villa bubble, all the pundits on soccer Saturday hit the nail on the head for me, we're predictable and all the defending is last ditch, we've no real style and take away mcginn and jack and we have nothing. That's not a criticism of Dean as even if we go back down we should keep him.

Big one tonght!  I'll be clapping SB when he emerges from the tunnel and thanking him for his services at a very bad time personally for him

Every time he's spoken since leaving it's been how strapped we were after the play off final, without any reference to the £20m or so he spunked in his first window on shite that offered absolutely fuck all, hugely expensive loans of Terry, Snodgrass and Bolaisie, and made even more stark when one of the first window signings has actually looked half decent under the man that followed him (Lansbury).

Steve Bruce can fuck off, hopefully with a hiding.

Agreed.

I don't wish him any particular ill will but personally I wish he'd never been our manager as he was the wrong choice from the start, I don't think of him any more fondly than I do Di Matteo.

Moving on from the manager debate, I hope we stuff the Geordies tonight. Sob on the Tyne, wae aye man.

[LukeJames]

It was Bruce signings that got us up, as pointed out by DS after the Play Off Final.

Thats a great endorsment for a scout.

[Bad English]

It was Bruce signings that got us up, as pointed out by DS after the Play Off Final.

We never gave up in games under Bruce, the play off final was very disappointing but we had some great  days and nights too.

He'll easily keep Newcastle in this league. It depends if you leave the villa bubble, all the pundits on soccer Saturday hit the nail on the head for me, we're predictable and all the defending is last ditch, we've no real style and take away mcginn and jack and we have nothing. That's not a criticism of Dean as even if we go back down we should keep him.

Big one tonght!  I'll be clapping SB when he emerges from the tunnel and thanking him for his services at a very bad time personally for him

Thank you Alec! A marvellous tribute.

[SoccerHQ]

All this Anti Bruce nonsense is a joke, I for one will give him a warm welcome. His treatment from our fans was a disgrace and  he had every right to speak out, luckily our current manager (a decent bloke) feels the same

Villa manager Dean Smith says he has an "awful lot of respect" for Bruce and was unhappy at how things ended for his predecessor.

"I thought it was a disgrace," Smith, 48, said of the incident with the cabbage.

"I have an awful lot of respect for what he has done in management but, more importantly, for how he is as a man"

I'm not anti Bruce as some.  He stabilised us first year (dire as some of the football was) and gave us plenty of games with goals in the second. People's interpretation of attractive football will be different, but any season where we have been scoring three, four or five goals in a game more than the odd occasion is a good year to me.

The time was right for him to depart but I have no real animosity towards him.

I'm not entirely convinced Smith is the best long term fit for us, but I can't argue he hasn't earned the right to have a proper crack at the top flight. His approach is way more modern and detailed than Bruce - even if we have been up and down this season and haven't closed out games as we should.

Pretty much word for word my thoughts. I'll just treat his return with indifference although imagine the Holte will give him plenty of stick.

My main disappointment from his time here was our performance in the play off final, think that game really summed up his limitations as a manager.

Ironically though we go up and it would've been him, Wyness and Xia having a go in the premier league so maybe he did us a favour in the long term although we sailed very close to the wind to get to this stage.

[SoccerHQ]

Every time he's spoken since leaving it's been how strapped we were after the play off final, without any reference to the £20m or so he spunked in his first window on shite that offered absolutely fuck all, hugely expensive loans of Terry, Snodgrass and Bolaisie, and made even more stark when one of the first window signings has actually looked half decent under the man that followed him (Lansbury).

Steve Bruce can fuck off, hopefully with a hiding.

That is one thing that does actually annoy me about him the "waif and strays" comment he made. Even last season when the situation was dire we still managed to get in someone who is now one of the premier league top scorers.

And the previous year we got in Terry and Snodgrass who since he's gone back to West Ham has been a regular there so plenty of good internationals.

It was a big disappointment not to get automatic promotion in 17/18 but as we saw with DS it all gets quickly forgotten if we'd have won the play offs.

[Ads]

I hope he has one of them horrible ones.

[LeeB]

And the kit man only packs ankle socks.

[paul_e]

and all the players forget their boots.