Sheffield Wednesday v Aston Villa: Pre-Match Thread

[Damo70]

What exactly did we do to Bruce apart from give him a prestigious job on massive wages, allow him to appoint all his old mates as assistants on big wages, give him loads of money to spend on whoever he wanted to buy and give him a couple of years to get promotion and then when he failed give him a big fat compensation pay out? I wish someone would treat me that badly.

[berneboy]

1-2 I hope.

0-4 I hope.

0-18, I hope.

[PeterWithesShin]

Alan Biggs’ Sheffield Wednesday Column: Why most of the football world will laugh with Steve Bruce if Owls beat Aston Villa following his ‘shameful’ and ‘disgraceful’ treatment at Villa Park

Sometimes you can’t see past one man when looking ahead to a game. And sometimes, too, it’s fated that those who can’t see beyond the end of their nose will get it twisted out of joint.   

If the craggy, battle-worn face of Sheffield Wednesday’s manager, distinguished by his permanently crooked conk, breaks into a smile come 5pm on Saturday then it won’t only be Owls fans laughing along with him.

For one day, S6 will surely have the best part of the football world behind it. There is very little neutrality about Sheffield Wednesday versus Aston Villa in the nation’s consciousness.

It’s because the majority of decent souls like to believe in the principles of “what goes around comes around” and the good guy winning in the end. Steve Bruce IS a good guy, as anyone who knows him will tell you. Both as a man and a (highly successful) manager, he was wholly undeserving of the shameful abuse that saw him hounded out of Villa Park in October.

His “crime” was six weeks of moderate results in an otherwise impressive two-year turnaround of a club who were still competitively placed when the axe fell. Of course, the bigger picture is this being a key match in the battle for the play-offs, with Wednesday just four points behind a sixth-placed Villa who have slipped into the groove of five straight wins under, yes, a good manager in Dean Smith.

It’s one the Owls really must win to blow the race open. Two momentous home games beckon with another big club rival, Nottingham Forest, in town on Tuesday - and Wednesday might have to win both to stay in it. Four points would keep them just about in touch - providing they haul back Villa. If you had to pick the one to win that would be it and not entirely for emotional reasons.

But you can’t divorce the backdrop from this fixture. As a manager who naturally commands loyalty, Wednesday players have a powerful extra incentive to win it - for Bruce.

Beyond that comes a sentiment springing from the moral difference between right and wrong. And don’t believe those who tell you there is no sentiment in football -  it is right at the core of the game, the hopes and dreams.

This is the story of what happens when that sentiment, or passion if you like, goes too far. Whether a former Birmingham boss or not, Bruce’s treatment by a section of Villa fans was disgraceful; rubbished and ridiculed across social media, climaxed by a cabbage being hurled at him by an irate supporter.

Now, some followers of all clubs aren’t exactly blameless here. Yes, the treatment of Bruce’s predecessor at Hillsborough, Jos Luhukay, was in a different context. You couldn’t escape judging that his record was sackable, actually before it occurred.

That said, Luhukay’s measurable CV should have eliminated some of the more extreme comments, even if the good things he tried, like blooding a raft of young players, were undone by bad selection and tactics.

But the baying for Bruce’s demise at Villa sounded way off the scale. Some of his detractors are chipping away at him to this day and will undoubtedly be represented in the away end on Saturday. We’re talking of a man with broad shoulders here. He can shrug off most of what comes with the job. Yet the level of disrespect and derision shocked even him. I don’t know how he will play it in the media pre-match but I do know he regarded his treatment as “brutal.”

As a professional, he’ll prefer to focus on a way to win, hoping to re-harness some of the pace that had previously transformed the Owls - after Rolando Aarons joined fellow Newcastle loanee Achraf Lazaar on the sidelines last week. Injuries are a major concern. Without that zip, the Owls reverted to being predictably pedestrian in the 0-0 draw at Stoke. They need it back to have a realistic chance.

Yet the unbeaten run stands strong at 12 games, 11 under Bruce. Maybe we should not be so surprised. Nor should supporters of his previous club. All managers have bad spells - and that’s all it was at Villa. 

This four-times promotion winner has nothing to prove. But you can bet he won’t be feeling that way on Saturday. The human dimension to this huge game is too highly charged to overlook. Let’s see the good guy coming out on top. Roll credits.

[olaftab]

Alan Biggs you t***. Yes we were horrible to Bruce by paying him a fortune, giving him two years and huge transfer funds during many transfer windows which he wasted, had a go at the fans every 6 weeks and totally embarrassed us in the play off final. Yes he was treated shamefully. Why don’t you ask Wednesday to appoint him for life?

[KRS]

What makes that deluded Sheffield twat think the world gives two shits or even thinks about them or when we play them?! To preach such a load of poisonous nonsense is one thing, but when the club he supports has had 7 managers in the last 9 years themselves then it's more than a little bit hypocritical.

edit:
Alan Irvine: January 2010 - February 2011
Gary Megson: February 2011   - February 2012
Dave Jones: March 2012 - December 2013
Stuart Gray: December 2013 - June 2015
Carlos Carvalhal: June 2015 - December 2017
Jos Luhukay: January 2018 - December 2018
Steve Bruce: February 2019 - Present

Alan Biggs. C**t. Roll credits.

[clash city rocker]

He won't think Bruce is so great in 12 months time.

[CT]

Wow. If there was a "Crock of shit articles" League table, Alan Biggs would be top of it, 15 points clear and a shoe-in for the title.

[jeowje]

i just really hope we win this. If we play like we have the majority of the last few weeks, we will. Despite their passion and voyage for some sort of ‘moral justice’, loyalty to their new potato-deity, giving 110%- we should have them chasing shadows.

Forget Bruce, forget revenge for two consecutive Villa Park wins for them. We just want promotion. And to stick it to Alan Biggs.

[Axl Rose]

Alan Biggs you t***. Yes we were horrible to Bruce by paying him a fortune, giving him two years and huge transfer funds during many transfer windows which he wasted, had a go at the fans every 6 weeks and totally embarrassed us in the play off final. Yes he was treated shamefully. Why don’t you ask Wednesday to appoint him for life?

Well said, Aftab!

[Hillbilly]

“Highly successful”. Quite the low bar for success in Sheffield it seems.

[mallo]

I've got us down for a win, but knowing Bruce and the 'keep it tight' attitude a draw would be acceptable. Although you'd think with so much at stake he'd set up relatively positively which would give us a better chance. Alan Biggs - who?

[LeeB]

How quickly they forget that their useless previous manager somehow managed to give their new potato king the absolute run around in the reverse fixture a few months back.

[robbo1874]

Fkn hell- this guy’s paper a cheaper version of the mail. Some washed up journo trying to stoke the flames and generate a few hits on its shitty website?

Who knows how Villa fans will react to Steve Bruce? I’d guess, he most likely won’t get acknowledged either way. He was ultimately a high stakes gamble, which failed to pay off. Steadied the ship, which was bare minimum requirement when he came in. And decent bloke who had a lot of personal stuff to deal with, which he deserves praise for, towards the end of his time. Maybe a tiny few couldn’t accept him due to the Blues connection, but most welcomed him and wished him well. Just wasn’t good enough to achieve his remit, that’s all.

 Flesh it out in more detail if you like, but don’t make up a load of bullshit to generate clicks for your wanky newspaper. Football supporters of all hues have more integrity than some of these journo deadbeats.

[Nev]

Every time I think of the game I'm drawn to both our impressive runs and chances of securing a play off place, the last thing I think off is "putting one over" on Steve Bruce. He had a good run, it didn't work and he went.

As for the game, I'm a great believer in sequences. As the games pass I can see our winning streak coming to a halt at some point, equally their unbeaten run will end sooner rather than later so predicting this is tough. I can see us slipping up on this, or next Saturday with a win in between but as fortune favours the brave I'll go for a win.

2-0

[andyh]

That ‘article’ should form the basis of the pre match team talk.