Villa Park Redevelopment

[cdbearsfan]

We spent loads of money when Di Matteo was manager. Bruce's expenditure was not particularly outlandish by Championship standards. The football had mainly been shit for six years before he arrived. Nobody expected us to start playing like 1970 Brazil when he turned up, he was appointed to stabilise the club and reverse the culture of losing, and that's what he did.

[Mellin]

Bruce was certainly a better appointment for where we were than Di Matteo. I’d be surprised if anyone who was at Reading away would think he should be disrespected with a cabbage statue. His signings were predominantly positive, not scattergun. He was dealing with the mess created by Di Matteo and Xia.

I’d need to check who signed who but didn’t he just sign all the championship goal scorers without thought of how we use them, or effective use of them sometimes?
My feeling was Brucie stopped the drooping like a stone, but never before have I refused to go out of the pain of the football.
It’s a bit like what Emery did to Gerard, Smith did to Bruce. End of story.

It's more like what Gerrard did to Smith and what Bruce did to Di Matteo.

As for the post above blaming him for finishing 13th. Fucking lol.

[PeterWithesShin]

He was still managing those very expensive players and that few, if any, other second tier club buy, and being better than RDM is the lowest of low bars.

[cdbearsfan]

I wasn't suggesting being better than Di Matteo was anything to write home about. But john e suggested we played the worst football he had ever seen under Bruce and I was rebutting that assertion, on the basis that you only have to travel back one manager to do so.

[PeterWithesShin]

It was shit in relation to our resources though. Our far better players meant it was still good enough to beat the likes of Burton and Rotherham on a pretty regular basis.

[olaftab]

So how does all this fix the no water in the North Stand toilets problem?

[garyellis]

Fuck me is this the Steve Bruce thread in disguise?

[cdbearsfan]

Maybe. It wasn't shitter than Di Matteo, though, so john e was incorrect. And it quite often takes time to stabilise a club in free-fall, which we were before he arrived.

[PeterWithesShin]

Yes.

[Dogtanian]

His ability and what he did or didn’t do is pretty much immaterial at this point. He failed and was replaced.

But I think he genuinely cared about the club, and genuinely tried his best whilst in the job.

And on that basis alone, he doesn’t deserve hatred, comparisons to vegetables, or statues built to mock him.

Should there be a turnip statue outside Wembley? How would we feel about that?

[PeterWithesShin]

He's already got a statue

[olaftab]

But what about the queue for drinks in the North Stand?

[Brazilian Villain]

I wouldn't change a thing since the defeat to Fulham (apart from signing Ross McCormack and Scott Hogan maybe). In another timeline, we could be languishing in mid-table under Eddie Howe, and the North Stand wouldn't need to be redeveloped.

[Sexual Ealing]

I don’t understand why stabilising us as a mid-table division two side is seen as a positive.

[paul_e]

To sum up:

Bruce was a step up from RDM (which is faint praise).
Bruce still spent the best part of £20m in the winter window, which was an obscene amount for where we were and at the time.
The 2nd season was better but we still only just scrapped into the playoffs and then looked like we weren't even trying to win the final.
His 2nd summer is still the worst window I ever seen, leaving us with 1 LB, 2CB and 3RBs as our entire defence.
The step up from him to Smith was ridiculous as we suddenly switched to a manager with a plan of what he wanted to do who signed players to help do it.