Unai Emery

[Risso]

He really didn't do too badly when you consider the other jokers we've had. And he did sign McGinn, which it's fair to say worked out.

Just a completely different world from where we are now though, and not a better one either. And he very seriously failed to help himself with some of the stuff he said, nor being incredibly tactically backward.

He was the right bloke for that particular dark spell in our recent past.

I disagree, he was just another to add to the long list of poor Villa managers from the period. Played mind numbing football and was sacked after chucking away a victory against the bottom club after we’d gone a quarter of a season without a win. Produced some unwatchable dirge on the pitch. Not sure who it was on here who posted that Bruce put out a team against Fulham at Wembley to play as if it was the first of a 2 legged final but they were right.

The start of that season felt about as close to deliberate sabotage as you could get, such was the state of the defence Bruce left us with. Then when it inevitably started to go wrong, it was always the fans who were first in the firing line where he was concerned.

[pablo_picasso]

"They don't like me because Im from Small Heath... Boo-fucking-hoo..."

Absolute bollocks.

One, some of us didn't like him because he was shit & played some of the worst football known to man.

And two, which is the most important of these points, if he was decent & we took him from Small Heath, or even if he worked there in the past, it would be marvellous if he was decent. Because not only have we strengthened ourselves, but we have also weakened our closest rivals. But either way, we would get to rip on them because their previously decent manager was now ours...

Football fans aren't the most complicated creatures on the planet. Win=good. Lose=bad. Lose & play shit=fuck right off...

[brontebilly]

He really didn't do too badly when you consider the other jokers we've had. And he did sign McGinn, which it's fair to say worked out.

Just a completely different world from where we are now though, and not a better one either. And he very seriously failed to help himself with some of the stuff he said, nor being incredibly tactically backward.

He was the right bloke for that particular dark spell in our recent past.

I disagree, he was just another to add to the long list of poor Villa managers from the period. Played mind numbing football and was sacked after chucking away a victory against the bottom club after we’d gone a quarter of a season without a win. Produced some unwatchable dirge on the pitch. Not sure who it was on here who posted that Bruce put out a team against Fulham at Wembley to play as if it was the first of a 2 legged final but they were right.

The start of that season felt about as close to deliberate sabotage as you could get, such was the state of the defence Bruce left us with. Then when it inevitably started to go wrong, it was always the fans who were first in the firing line where he was concerned.

We were effectively insolvent as a club only a few before that season started missing out on signing the likes of Johnstone and Snodgrass permanently. Bruce made a mess of that last minute transfer dash for sure but think context is important. New owners also wanted Thierry Henry around then too. Grealish admitted he sulked for weeks after his Spurs move fell through, Kodjia injured?

Bruce made a lot of mistakes (Hogan, Lansbury, Nyland were disasters) but we played a lot of good football in the run-up to those playoffs. Snodgrass, Grabban, turning out Grealish's career, Hourihane, Terry et al. Far from a bunch of cloggers, just never showed up in that first half v Fulham.

[PeterWithesShin]

Giving it the big one after we beat the might of Rotherham at home, in what was the only win in his last 9 league games in charge. Fist faced twat.

[Dave P]

Now the dust has settled, I think we brought in Steve Bruce at the right time and we got rid of him at the right time. We were right to stick with him in the shitshow summer of 2018. He was mainly crap but he provided stability when there wasn’t much of that above him.

[algy]

Now the dust has settled, I think we brought in Steve Bruce at the right time and we got rid of him at the right time. We were right to stick with him in the shitshow summer of 2018. He was mainly crap but he provided stability when there wasn’t much of that above him.

Yep, this to me is a fair assessment.

Not going to say anything bad about Wor Steve. He came across as a good bloke, and had a really hard time of it off the pitch in the run up to the playoff final.

He was very much needed at the club in summer 2018, and in that regard he's been essential to the club's recovery. But there's no way we would be getting out of the Championship with him in charge unless it was using the patent-pending 'Wagner method'.


What Deano & Emery have done since though has been scarcely believable. We're lucky as a club to be able to count both of them as our managers, and even more so that they've been in fairly quick succession.


There was some other guy doing a caretaker job between Smith and Emery, but he was a twat and definitely worse than Steve Bruce.

[andyh]

I hated Lambert, I hated Di Matteo, I hated Bruce for a while, then I warmed to him, then I hated him again, I hated MacLeish, I loved Deano, I fucking detested Gerrard with a passion from the second he walked through the door.

The point is, they are the steps we have gone along the way to get to where we are now.
Without each one of those events and appointments happening like they did, we would be on a totally different path now.
Of course we didn’t know it at the time.

But, we are on the path to greatness now with Unai……….that we DO know.

[lovejoy]

What did you think of Eric Black? Good draw vs Newcastle.

[Nev]

I never hated Bruce, even when he was at the Rags, despite his often awful football, daft post match cobblers and meek surrender at Wembley I think he always retained respect for the Club itself.

He's nowhere near the God-awful arrogance of the likes of O'Leary and Gerrard who thought more of themselves than anything or anybody else and treated the Club and the fans with utter contempt.

At the other end of the spectrum you have Sir Graham and Emery, and whatever happens in the future, I believe we have been very fortunate to have both as employees at Aston Villa.

[Allan C]

I don’t hate Bruce either but the fact remains that he failed miserably in a sub-standard league and produced some of the worst football I’ve seen down there for many years. Rather than “steadying the ship” he held us back two years. He deserves no praise for where we are now

[lovejoy]

I think regardless of what Emrey does now he is up there in the pantheon of top managers we’ve had.

[ChicagoLion]

I think regardless of what Emrey does now he is up there in the pantheon of top managers we’ve had.

Absolutely, this last 20 months has been miraculous.

[Malandro]

I don’t hate Bruce either but the fact remains that he failed miserably in a sub-standard league and produced some of the worst football I’ve seen down there for many years. Rather than “steadying the ship” he held us back two years. He deserves no praise for where we are now

Same here. I don’t hate him, but find his character rather unpleasant.

[john e]

McGinn was Bruce’s only redeeming feature

[FrankyH]

Bruce was a right whinging tit at the blose and even more so at the Villa. When he said Mellberg wouldn't get in his blose side, it summed up his footballing managerial prowess !