The Official Steve Bruce Thread | Page 198 | Vital Football

The Official Steve Bruce Thread

Just find the whole thing bizarre was like a few others screaming about the CB position from the time Terry went just cannot believe the guy is going to lose his job over a position he occupied and knows so well. Because at the end of the day with a decent CB alongside Chester we would have at least had stability and it would have probably given him the extra points that would have kept him in a job. Just takes my breadth away whether I liked him or not as a manager that he could be so stupid and then accuse the fans of lack of intelligence. Never rated his tactics or the way we played under him,but no personal dislike.
 
Managers are just so stubborn and arrogant it does my head in.

Everyone on this forum agrees our style is too slow, ponderous, negative and .....I could go on.
Everyone I speak to at the games say the same thing.
Everyone I hear walking away from the ground say the same thing.

Why can he not see it?. Maybe he does and is too arrogant to admit to change.

We can't all be wrong can we ? .

Yes he may have played at a high level and managed at a high level. But there are thousands of fans who have played alot of football and watched a hell of alot of football. We know a thing or two and we sure as hell know alot more about Aston Villa football club than he does or ever will and what is required at our club.
 
1958Villan said:
A lot of people are saying we have a squad good enough to win this league, I'm afraid I have to disagree, the squad we have would find it difficult to win league two.
The reason I say that is nothing to do with the quality of the players in our squad but, everything to do with the make up of the squad.
We have one centreback, when every other football squad has at least four as it is, if not the most important, at least one of the most important outfield positions in a team.
We have one leftback, who is going through such a rough time at present that a rightback is playing his position.
For most of the season we have had another clubs U23 reserve centreback playing rightback.
Our midfield is a mess because none of them now know what position they are to play, we do have midfield positions that are overmanned and others that are undermanned. We have a midfielder with the potential to be worldclass but, he is played in positions that don't utilise his talents.
We have an attack, that on paper, should frighten the brown stuff out of every other team in the division but, one of the automatic two attackers refuses to pass the ball to anyone, in 99% of the games he plays.
We seem to have a team of individuals who receive absolutely no training/coaching in how to play as a unit and they aren't intelligent enough to work it out for themselves.
I believe that the players that make up our squad, if put into a team coached to play a system and their individual responsibility's explained to them, would be, in the most part, standout performers.
As it is, they play like a bunch of schoolkids in the playground.
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I know what you're getting at, but don't quite see it that way. We have a squad which if played the Bruce way looks a cert for Championship mid-table. Would be very lucky to get promotion, but would walk League 2. The squad itself is indeed unbalanced, but not to the extent that would worry a good manager.

Back line the sensible options we have are:
Elmo/Tuanzebe/Bree Chester Tuanzebe/Bree Hutton/Taylor
Not ideal, but stick with a combination out of that lot and it could well do the job, particularly with the right coaching.

The midfield is overloaded with options; it just needs a manager and coaches to find a combination or combinations which will work on the field and coach to a plan.

Forwards I don't worry about too much; it's what's happens around them which needs sorting. Kodj gets too much stick about being selfish; he does create for others when the options are there, as in the Abraham goal against Rotherham. It's his ability to conjur up goals on his own which makes him a danger. Organise what's behind, and both he and Abraham (who hasn't quite got his scoring boots on yet) will do the business.

Bottom line: a new manager would need time to really work out what he's got, but the material is there, and I don't think the right manager would have too much of a problem.
 
Only a rumour and you know how these things get overblown and bits added to etc but I did hear that in the summer Bruce wanted to go and may have been under consideration for an MSL team in the States.

When he finally heard who was taking over he immediately changed his mind and went into a meeting with them more or less begging to keep his job at Villa Park?

At the time they apparently were uncertain but remained open-minded about him and finally gave him a chance to prove his worth which of course he has miserably failed at.

IF what I heard is true then it won't be long before he is history but of course not before they have his replacement lined up.

Even if it's all a load a bollocks you can't beat a bit of gossip now and again!:lol:
 
tarzansbrother said:
Who’s your choice? Or stick with Brucie
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Someone who has experience and there is a difference that sometimes this forum sometimes turns into a black and white thing. Many experienced managers keep abreast of the times and keep their ideas in line with trends in football or transcend it.

I don't have a name but I would like Rodgers he is likely the most qualified candidate that we have any sort of chance of getting and even that is a long shot.

Just because JT had a great career, managed the dressing room and assisted the manager doesnt make him a natural manager. Terry is a far larger risk than sticking with Bruce too. Steven Gerard has one Gary Mc. behind him lets not forget never mind the tinpot league he's in. And to cut your point out before you make it I dont want Rodgers because of what he has done a Celtic.

We're in a very unique situation. We need a manager who is actually able to manage but also knows what it is like a massive club with high expectations. Rodgers ticks both of those and Terry has question marks over both. It's hard to know if the man who bottled a penalty in Moscow has the temperament to manage Aston Villa in the Championship.
 
Terry is only a far larger risk than Bruce in the sense that with Bruce there is no risk; we know exactly what we'll get if we stick with him, which is getting in players rather than developing them and a poor end result, which can only succeed if others do worse.

Terry is an unknown in some respects. My feeling is that he needs a year or so's dedicated coaching experience, as Gerrard had at Liverpool. But if the club went for him I'd back him.

However, I suspect the owners have already worked out how good managers are unearthed, and would be picking from a fairly wide field.

I find the whole thing rather sad, in that I sense that most people wanted the Bruce thing to work. But with things keeping on running into the same old problems it's time to recognise that they won't.
 
CDX_EIRE said:
Someone who has experience and there is a difference that sometimes this forum sometimes turns into a black and white thing. Many experienced managers keep abreast of the times and keep their ideas in line with trends in football or transcend it.

I don't have a name but I would like Rodgers he is likely the most qualified candidate that we have any sort of chance of getting and even that is a long shot.

Just because JT had a great career, managed the dressing room and assisted the manager doesnt make him a natural manager. Terry is a far larger risk than sticking with Bruce too. Steven Gerard has one Gary Mc. behind him lets not forget never mind the tinpot league he's in. And to cut your point out before you make it I dont want Rodgers because of what he has done a Celtic.

We're in a very unique situation. We need a manager who is actually able to manage but also knows what it is like a massive club with high expectations. Rodgers ticks both of those and Terry has question marks over both. It's hard to know if the man who bottled a penalty in Moscow has the temperament to manage Aston Villa in the Championship.
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I agree with all that but he slipped
 
I keep coming back to, why does the coaching look as though it's ineffective, or even non-existant, when we see what happens on the pitch?

What I've been wondering is this. Steve doesn't do coaching, as far as I can gather. He may be there, he may not, but I get the impression he lets the coaches get on with it. I don't know what "it" is, but it must be some mixture of general training and particular routines.

Before match day, Steve comes up with his match-day squad and then on match-day produces the team sheet, essentially who the starting 11 is and who out of the remainder are on the bench. If that's correct, then nothing done beforehand has prepared the players for what they are actually supposed to do in the match.

In other words, there is no direct link between the background coaching and the match day setup.

I've no idea if this is anyway correct, but it would explain what we're seeing. It's not that unusual in some respects; Clough never used to let his players know who was playing until an hour before the match, and O'Neill and Lambert continued the tradition. But it is very much against how most managers today work.
 
CDX_EIRE said:
McParlandTheGreat said:
I find the whole thing rather sad, in that I sense that most people wanted the Bruce thing to work. But with things keeping on running into the same old problems it's time to recognise that they won't

CDX:
This, so much this!

:shake:
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Agreed - which is why I, as someone who wanted him in even before RDM turned up, find his latest comments about the fans to be such an insulting kick in the teeth.

I’m sure, if pressed, he’d claim they were aimed at a minority but that’s bollocks, he’s (cleverly) manufacturing a dialogue that suggests he never stood a chance - exactly as he did at Sunderland - that he knows the media will run with.

To resort to such self-serving, classless behaviour - after been afforded so much good will by 95% of the fan base - is unforgivable to me.

This is his ‘O’Leary’ moment and he deserves to reap what he’s sown (though that will unfortunately play right into his hands).
 
Thomas Holte said:
Only a rumour and you know how these things get overblown and bits added to etc but I did hear that in the summer Bruce wanted to go and may have been under consideration for an MSL team in the States.

When he finally heard who was taking over he immediately changed his mind and went into a meeting with them more or less begging to keep his job at Villa Park?

At the time they apparently were uncertain but remained open-minded about him and finally gave him a chance to prove his worth which of course he has miserably failed at.

IF what I heard is true then it won't be long before he is history but of course not before they have his replacement lined up.

Even if it's all a load a bollocks you can't beat a bit of gossip now and again!:lol:
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Haha - maybe Beckham wanted for his as yet non existent team/ground. Maybe he had visions of Bruce managing the best ever
 
Steve bruce should have been manager when we chose dematteo, when he came in he was the right appointment in that he stopped us ending up like Sunderland. I thank him for doing the job he did in the first season and getting us to the playoffs but that's it, we have to do everything possible to get promoted and there is still plenty of time to do it.
 
So the cheeky bastard now reckons he will never be accepted by some fans because he managed the shit, hhmmm, Mr Bruce you have had great support and its because we believe you are a shit manager, not that you managed the shit. When he is fecked off all his media mates will blow smoke up his arse.
 
Absolute suicide to keep him, just sack him and let him take us to court, I wouldn't give him 10p, how many million has he earnt for achieving feck all, can't stand the bloke.
 
pvb1968 said:
So the cheeky bastard now reckons he will never be accepted by some fans because he managed the shit, hhmmm, Mr Bruce you have had great support and its because we believe you are a shit manager, not that you managed the shit. When he is fecked off all his media mates will blow smoke up his arse.
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I think the fact he was the manager at the Sty never really bothered the vast majority of Villa fans as it was some years ago and he knows that he was well accepted by the Villa Park faithful.

Therefore it's just another one of many, ill-advised remarks he has spouted out and he even said exactly the same type of thing at Sunderland claiming "They will never accept me here because I'm a Geordie"

In reality, he has been found wanting and his lack of good managerial skills been found out.
 
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