The Official Steve Bruce Thread | Page 82 | Vital Football

The Official Steve Bruce Thread

pvb1968 said:
As for going back to houlier, the club was a shambles and in fairness to him he identified gabby, dunne and so on as being a waste of space. We are not a shambles of a club any more but the manager we have is tactically limited and 4th in the championship is his best effort in two seasons.
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FFS keep it real, first season was about stopping Aston Villa dropping another division..... IMHO and it is my humble opinion this is his first full season in charge...........

How nice to forget that we were bottom of the Championship with 1 win in 8 games prior to his appointment...... and then accuse him of having two season in charge, its all about opinions and you can have yours and I will have mine.......
 
I think Bruce was the right man for the job when he was hired. He stabilised us and got us back firing in the right direction so you have to give credit to him for that, but going forwards I think a new approach is required. The way Bruce plays is just very predictable, slow and boring which I don’t think is the key to success in this division
 
If there was stability with the squad for next season then I could see an argument to keep Bruce in place.

However it looks like it will be a season of massive change and therefore the change should involve a new manager and one who will bring on the youngsters and not rely on Dad's Army signings.
 
I voted (b) but for me it could equally well be (c); depends who is available. I'd take Moyes. I'd also take somebody else if they fitted in with the direction the club is supposed to be going in.

Trouble with Bruce I can't see next season being any better. And it has to be. He sorted out the defence, but midfield and attack have never really clicked. We have too big a gap between defence and attack. If only we could play every game like we did against Wolves. But we don't. Other teams know how we play, and know our threats are limited; kicking Jack to bits usually works.
 
Leaning slightly towards managerial change. The problem with that is I have little confidence in those at the club who would choose a new manager.

Very ticklish position at the moment.

Given FFP... if this Chinese chap has so much wonga... could he not get Recon group or part of the group to commit to a massive sponsorship deal over the next few years... giving us a continued financial advantage over most of our peers? Surely that is legitimate revenue?

One thing I'd say is a massive NO to the likes of Pardew and the merry-go-round managers. Allerdyce a possible exception.
 
No . I don't think it is counted as legitimate revenue . Something to do with the owners links to the company. Sponsoring the training ground as he has done is legitimate but don't ask me what the difference is.
 
col8 said:
FFS keep it real, first season was about stopping Aston Villa dropping another division..... IMHO and it is my humble opinion this is his first full season in charge...........

How nice to forget that we were bottom of the Championship with 1 win in 8 games prior to his appointment...... and then accuse him of having two season in charge, its all about opinions and you can have yours and I will have mine.......
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fwiw - we weren't bottom when he took over.
We were actually 19th. Cardiff were 2nd bottom at the time though - so let's not overstate the remarkable 'stabilised us/turned us around' stuff.

He's had every advantage for this season - there is no excuse for failing again.
However, I think this is exactly what you get with Bruce - a team in the upper part of the Championship mostly hoping for a playoff place & couple of good playoff games. He nearly did that job again.
I'd be more tempted to stick again for another season knowing that's as good as we'll get under him (mostly dull and not very good but scrapping enough points for a playoff spot hopefully) given the likely changes that'll happen
I'd have got rid tbh if we'd gone up - knowing we'd likely be relegated again but this time we'd at least have £140 mill to spend on the rebuild rather than being potless with little to no base to build on.
Bright future etc
 
Always wanted Dean Smith and still do.

Although starting to think Villa are jinxed, for example Stuart Gray coaches Fulham yet did we ever play football like that when he was here?

Lambert - always rated his Norwich team yet he comes to us and we looked gash.

Even some of Bruce’s teams have battered us over the years.

Coaches / Managers come to us and just seem to fail.
 
sirdennis said:
No . I don't think it is counted as legitimate revenue . Something to do with the owners links to the company. Sponsoring the training ground as he has done is legitimate but don't ask me what the difference is.
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Not sure infrastructure is covered by FFP. It certainly isn't by UEFA
 
In my opinion, we should avoid a knee jerk reaction. If Bruce is to be sacked, first line up a high caliiber (foreign) manager, someone along the lines of / quality of, Rafa Benitez (f knows how Newcastle got their hands on him). Such managers are not always available or willing to manage championship sides, in which case it's best to stick with Bruce.
Don't want to end up in the cycle we were in pre-Bruce, chopping and changing mediocre managers every 6 months.
 
Bruce deserves one more season definitely. What needs to change is his style of play in some games and maybe review the coaching staff. Calderwood, Clemence, Agnew seems too many cooks for me, plus I would say only Agnew has had an impact.

This get to 0-0 at half time and the insipid halves of football are at times shocking. Add to that his ability to change the team mid game along with ending games with 3/4 strikers on is beyond a joke now.

Add to that the time has come to blood the 3/4 younger players, something Bruce doesn’t do.
 
Ok. Just remind me where cardiff , wolves and fulham were 2 seasons ago and how long the respective managers had been in place. The loathed and ridiculed neil warnock took over a collective team worse than ours. We have a manager that has 3 assistants and a team that plays one way and was not prepared for the start of this season. Cardiff away , reading away , norwich away , brentford away , qpr at home , wolves away , Sheff wed away when we should have easily lost i could go on . The football is average and will continue to be if mr bruce stays , so many performances throughout the season that mirror each other and yesterday was no different.
 
Twice this season dean smiths team totally outplayed us , how many times did the ball come back to the keeper yesterday to get lumped , sick to death of watching turgid defensive football .
 
Think Bruce has done an excellent job in stabilising the club and creating a 'togetherness' both on the pitch and within the fanbase.This is something which we lost completely in the latter years of Lerner. We were on a downward spiral which could have easily continued. For that he deserves credit. On the other hand, performances have been mixed. Some this year have been superb, highlighting the quality and potential in the squad. Unfortunately we've had too many below par performances which have ultimately cost us promotion. Squad selection, tactics, formation have also been questionable and for that Bruce carries the can although players also have to take responsibility and some have let him down on occasions. So what next? I would give him another season. Worried that changing manager at such a critical time could de-stabilise the club again. I don't think we can take the risk.
If he were to go and I don't think he will, I'd opt for Dean Smith who's done an excellent job at with limited resources. Always impressed with the way he sets up the team and gets them to play. But as we all know replicating that at Villa Park is likely to be a different story...a club on a completely different level to Walsall and Brentford, high expectation with little margin for error. It's stick with Bruce for me.
 
If it is going to be Bruce next season I would hope that would be confirmed by the club because we have no time to waste regarding recruitment.
 
pvb1968 said:
If it is going to be Bruce next season I would hope that would be confirmed by the club because we have no time to waste regarding recruitment.
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Was wondering what happens now. I believe players usually return to the club for another day or so, sorting out things like exercise and diet plans while they're away over the summer. Probably also the time when players who are not wanted are told so.

Would think over the next couple of days the club will have to decide whether Steve stays or goes.
 
It depends on what we need to do with the squad really. If our financial position is as bad as the media outlets would have us believe then we probably need to off load half the squad and bring the U23's through - I am not 100% sure Bruce would be right for that. However I'm not convinced our situation is as bad as some like to make out, so if we are keeping the majority of the squad together I'd keep Bruce. The players clearly want to play for him and the team morale looks better than Ive seen it for many years.
Would also like to see JT kept on in some sort of player/coach role, but I guess that would depend on salary expectations.
 
He has to go. The football he puts out is dire and he has achieved the square route of nothing. He has failed plain and simple. Get him out and get a new young manager in who can coach some good football into a group of players.
 
Dean Smith? I'd say Brentford are one of the best footballing teams I've seen at VP over the last 2 seasons and he is a Villa fan. But it wasnt Smith who installed that style of play, I thought it was Mark Warburton. Smith just came in and continued to play the same way. There was a lot of hype about Warburton as well a couple of years back but he's flopped at Rangers and Forest since. I'm pretty sure Smith doesnt get involved too much in transfers either, Brentford use a model similar to how Almstadt/O'Reilly worked - all based on stats and sell on potential.
He would be a massive risk for me
 
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