A'Villan

Surely we are the kind of project that Benitez hoped for in Newcastle, only to be acquainted with the limitations of Ashley. However I think Rodgers would be easier to obtain than Benitez. I doubt either would come here whilst we are in the championship, regardless of our squad.

I hope Adomah is selected tonight and does us proud.

The fact that he is financially invested means sod all if he doesn't have the inner resources to face the challenges unique to Aston Villa. Without knowing anything about him I like that he has experience working with clubs like Liverpool and Chelsea, as a club of our size and heritage and a city of Birmingham's population could and in my view, should, hold the same pedigree.

I think people are getting a bit wishful and confirmation bias could well be present here. El Ghazi and McGinn are no stranger a signing for Bruce than Sessegnon and Gyan before them.

A little off topic, this speech in 1940 is what the Toothbrush moustache should be remembered for. A message to soldiers that should be heard by both the Israeli, Palestinian and anyone of this world.

He was offered the Inter Milan job just after they won the Champions League. This was confirmed by Inter's president. Well said on the rest though. I am not sure you've made a post where I have found myself shaking my head.

I actually thought you made sound reasoning as to why FWIW and are possibly more sound in judgement than me. You at least made me question myself. The reason why I don't object to the comparison is that I think that it serves as a reminder of how shameful and disastrous things can become, as well as their being obvious parallels to just about everything that came before the death camps. The situation is complex beyond my understanding and I certainly don't want to be contentious for the sake of it, but that's how I see it.

Excited to watch a documentary on Nikola Tesla tonight. Feedback to follow.

@blandy Still find parallels between Nazi regime and this abhorrence to be offensive, wrong and counter-productive? I can think of another regime to annex land, have a superiority complex in their belief system, change law to accommodate for those beliefs, advocate for the eradication of the weak, torture, undermine, arrest on trumped up charges and the rest. It was made permanent, by decree, in 1943. There were eight years between the Enabling Act and the death camps. Hitler's plan originally was seemingly to remove the Jews from Germany and not to exterminate them. He even made a trade deal with Zionists in that time. So there was a lot that transpired in that time and that's where the parallels can be made. Shameful. It is like the common story of the abused becoming the abuser. This pot has been boiling well before the Ottoman Empire and it doesn't seem to be cooling off.

If managing Aston Villa under our current owners doesn't inspire Bruce to start asking the question, "what do I need to do in order to get this team playing at Premier League standards and beyond?" Then I'm afraid Bruce has passed up an excellent opportunity to add another promotion to his trophy cabinet and the chance to work with a club with infinite potential under the right guidance.

Agreed, I think it's safe to assume longevity and the success he encountered as a player would be the underlying reasons for this. "an honest trier who made the absolute most of limited natural ability" - Ponting, Ivan (2000). Manchester United: The Red Army I think that quote on Bruce as a player is probably applicable to him as a manager as well. While I don't really like to think of him as a dinosaur, he himself does not put himself in the bracket of 'talented' managers saying that he hopes to see more young British managers given a crack at success and eventually obtain the top jobs On numerous occasions, in various interviews, I have read that he has wanted time off from the game and questioned whether he still had it in him. There's something very human about Steve Bruce. I mean he signed and debuted his son in the Premier League I'm pretty confident. The cheeky bugger probably did it out of love more than merit. But that's neither here nor there. The expectation at Sunderland was European football (regardless of likeliness) and Bruce was afforded certain transfers on the condition he obtain that objective. When things got restless he accused the fans of having an agenda against him because he was a Geordie. I liken that to him saying he was only aiming for us to avoid relegation in his first season with us, or bemoaning playing personnel and error for our shortcomings and inability to play a certain way. At Hull he said he liked that the owner never queried his methods or suggested alternate formations or tactics.. Scrutiny and feedback is everywhere in sport and I think Bruce can be a little sensitive or reactionary when he has no issues handing out the fault. "Who would want my job?" he says after Chester's error at Reading. I'll tell you who should first and foremost, Bruce, you! You're the bloody manager. Read an interview with Nuno and it's about vision. Vision of what you can achieve within your given environment. He said he approached the championship like it was the top division because while there may be nuances to the championship it is still professional football and he is committed to winning, something he learned at Valencia and Porto. Read an interview or article on Fulham and Jokanovic and it was all about drills, drills drills to prepare Fulham as best he could. They boasted the highest total passes, highest completion, highest average possession, most accurate short passes, second highest shots on target in the championship. They structured their training to hit quotas and develop skills to obtain these targets. They also were relentless in pressing. What does Bruce do well? Hull kept 18 clean sheets out of their 24 victories in one promotion campaign, and 18 of their 24 victories in their first promotion were by one goal, again showing a tight organised unit. I don't know much about his promotion with Blues other than he spent 20 million pounds back in '07 in the championship. I think convincing owners to let him splash the cash is a trait of his. He left Hull after frustration over transfers. Had Sunderland spend in return for European placing and we all know he hasn't been short on recruitment in his time here. To get back to actual qualities I think he learned to be a winner at Man Utd and that has stuck with him. We all witnessed the influence someone like Terry had at the club. I'd say Bruce while having a different demeanour might have a similar presence. After enduring another one of my long posts I'd like to thank you if you're still with me. I'm of the opinion that Bruce is not quite the dinosaur people label him as. That said, he's at a new club, with new challenges and expectations, so far having failed to deliver. If he wants to establish himself as Aston Villa manager, he needs to find the next few gears this season and challenge himself to play beyond the performances of yesteryear, highlighting our players strengths and exposing our opponents weaknesses. I think 4-4-1-1 is a good formation for the players we have: Elmo - Chester - Tuanzebe/loan - Hutton Bolasie - DM (Hourihane/Thor/Whelan) - McGinn - El Ghazi/Adomah Grealish Kodjia Bruce lost out to two promising managers last season in Nuno and Jokanovic and his rival for the best record in this division in Warnock. This season he is up against Leeds who are led by Bielsa and Hernandez who even at 33 contests Grealish for best AM. Pulis who is no mug with a very strong attack from what I gather. Stoke who have a very strong squad, despite a slow start. West Brom, also with the quality to contest promotion. And the rest is relatively unknown to me, except I expect Derby to be top half.

The point of comparison that I was making is that Bielsa is obviously serious about his work, studying analysis that I highly doubt Bruce would ever even contemplate. As a result he is now familiar with his competition in detail, probably safe to say his near perfect start is testament to his research. So the point was in relation to your choosing Benitez over Bruce and not Bielsa. I'd take Bielsa over both, that's all really He isn't afraid to tell a professional footballer they are going to pick up rubbish for 3 hours because that's how long it takes the average supporter to earn the coin to buy a match-day ticket. What some might consider pointless I consider to be humbling and character building. Agree completely there is no perfect style, but there are strengths and weaknesses to any given approach and you want to choose appropriately.

They are predominantly playing a 3-4-1-2 but have also gone 5-3-2. If we play our 4-4-1-1 then they might overrun midfield, 5 vs 3. Also we need to be careful when our fullbacks push up-field because if we turn it over, we've got 2 center backs on the back-foot and potentially outnumbered for cover.

It may help. Some medications take up to three months to show change, so be patient and persistent if that's a route you want to take. Your doctor should tell you the ins and outs though. My biggest piece of advice would be to avoid man caving if you are struggling with this. Start talking to someone, finding a good psychologist (I'm assuming you can access one free of charge like we can here) who's interested in you as a person might change your life, and by that I mean your understanding of yourself and your relationship to the world, like anything you'll want to work with someone who's a good person and not just a qualified clinician. You mentioned your partner talks to you like you're ill and is excited about you getting better. She obviously cares for you and it wouldn't surprise me if she's experiencing a wealth of emotion because she wants you to be in a good place, and what's best for you. Just putting it out there that she might struggle with your anger, and may be pleased that you're seeking a remedy to what ails you. I just want to echo what VILLAMARV said, big hugs. I wish you the quality of life you envision for yourself and your family.

What's flavour of the month is to assume his career highlights consist of lunacy and walking out on clubs! I've wanted Bielsa as our manager for the better part of a decade.

https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/sport/football/leeds-united/why-leeds-united-head-coach-marcelo-bielsa-won-t-get-angry-at-his-players-following-defeats-1-9325754 Again, interesting contrast to Bruce's reaction to our exit.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcelo_Bielsa#Coaching_style http://www.leaguemanagers.com/leadership-wellbeing/manager-interviews/steve-bruce-great-unknown/ Interesting contrast don't you think @TRO? On one hand you have a coach said by some of the games best and many more that work with him that he inspired them as men and athletes. He turned down Inter Milan to continue on with what was a team assembled on pittance in Bilbao. Also turning down Mexico to continue as Leeds boss recently, he hasn't lived up to the press fed critics by abandoning Leeds just yet. People have mistakenly taken his nickname to mean he is an actual lunatic. On the other hand you have a coach who is possibly the punching bag of British football. A dinosaur. Tactically inept. Boring. Yet his career as manager has seen four promotions, and his record with Wigan was better than Martinez (who was said to be working miracles keeping them up), helped Sunderland to their 2nd highest finish in the Premier League, took Hull to an FA Cup final. I'd say both are hard done by the press, but no way does Bruce compete with Bielsa as a manager. In my opinion Bielsa could be the resurrection of Leeds to European placing. I don't see that happening for us under Bruce.

Written 7 years ago. https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2011/nov/30/steve-bruce-sunderland-sacked Bruce in an interview this time last year states he brought in Hogan, Lansbury and Hourihane to 'open things up' and deliver football played on the front foot. Chosen for their having the 'top statistics in the division'. He says he tried to do this too quickly and 'the statistics show' that when he tried to open things up we got beat. He also mentions his idea of playing in an attacking way is having two up top in a 3-5-2. Something we saw in pre-season of this season, but Bruce obviously opted against pursuing it. Last time this club employed a 3-5-2 from memory Chelsea beat us 8-0 under Lambert (leaving players like Delph and Albrighton on the bench in favour of Bannan and Holman). To Bruce's credit his Hull team went 2-0 up against Arsenal in the 2014 FA Cup final using this system. He says in response to criticism of his defensive approach and archaic jibes that he was playing two up top in a 3-5-2 six years ago, and that the formation has become very fashionable since. I remember reading some fans confirmation of how clueless Bruce is by pointing out that he was copying Southgate and Chelsea to feign modernism (goes to show how naive we can be as supporters). In the same interview Bruce says that we were to run with a 4-3-3, something we did for two games before switching to predominantly playing 4-4-2, 4-4-1-1 and 4-1-4-1. We are back with 4-4-1-1 this season and I think this is a good decision from Bruce. I personally would be playing different players but I wouldn't be surprised if the players I want to see end up playing soon enough anyway. It's interesting to note that Bruce is playing a formation used to some success by his once manager, Sir Alex Ferguson. I wonder if he has taken the time to explore what Guardiola did with it for Bayern in 2013, or Fulham in 2010 en route to the Europa League Final. Bruce says that every player he has brought in has been with the aim of us being better on the ball and getting on the front foot. McGinn has been an excellent pickup to play the role linking between the more defensive CM and the AM and I am hoping for equally big things in the wide positions from the likes of Bolasie, El Ghazi and Adomah. Grealish in the AM role and Kodjia as striker and we really don't need to worry too much about transitioning from defense to offense, only the reverse, as we can get hit on the break by teams with pace and are a bit weak centrally.

He got Swansea promoted and nearly won the league with Liverpool. Think he could find himself shortlisted in any job outside the top 4.

The problem with this acknowledgement of his methodology is that it applies to every manager, some are better than others in the mentioned areas, and it may be that they are then identified with that trait. Every manager has to prepare their team to 'think the game out' on the pitch, every manager needs to recruit well regardless of policy, and every manager needs to man manage. But there are a myriad of facets which make up the performance and outcome of any given football match. The one quality you mention Bruce has an inherent tendency toward which is not a necessity of management is his defensive mentality. I think what you've done well is identify two strengths and a weakness in Bruce's approach which are standouts. That being he has a record for recruiting players of proven ability wanting to move, either the fringe players of a bigger club or a standout achiever at a lesser club, rather than developing the player or selecting based on the perceived ability to play a certain role in a given system. He has relatively good man management ability. I would put this largely down to a combination of his personable nature and vast first-hand experience of being a footballer. And lastly and probably most evidently has a defensive, 'difficult to beat' approach, that often lacks any strategic suitability or tactical ingenuity that results in poor cohesion and is dependent on the skill and nous of the individual to win the contest. Rather than tailoring his plans to the uniqueness of differing scenarios he has a rigid and dogmatic philosophy. In my opinion he is the anti-coach, not because he is unsuccessful in the outcome of a given football match or because he can't motivate players to do their best, but because he leaves ingenuity entirely up to the players, leaves development of players to the people he recruits from and likewise the trials and errors of strategy to his peers. A coach is someone who teaches, trains or instructs the process of improvement or how to attain a goal, not someone who's pupils rely mostly on what they've learnt elsewhere to overcome the challenges they face. It's not all bad under Bruce though. Allowing players the freedom to make their own decisions and come up with their own ideas actually boosts creativity. That is why you will often find the most creative player (typically a #10) allowed freedom in any given side. However it is important to note that having a skill-set is a prerequisite to successfully pulling off ideas in a competition. Without that, you can be as 'creative' as you like, but you will be like a fish out of water. Because Bruce tends toward the tried and tested, he has a reasonable amount of success with leaving players to their own devices. Don't get me wrong here, I am not suggesting creativity is bolstered under Bruce. But it's undeniable that there's been some noteworthy success for players under Bruce. Players like Bent, Sessgnon, Gyan, Henderson, Huddlestone, Snodgrass, Larsson are players who's attacking football suffered no loss as a result of playing under Bruce. Then from our own end we've seen Adomah, Kodjia, Hourihane and Grabban make statements at championship level, not to mention the rise of Grealish has come about in the freedom and responsibility afforded him by Bruce. Unfortunately for Bruce though individual efforts are not enough in a team game of eleven a side and even seven years ago Bruce was being labelled a dinosaur and telling the press, 'I don't really do tactics', whatever he meant by that, in response to him losing games to managers with lesser teams. Football is a free-flowing affair and requires players to compete for 45 minutes at a time without instruction, a lot happens in this time that is simply out of the managers control. This is evidenced by Bruce achieving success within the sport. In basketball or American football you would be finished without tactics and set plays in your repertoire.Whereas in football, by recruiting well enough and keeping the players upbeat and motivated, he compensates for a lack of preparation, versatility, coaching and tactics. My most recent coach told me in order to be pro you have to do all things adequately and one thing well, that's just to get your foot in the door. Bruce has achieved more success than most in professional football and I think regardless of his shortcomings his knowledge of the game is obviously strong enough to acquire 4 promotions (relegated twice) and a 10th place finish in the top flight. His knowledge of the ins and outs of football is probably underrated, irrespective of his inability to adapt.

Be interesting to see who plays in this. We have the personnel to take on anyone in the league again. I don't know much about our opponent so hard to predict anything. Hopefully we make fewer mistakes than we have been. Not been a single performance this season where we've been comfortable, it'd be nice to get a few early goals and enjoy a confidence booster. You never know. UTV!

I love the Bruce Lee look. Not only aesthetically but which martial artists of note do you see looking like Serge Nubret? None really. When I was training in Muay Thai and Arakan some of my instructors spoke of having to slim down in order to become more adept and progress as a fighter. You lost me at 'miles' but I'll assume you have a good taste in fashion. Not sure I understand what you mean when you say 'hard thing now is plateauing', that comes in every aspect of life though. I read a martial arts book once called 'mastery', the emphasis from start to finish is learning to be at peace with plateauing, as it takes up most time in the process of mastery, progress and regression are more ephemeral. Lastly, I think you can hope for and achieve whatever you put your mind to. Look up Serge Nubret's body at age 70. Back when I was skinny, I followed some training advice for ectomorphs, and within 1-2 months people were commenting 'you must work out'. The training was pretty intense and the recommendation for ectomorphs was daily, it wasn't fun, but I'd testify to the results. I wasn't even dieting particularly well, something you seem to have up your sleeve.

If they haven't been mentioned already: 5ive, The Backstreet Boys and S Club 7

Dad was telling me about how he'd been seeing all the news about African gangs in Melbourne. So one day he hears sirens and a police helicopter and he assumes that there's some Africans on the loose and that the best plan of action is to put a ladder up and climb on to the roof, because in the event these Africans do a house invasion on him they won't find anyone in the house and Dad will be safe as the police helicopter will be able to see him. This is very odd to me, and I ask, "Dad, have you been smoking any pot?" He responds, "I might've had a little bit" What Dad has failed to remember is that he lives in Frankston, across from the The Pines, notorious for being a troubled neighbourhood and where they house ex-cons. The demographic is mostly Caucasian. Police sirens is nothing new. That's on the light side of things, and probably says as much about my discovery of Dad being reacquainted with the old marijuana as it does the media. But what's sad is the other day I was on a bus home from uni and some Muslim kids jumped on and started making jokes about how they were going to blow up the bus. Innocent kids having a laugh among each other identifying with the crap they see in the media. I'm wondering how low we go.. For every level, there's another devil.

My Dad makes biochar for his garden. I've been meaning to join him and learn the process. I find it hilarious, he looks like Walter White of Breaking Bad enough as it is without him cooking up a storm in a kiln.