Steve Bruce

[Michael118]

We should try and get Quique Sanchez Flores. I thought he was seriously unlucky to be sacked by Watford and was decent last season at Espanyol but is apparently frustrated with the club's 'lack of clarity on their vision''.

We could ask him to bring Odion Ighalo with him as well.

I think he'd be an excellent choice and is a manager who I think has what it takes to turn us around and get us promoted.

Edited December 17, 2017 by Michael118

[Dodgyknees]

“Maybe I should have started one of them”

and this sums him up. He only has answers AFTER. 

[sidcow]

Anyone reckon we can get Gary Rowett. 

He clearly made the Bluescum over achieve massively and has turned Derby around so quickly. 

There is clearly talent there. 

[Stevo985]

3 hours ago, pacbuddies said:

Now you say I am 'complaining'. Before you said I was 'moaning'. I wish you would be consistent with your confusion.

Well you tell me what you were doing. This is what I’m trying to decipher. If you just told us then it would be much easier.

Do you even know?

[VillaChris]

On 12/16/2017 at 22:49, mrjc said:

Apart from the £30m or so they spent on players...

I’n not saying that’s huge money or that they’ve been great signings, but (despite Benitez making out they haven’t), they did add to the squad that went up 

It depends on style aswell. Huddersfield spent similar amount as Newcastle but they've continued their pressing style of play in the premier league and it's getting them results against teams around them that will keep them up.

The turgid, defensive style would get us not much higher than 16-17th in the unlikely event SB got us up and kept his job. It would be McLeish/Lambert standard.

[Michael118]

Bielsa available as well after parting ways with Lille.

We would be stupid not to enquire about him. Not many better candidates around to give us the best chance of getting out of this league and then making an impact in the Premier League as well once we got there.

[VillanousOne]

1 hour ago, sidcow said:

He clearly made the Bluescum

[sheepyvillian]

4 hours ago, Grasshopper said:

BRUCE OUT

Please !

[sheepyvillian]

2 hours ago, sidcow said:

Anyone reckon we can get Gary Rowett. 

He clearly made the Bluescum over achieve massively and has turned Derby around so quickly. 

There is clearly talent there. 

Boring football, I can't take much more .

[TRO]

11 hours ago, terrytini said:

In my humble opinion the problem is it’s not “at the moment” - it’s been an issue since he’s been here and it’s never looked remotely like being addressed. For that reason I personally don’t share the “ we did ok but.....” theory - it’s a regular occurrence.

As you know, for me, this has less to do with players available or on the books and far more to do with 15 months where there has been no real evidence whatsoever of either a truly positive approach nor of any discernible attacking methodology.

Without wanting to over simplify or generalise, we look like a team coached by a gritty, rugged, defender. And nothing else.

Terry.....I know what you mean.

but it seems ironic that in one of his quotes he said " you are only as good as your strikers"

He must have seen that first hand at United.

[Grasshopper]

4 minutes ago, TRO said:

Terry.....I know what you mean.

but it seems ironic that in one of his quotes he said " you are only as good as your strikers"

He must have seen that first hand at United.

Well thats noble and wise of him.

F*** your strikers over so that there non left then you have a ready made excuse

[Spoony]

Give it to John Terry. Seems like the man to give them the kick up the arse they need, it’d be nice to try someone young and not on the merry go round and he has worked with the best in the world so surely that’s going to have rubbed off on him.

[Dave J]

6 hours ago, TRO said:

Terry.....I know what you mean.

but it seems ironic that in one of his quotes he said " you are only as good as your strikers"

He must have seen that first hand at United.

TRO - this being the case why on earth did he sign £12mill Hogan and then seemingly not have the foggiest idea on how best to utilise whatever it was that caught his eye in the first instance ? 

It also seems a tad ironic that he chooses an attacking midfielder over this striker - i’m Guessing what little bit of confidence Hogan had left has now fully disappeared - I have little doubt he’s off shortly and we’ll be left with even less attacking options than is worth thinking about.

[lexicon]

It's funny really - last 10 games we've had 5 wins, 3 draws and 2 losses. Knives are now out for Bruce after a run of 3 games and a return of 2 points.

The team is suffering badly from injuries, which is not Bruce's fault and it does explain the form. 

It's never been pretty and it'll never be pretty but it has been pretty effective so far this season and can continue to be. 

I think criticism of him is warranted and fair but wanting him sacked is foolish at this juncture, IMO. 

[AvfcRigo82]

10 hours ago, Dick said:

“Maybe I should have started one of them”

and this sums him up. He only has answers AFTER. 

Cause he is a **** useless prick!

**** off bruce you word removed!

[terrytini]

3 minutes ago, lexicon said:

It's funny really - last 10 games we've had 5 wins, 3 draws and 2 losses. Knives are now out for Bruce after a run of 3 games and a return of 2 points.

The team is suffering badly from injuries, which is not Bruce's fault and it does explain the form. 

It's never been pretty and it'll never be pretty but it has been pretty effective so far this season and can continue to be. 

I think criticism of him is warranted and fair but wanting him sacked is foolish at this juncture, IMO. 

Fair enough but it’s equally reasonable to say 18 points from 10 games is adequate at best......it’s the type of return that should get a play off place but nothing more, and many - not all of course but many - think, and have done all season, that 2 points per game is a reasonable target for a team hoping for promotion. 

And of course if you take 11 games instead of 10 - not that you shoukd of course - it’s 5 Wins 3 Draws And 3 Defeats. 5 Wins from 11 games ? And insufficient even for a play off place.

Can you see fans of Man City/ United/ Chelsea/Arsenal/ Spurs happy with that ? We’ll surely we are at least roughly equivalent in this League, certainly in terms of aspirations as a Club ?

I understand the views of those who think Bruce may currently be our best chance of Promotion but he’s done nowhere near well enough to expect or hope to be free from either criticism nor from people thinking he is performing poorly enough for the Club to look elsewhere....and (IMO of course) those hoping for that are just as reasonable as those who don’t, and are certainly not foolish.

Having said that we are now so deep in the season I would be staggered if they changed or if they could find a decent replacement. I think Tony will see this through to the end of the season when we will either get promoted or he will be able to say he fully tried it and it didn’t work so cheerio.

 

[AvfcRigo82]

15 minutes ago, lexicon said:

I think criticism of him is warranted and fair but wanting him sacked is foolish at this juncture, IMO. 

No it's not.

He's a useless prick and should be replaced.

[DaveAV1]

I believe a large number of the squad are now fed up with the way they are being coached and how the team are being set up. I doubt they dislike Steve Bruce as he comes across as a blokey bloke, who’s a nice guy. However I don’t think they believe in his tactical style and are frustrated by how we set up. 

This is a squad that could play better than they have been. A decent manager would recognise this and let them off the leash, which would give them all a huge boost. New manager bounce bringing out some good individual performances, would let the confidence flow and we could finish the season very strongly. 

I dont deny injuries haven’t helped, but they haven’t really altered how we play. We haven’t played consistently decent attacking football over the last 15 months. And let’s not kid ourselves that other clubs don’t have injury problems. When we played Sheffield Wednesday recently they had something like 7 first team defenders missing. And I noticed a comment from a Cardiff player about looking forward to 5 first team players coming back from injury soon.

I would like to think that the board aren’t blind to our problems and have a plan B. Any decent board should always have a plan B (C, D, E...) regardless of how they are doing and who their manager is. If and when we replace the manager may well give us an insight as to how well we are run as a club under our new ambitious owner.

[Dave J]

18 minutes ago, lexicon said:

It's funny really - last 10 games we've had 5 wins, 3 draws and 2 losses. Knives are now out for Bruce after a run of 3 games and a return of 2 points.

The team is suffering badly from injuries, which is not Bruce's fault and it does explain the form. 

It's never been pretty and it'll never be pretty but it has been pretty effective so far this season and can continue to be. 

I think criticism of him is warranted and fair but wanting him sacked is foolish at this juncture, IMO. 

So in you’re view which I totally respect but not agree with - we should just continue to stumble along, holding onto the coat tails of the play - offs ?  I accept his striker shortage is not helping his cause - but I cannot excuse his handling of Hogan, Managers do come in and Galvanise teams in a matter of weeks  - dare I say Warnock ? So it would not necessarily be folly to look to change now - do I think they will? Doubtful if I am honest but I do advocate for change.

[TheStagMan]

13 minutes ago, lexicon said:

It's funny really - last 10 games we've had 5 wins, 3 draws and 2 losses. Knives are now out for Bruce after a run of 3 games and a return of 2 points.

The team is suffering badly from injuries, which is not Bruce's fault and it does explain the form. 

It's never been pretty and it'll never be pretty but it has been pretty effective so far this season and can continue to be. 

I think criticism of him is warranted and fair but wanting him sacked is foolish at this juncture, IMO. 

Jesus Christ, this again. NO it is not the return of two points from 3 games that has caused the knives to come out. In case you missed most of this thread (and this season) it is the negative tactics, piss poor management, our team looking inept, our lack of any playing style, the scraping of results, the lack of any visible plan B, the inability to influence a game, the excuses, the lack of playing to the player's strengths and the lack of sufficient improvement in the team for OVER A YEAR that has caused the knives to come out, the last few games are the icing on the cake showing that we have not "turned a corner" as the Bruce-in camp have been saying after each win, in fact our concerns have come true, our "good form" was not sustainable (just like last season).

We have not beaten a top 8 team (certainly this season) and yet people are confident that we will go up via the play offs?????. 

It's not funny, it really isn't. It is actually devastating, and any true Villa fan should be seriously worried about the future of this club. 

I get that the objective this year is "get promoted by any means" and Steve Bruce has achieved this miracle FOUR times, FOUR but he really does not look capable of doing it again. 

He simply IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH - We have to get rid. There is a reason he has hovered around this level for most of his managerial career.

As for the injuries excuse - Other clubs seem to have injuries as well, yet it is only us that is crippled by them - why is this? is it the lack of afore-mentioned plan B, would it be the fact that Bruce sacked off most of our strikers, and didn't think about getting in a replacement (other than Gabby?????? Jesus!), who thought that Terry, Chester and Samba was all we needed at CB for the season? Whatever it may be, injuries are part of football and it is the manager's job to mitigate injuries, and have the squad in a position where they are able to deal with the situation. If we had a system where everyone knew their roles, a different player could slot into that role and the overall team strength would remain at a similar/slightly lower level, we just seem to collapse. 

In addition, we could rotate players into and out of those roles so that they weren't playing as many games, had more recovery time and perhaps therefore would not get injured as much, and if they did then their replacement would be ready.