Steve Bruce

[TRO]

20 hours ago, Lerner's Driver said:

Where's Grasshopper?

hopped it

just kidding ....he must be loving it.

Edited March 11, 2018 by TRO

[mykeyb]

Well TRO it appears you were right about Mr Bruce and I was wrong, what we saw last night was a superb team performance and not a collection of old players trying to win to a game and that is all down to him. Well done Mr Bruce

[skarroki]

I criticised him and wanted him out but more than happy to eat humble pie now. He has always mentioned this is the biggest job of his career and I think that shows in his celebrations yesterday. He genuinely wants to be at the club and have the club be successful. There's something quite special about that, you don't get it from many managers or players in football.

You can see that same attitude in the likes of Terry and Grealish, they are here to make Aston Villa successful, it's about the club not themselves and the difference that makes can be huge. 

I would like to see a big name manager at villa in the future definitely, but not for a while. He deserves a chance with a big club and bigger cheque book to see what he can build. Let's just take 2nd place now to make sure that happens. 

[limpid]

1 hour ago, NurembergVillan said:

Yes, he did.

I was thinking he maybe deserves a thread if he doesn't already have one.  The physique and conditioning on some of our players now is incredible.  He's got to take some of the credit for the evolution of Grealish if nothing else.

 

[DCJonah]

Deserved his criticism and now fully deserves all the credit and praise. I've changed my opinion loads. Believe he should be kept on wether we are promoted or not. Would never have imagined thinking that 6 months ago.

[Eastie]

36 minutes ago, skarroki said:

I criticised him and wanted him out but more than happy to eat humble pie now. He has always mentioned this is the biggest job of his career and I think that shows in his celebrations yesterday. He genuinely wants to be at the club and have the club be successful. There's something quite special about that, you don't get it from many managers or players in football.

You can see that same attitude in the likes of Terry and Grealish, they are here to make Aston Villa successful, it's about the club not themselves and the difference that makes can be huge. 

I would like to see a big name manager at villa in the future definitely, but not for a while. He deserves a chance with a big club and bigger cheque book to see what he can build. Let's just take 2nd place now to make sure that happens. 

Totally agree , delighted it’s turned out well for him . 

 

[ChrisVillan]

3 hours ago, srsmithusa said:

Or, you’ll become more than you thought you could.  

[Ikantcpell]

I like Bruce alot as a person, he seems to be so humble and kind.

 

[A'Villan]

I remember at the beginning of the season when things weren't looking so bright, and Bruce was pointing the finger anywhere but himself.

I knew back then the football was going to be good enough under him, believe it or not, even despite results like 0-3 against Cardiff, I knew results were going to start coming our way.

What I didn't know was whether or not Bruce was going to rise to the occassion of being a success as Villa manager and take ownership of what was happening now that the club and players were his.

Thankfully we have gone from strength to strength and Bruce is a lot more measured and considerate about what he says now. He no longer highlights where the club have been over the years recently, instead he is giving very sensible remarks about our promotion hopes.

He's putting forward a very strong case to be our manager next season. As I've said from the start, I hope his best is yet to be seen and wish him every success.

If you had to pick a manager, any manager, to lead us through the next 10 games only, who would you pick?

For me, Steve Bruce. He'd be as good a shout as any.

[Demitri_C]

I loved the fact that stephen Clemence was ecstatic with that 4th goal. Delighted for all the coaching staff. They deserve it.

[TRO]

22 hours ago, mykeyb said:

Well TRO it appears you were right about Mr Bruce and I was wrong, what we saw last night was a superb team performance and not a collection of old players trying to win to a game and that is all down to him. Well done Mr Bruce

very generous.

Thanks, but what i would say its only opinions.

I don't believe Steve Bruce is doing anything different to when he first arrived.....its the players, he had just brought in better players to gel and build a team.....we was short of an attacking coach, he's fixed that.....He has instructed a strength and fitness programme for jack and so on and so on......all these things take time, its just we don't know how long it takes.....its all coming to fruition.

there will be set backs for sure.....but we are heading in the right direction.

He is most importantly for me the right type of character to create the right environment to prosper.

i have always said, he is not a miracle worker......but he is made of the right stuff to get us back to respectability.

ps and he is not as dumb as some would have you believe,

Edited March 12, 2018 by TRO

[terrytini]

He is, he is taking the game to teams even when in front. I M O.

[TRO]

20 minutes ago, terrytini said:

He is, he is taking the game to teams even when in front. I M O.

Bang on.

Terry, i think he always had the intention to do this, but felt the "team" wasn't quite ready and right to stop the rot.......his first task was to get us to be more difficult to beat, we was haemorrhagjng goals when he first arrived.

its been frustrating, but imo worth the wait.

the Subjective bit is when do you morph in to an attacking force, its tricky to know when you have the players to do it without leaking goals.you have to be able yo trust your players and know they are capable of carrying out the instructions.

e.g look how Albert has improved his defensive capability.....these things take time and much training ground work......Snoddy is a much better player since he arrived.

its all coming home gradually......we have only just started the road back.

Edited March 11, 2018 by TRO

[terrytini]

2 minutes ago, TRO said:

Bang on.

Terry, i think he always had the intention to do this, but felt the "team" wasn't quite ready and right to stop the rot.......his first task was to get us to be more difficult to beat, we was haemorrhagjng goals when he first arrived.

the Subjective bit is when do you morph in to an attacking force, its tricky to know when you have the players to do it without leaking goals.

e.g look how Albert has improved his defensive capability.....these things take time and much training ground work.

its all coming home gradually......we have only just started the road back.

You may be right about it always having been his longer term intention, it is certainly the most sensible explanation.

Which distils the criticism ( from me at least) down to simply being a judgment call as to whether he needed to be cautious as long as he did. I would have to bow to his infinitely better knowledge than me on that.

For me, I have no complaints whatsoever, all I ever wanted was for him to tweak it to the positive, and he has. 

I am 100% sold that regardless what happens now we simply have to keep him for next season....especially if we are not promoted....not doing so could set us back years.

[TRO]

3 minutes ago, terrytini said:

You may be right about it always having been his longer term intention, it is certainly the most sensible explanation.

Which distils the criticism ( from me at least) down to simply being a judgment call as to whether he needed to be cautious as long as he did. I would have to bow to his infinitely better knowledge than me on that.

For me, I have no complaints whatsoever, all I ever wanted was for him to tweak it to the positive, and he has. 

I am 100% sold that regardless what happens now we simply have to keep him for next season....especially if we are not promoted....not doing so could set us back years.

Terry, i never doubted your ctiticism as sparse as it was......was borne out of your desire for attackkng football and caution was frustrating.

I think it has been a progressive thing as opposed to an inbred thing.

any person who was brought up in that Man Utd team had to appreciate the essence of attacking football.....I feel confident we are in good hands.

[ciggiesnbeer]

Steve Bruce is only the second good thing ever to come out of ManU. But if we win the league then I will forgive him for playing for them.

 

 

Champions League that is, obviously. I am not a bloody charity.

Edited March 11, 2018 by ciggiesnbeer

[srsmithusa]

Where I disagree with TRO and with Bruce, if TRO is right, is that it’s possible to work on more things at the same time.  IMO teams can work on fitness, and defense, and attacking, and spacing, and vision, all at once, because all are connected.  Were doing well, but we took the long way round the barn IMO  

Just to keep people from worrying about my mental state, where we are now is very good and Bruce gets huge credit for that.  It doesn’t mean he did it the best way or the fastest way or that his way will continue to see us climb.  It just means his way has seen us improve greatly, and it’s great fun to watch us again.   

[Darth Villa]

I wonder how much of the time taken has been to ensure that we're able to sustain our return to the top flight?

Wyness always said we'd need three squads, one to get us up, one to stabilise us in the prem and one to push onto Tony's vision of world domination (in a footballing sense even if I sometimes think our owner would make a great bond villain).

Perhaps Bruce has been following that plan after all and having seen us hand Wolves their arse on a plate I feel we are much better equipped to survive if/when we get back to the prem this time around.

Edited March 11, 2018 by Darth Villa
Fixing typos, damn tablet keyboards!

[A'Villan]

4 minutes ago, Darth Villa said:

I wonder how much of the time taken has been to ensure that we're able to sustain our return to the top flight?

Wyness always said we'd need three squads, one to get us up, one to stabilise us in the prem and one to push onto Tony's vision of world domination (in a footballing sense even if I sometimes think our owner would make a great bond villain).

Perhaps Bruce has been following that plan after all and having seen us hand Wolves their arse on a plate I feel we are much better equipped to survive if/when we get back to the prem this time around.

While I agree after seeing us beat Wolves we're in a strong position as a team, and would be more likely to survive the Premier League than a few months ago.

There's no question that we and Xia want the fastest possible return to the top flight and the expectation is that we get there asap.

There's a reason we've thrown a lot of money at the divisions best players, and it's not so that we can bide our time until we're ready.

Bruce's job was on the line this season, and it's because there's an urgency to get promoted.

[Darth Villa]

2 minutes ago, A'Villan said:

While I agree after seeing us beat Wolves we're in a strong position as a team, and would be more likely to survive the Premier League than a few months ago.

There's no question that we and Xia want the fastest possible return to the top flight and the expectation is that we get there asap.

There's a reason we've thrown a lot of money at the divisions best players, and it's not so that we can bide our time until we're ready.

Bruce's job was on the line this season, and it's because there's an urgency to get promoted.

I wasn't suggesting that anyone wanted anything but a quick return to the top flight but he had two years from the off and was worried about our decline. That was the reason given for his overly defensive approach which has now changed.

I was simply suggesting that perhaps a more considered and sustainable approach has kicked in after we failed last season?

I agree Bruce would likely get the push if we failed again but I'm not so sure now as he does seem to be building something we haven't had since MoN left us. A winning attitude.