Steve Bruce

[A'Villan]

2 hours ago, VILLAMARV said:

He was almost worth the money for the GIF's alone

[Nabby]

Xia did mention we needed to cut back in his letter and his comments just after the PO final 

Bruce just went step further and named players by name which IMO wasn't really needed , the interview was self publicity. People commend him for telling the truth which is his version of the truth where he spent very little he constantly omit's the wages spent on Terry and loan signings plus his 20 mil splurge his his first window.

[VILLAMARV]

1 minute ago, A'Villan said:

He was almost worth the money for the GIF's alone

Should've used the Gifs and kept all our money then

All his best work was at Spurs

[A'Villan]

2 minutes ago, VILLAMARV said:

Should've used the Gifs and kept all our money then

All his best work was at Spurs

https://streamable.com/jwz6

He built on his performances at Villa

[bannedfromHandV]

4 minutes ago, Nabby said:

Xia did mention we needed to cut back in his letter and his comments just after the PO final 

Bruce just went step further and named players by name which IMO wasn't really needed , the interview was self publicity. People commend him for telling the truth which is his version of the truth where he spent very little he constantly omit's the wages spent on Terry and loan signings plus his 20 mil splurge his his first window.

Ah right, I'm sure Spurs et al had never heard of Grealish before Bruce's interview, what a doofus letting everyone know about our better players.

Nottingham Forest have spent more on one player this summer than we spent all of last summer, but sure, Bruce spent all our money and everything is entirely his fault.

[bobzy]

37 minutes ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

Surely we need to clear out the dead wood first. Richards, Gil, De Leat, Taylor, McCormack, Tshibola etc. first before selling off our good stock?

Wouldn't suprise me to see him **** this up too selling our assets, leave us with high earning deadwood wage thiefs, and resign a week before the season starts and self proclaiming that he financially saved us by selling Grealish and the like and acting like a 2nd coming. I can see it all now.

What World do people live in?  No-one is interested in buying Richards, McCormack, Tshibola, De Laet etc. - and certainly not for the amount of money that we need to, apparently, raise.  It's only going to come from our better players and I'd guess that we're basically advertising this fact to get sales done early.  It's clearly a board directive.

No manager in the World wants to get rid of their best players and resign from their position.  Acting like a 2nd coming proclaiming he financially saved us  

[KSV]

3 minutes ago, bobzy said:

What World do people live in?  No-one is interested in buying Richards, McCormack, Tshibola, De Laet etc. - and certainly not for the amount of money that we need to, apparently, raise.  It's only going to come from our better players and I'd guess that we're basically advertising this fact to get sales done early.  It's clearly a board directive.

No manager in the World wants to get rid of their best players and resign from their position.  Acting like a 2nd coming proclaiming he financially saved us  

 

yeah unfortunately we will have to wait till their contracts run out. End of this upcoming season. These players contracts will have ended and will ease the burden a little. Bit concerned Green doesnt have a new contract though.......... if we lose him on a free... ffs this club. Albrighton all over again. 

 

Mile Jedinak Defensive Midfield	Aug 3, 1984 (33)		30.06.2019	-	2,50 Mill. €
Tommy Elphick Centre-Back	Sep 7, 1987 (30)		30.06.2019	-	2,50 Mill. €
Alan Hutton Right-Back	Nov 30, 1984 (33)		30.06.2019	-	1,50 Mill. €
Glenn Whelan Defensive Midfield	Jan 13, 1984 (34)		30.06.2019	-	1,50 Mill. €
Micah Richards Centre-Back	Jun 24, 1988 (30)		30.06.2019	-	1,50 Mill. €
Ritchie De Laet Right-Back	Nov 28, 1988 (29)		30.06.2019	-	1,30 Mill. €
André Green Left Winger	Jul 26, 1998 (19)		30.06.2019	-	1,00 Mill. €
Jed Steer Goalkeeper	Sep 23, 1992 (25)		30.06.2019	-	500 Th. €
Jordan Lyden Defensive Midfield	Jan 30, 1996 (22)		30.06.2019	-	500 T

[bannedfromHandV]

8 minutes ago, bobzy said:

What World do people live in?  No-one is interested in buying Richards, McCormack, Tshibola, De Laet etc. - and certainly not for the amount of money that we need to, apparently, raise.  It's only going to come from our better players and I'd guess that we're basically advertising this fact to get sales done early.  It's clearly a board directive.

No manager in the World wants to get rid of their best players and resign from their position.  Acting like a 2nd coming proclaiming he financially saved us  

But but but on Football Manager you just click a button and you get offers, you mean real life isn't like this?! 

[Villa_Vids]

2 minutes ago, bannedfromHandV said:

But but but on Football Manager you just click a button and you get offers, you mean real life isn't like this?! 

No, no , no...that was championship manager 01 - Football Manager has evolved a lot since then. Some of the foolery happening at our club will be implemented in the game soon.

[VILLAMARV]

15 minutes ago, KSV said:

Bit concerned Green doesnt have a new contract though.

So was I until it was pointed out they are wrong.

Contract till 2020 now

 

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

44 minutes ago, leighavfc said:

I think you missed my point completely.

Im not in the pro Bruce camp so dont quite understand your comments..

1. Who caused the "clusterf***k" solely Bruce? or a combination of him the board and players? Lets remember they are not completly blameless in all this. So disagree with that. In a way i feel sorry for him having to be the one breaking this news as Xia should have done this days earlier when he wrote us a letter.... i only feel bad for him for this reasons as clearly stated.

2. Yeah maybe we should have got a better manager... hindsight is great aint it ? At the time i would have said Bruce was one of the better candidates with his track record.. again hindsight has told us otherwise but its easy looking back isnt it?

3. How many managers spunk money... they all get some wrong.. even fergie.. disagree again..

4. Last point is absolute nonsense so i wont even bother trying to answer that..

Can take your fingers out your ears and put the reading glasses on now sarky....

 

Is it obvious I am a bit disgruntled by the whole situation? I've gone from being relatively neutral to being overwhelmingly heated by the delusion I see continued to be spouted by some. He is the luckiest man in the game!

Nah i'll keep my hands in my ears for now, anything to avoid hearing more about what a top man Bruce is for "sticking with us", how we "we were 90 minutes away from promotion" or "Who else could we get?", and so on.

He SHOULD be the one breaking the news, I don't feel sorry for him at all, away from the fact that he lost both his parents.

The "getting it wrong" re spunking money is a given, the getting it wrong isn't, and has never been my issue. It's the accompanying "I've not had millions to spend" and "FFP" in attempts to allude to "Look at what a great job i've done with mi hands tied behind mi back" which irks me, and his supporters gobble it up.

We've once again completely pissed away an opportunity to rebuild the club and take it back to where it should be, yet i'm supposed to be happy with the limited manager who compounded the situation in the first place (multitude of opinions on how already discussed to death).

Once again the ONLY hope I have, is that he will be forced to adopt a new approach due to default, which is literally the same way the teams he got to go on those little winning runs were constructed over the course of the season.

Having seen the approach of writing off McCormack before pre - season had even started, it appears obvious it is same old, and he would probably rather resign Samba as a striker than make any sort of attempt to re - integrate a striker with an outstanding record at this level, on a large salary, even given our situation. (For example)

Anyway will try to make this my last post regarding the manager for some time because i'm so mad with the whole situation I have already and will end up continuing to speak in parables and gibberish if I don't stop.

Edited July 11, 2018 by JAMAICAN-VILLAN

[daggy_333]

23 minutes ago, bannedfromHandV said:

But but but on Football Manager you just click a button and you get offers, you mean real life isn't like this?! 

Not being funny but even on FM18 when I try and offer our high earners out on free transfers nobody wants them

[Rob182]

There are some really snarky responses in here. Face facts lads, people have different opinions, and that's the beauty of a forum. If you have to revert to snarky, childish responses then maybe you should start to question your side of the argument, at least until you can provide an actual response worthy of posting, anyway.

 

@bannedfromHandV No-one had said that Spurs hadn't heard of Grealish until Bruce mentioned him.  Despite everyone knowing that our financial position isn't currently 'ideal', no-one knows the full extent of the issues, and therefore we could have held on for over £20m for Grealish. As it happens, Bruce has come out and said he has to be sold, so now Spurs (or whoever) will probably drop their offer to £10-£15m and wait until the last few days of the window. Had Bruce not said what he's said, we could try to keep the illusion alive that all is not lost, and push for a hard bargain. Do you think Levy, or a manager underneath him, would come out and name names of players that we have to sell? Would he heck.

Likewise @bannedfromHandV, obviously no-one thinks that a Football Manager click of a button is all it takes to sell players.

And @bobzy no-one is expecting us to get £40m+ for a few fringe players, but it's not unrealistic to aim to get £500k-£2m for each of Elmo, Taylor, Tish, De Laet, McCormack, Whelan or Gardner, if there were any takers. Or maybe a few extra million for Jedinak, Adomah, Lansbury, Hourihane or Hogan. Wages are an issue, but if we offer to top-up the additional wages for the new club, then we'll still be saving and making money. This could all be considered before we get to the prospect of selling Grealish, Kodjia, Chester & Green. Say we managed to scrape together £12m by selling Lansbury, Gardner, Taylor, McCormack (for a huge loss) Tish, De Laet and Elmo. Would you prefer to lose all of those and be able to keep Grealish, or would you prefer to lose Grealish for £15m and keep all the fringe players? I think this is the point that was being made, and I agree with it. Even if there's a 10% chance of other clubs wanting some of these players, with us paying a small portion of their new wages, it's still something worth considering before a manager simply tells the world "We have to sell Jack". (...and before someone posts the next childish remark, I'm not insinuating that we sell ALL of those aforementioned players. I'm saying that if we transfer list a number of them, or make enquiries to interested parties, then we could potentially sell 5,6,7 of them). If we truly believe that Jack's value is £30-40m then should we not try to get the club on an even keel, keep him here and sell him when we can actually command his true value?

[Zatman]

3 hours ago, tomav84 said:

and maybe publicly naming them could be an attempt to start a bidding war? do people really think he would have given such a candid interview without consulting the owners first? but of course, as others have said, people will find any old stick to beat him with

Ah yes the owners. I dont think the best people to be offering advice

[bannedfromHandV]

1 hour ago, Rob182 said:

There are some really snarky responses in here. Face facts lads, people have different opinions, and that's the beauty of a forum. If you have to revert to snarky, childish responses then maybe you should start to question your side of the argument, at least until you can provide an actual response worthy of posting, anyway.

 

@bannedfromHandV No-one had said that Spurs hadn't heard of Grealish until Bruce mentioned him.  Despite everyone knowing that our financial position isn't currently 'ideal', no-one knows the full extent of the issues, and therefore we could have held on for over £20m for Grealish. As it happens, Bruce has come out and said he has to be sold, so now Spurs (or whoever) will probably drop their offer to £10-£15m and wait until the last few days of the window. Had Bruce not said what he's said, we could try to keep the illusion alive that all is not lost, and push for a hard bargain. Do you think Levy, or a manager underneath him, would come out and name names of players that we have to sell? Would he heck.

Likewise @bannedfromHandV, obviously no-one thinks that a Football Manager click of a button is all it takes to sell players.

And @bobzy no-one is expecting us to get £40m+ for a few fringe players, but it's not unrealistic to aim to get £500k-£2m for each of Elmo, Taylor, Tish, De Laet, McCormack, Whelan or Gardner, if there were any takers. Or maybe a few extra million for Jedinak, Adomah, Lansbury, Hourihane or Hogan. Wages are an issue, but if we offer to top-up the additional wages for the new club, then we'll still be saving and making money. This could all be considered before we get to the prospect of selling Grealish, Kodjia, Chester & Green. Say we managed to scrape together £12m by selling Lansbury, Gardner, Taylor, McCormack (for a huge loss) Tish, De Laet and Elmo. Would you prefer to lose all of those and be able to keep Grealish, or would you prefer to lose Grealish for £15m and keep all the fringe players? I think this is the point that was being made, and I agree with it. Even if there's a 10% chance of other clubs wanting some of these players, with us paying a small portion of their new wages, it's still something worth considering before a manager simply tells the world "We have to sell Jack". (...and before someone posts the next childish remark, I'm not insinuating that we sell ALL of those aforementioned players. I'm saying that if we transfer list a number of them, or make enquiries to interested parties, then we could potentially sell 5,6,7 of them). If we truly believe that Jack's value is £30-40m then should we not try to get the club on an even keel, keep him here and sell him when we can actually command his true value?

Rob come off it, if a bunch of random people on a forum can see we have problems do you not think someone like Levy might also have an inkling? Bruce said nothing that people on here havent been saying for the past month+ along with each and every media outlet. The notion that he has let the cat out of the bag is dumb, sorry if that offends your senses. 

People asking why we aren't selling Richards, Elphick, Mccormack etc as an alternative to Grealish, again, if it offends senses then sorry but that is also pretty dumb. a) no one wants them b) even if we could sell them they'll come nowhere close to the fee we should get for Jack. 

Like you say, its opinions, fine, I accept that but those opinions often turn into nothing more than another dig at the Manager, as though he is to blame for us being stuck with any of those players which I cannot abide because it simply is not true.

SB has faults, as do we all, but to keep trying to apportion blame on him for every single thing that goes wrong, well its just vindictive. 

[leighavfc]

3 hours ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Is it obvious I am a bit disgruntled by the whole situation? I've gone from being relatively neutral to being overwhelmingly heated by the delusion I see continued to be spouted by some. He is the luckiest man in the game! Me also, as im sure we all are. I never thought after the season Lerner left that i would ever see those levels of anger and discontent from the fans for a while.. hey ho we are here again 2 years later. i agree Bruce is lucky that Xia never chopped him this summer after failing his remit. Xia's attention has been on other matters obviously and rightly so at this moment in time.

Nah i'll keep my hands in my ears for now, anything to avoid hearing more about what a top man Bruce is for "sticking with us", how we "we were 90 minutes away from promotion" or "Who else could we get?", and so on. I get that to an extent but those are people's opinions. I never said he was a top man or anything of the sort, i said that fair play to him for sticking with us through the about to land s**t storm nothing more nothing less. He could of walked quite easily, but he hasn't. Yes he will be paid handsomely for it but so do many others that have "failed".Changing our manager at this moment in time imo is the LAST thing we should be worrying about. 

He SHOULD be the one breaking the news, I don't feel sorry for him at all, away from the fact that he lost both his parents.

The "getting it wrong" re spunking money is a given, the getting it wrong isn't, and has never been my issue. It's the accompanying "I've not had millions to spend" and "FFP" in attempts to allude to "Look at what a great job i've done with mi hands tied behind mi back" which irks me, and his supporters gobble it up. Again i agree, he most definitely has had money to spend in Jan 17, Summer 17, and again with the loans in Jan.

We've once again completely pissed away an opportunity to rebuild the club and take it back to where it should be, yet i'm supposed to be happy with the limited manager who compounded the situation in the first place (multitude of opinions on how already discussed to death). Again agreed, we have messed up again big time. I wouldnt put ALL of that down to Bruce though, the players and board must share some responsibility. I'm not happy at all but at the same time given the situation were in im not sure what else is out there for us and who would want to take on the job given the situation we are in.

Once again the ONLY hope I have, is that he will be forced to adopt a new approach due to default, which is literally the same way the teams he got to go on those little winning runs were constructed over the course of the season. Hmmm im don't totally agree here but can see where your coming from. 

Having seen the approach of writing off McCormack before pre - season had even started, it appears obvious it is same old, and he would probably rather resign Samba as a striker than make any sort of attempt to re - integrate a striker with an outstanding record at this level, on a large salary, even given our situation. (For example) If he aint doing it, then i trust Bruce to make that decision to leave him out. He gave him a chance last summer and Bruce didnt fancy him. There are rumors of him being a bad trainer and not proffesional. I have also heard he is out on the piss a lot, whether this is true or not i have no idea. If it is though then that's his fault for not doing his bit. There is no proof he will do well for Villa next season, just stats that he HAS done well in the past. As far as im concerned in a Villa shirt he has done nothing of note. Why should he have 3 chances ? The wages thing does make this difficult as we may have to play him due to fire sale coming up. I remember a lot of people were happy with Bruce for dealing with him the way he did to be honest. 

Anyway will try to make this my last post regarding the manager for some time because i'm so mad with the whole situation I have already and will end up continuing to speak in parables and gibberish if I don't stop.

We dont differ in opinion too much really, i just dont blame Bruce for all of it. There is so many other factors in this situation, and there seems to be a lot of talk of Bruce basically destroying the club single handedly which again is absolute rubbish if anybody knows anything about company structures etc. Like i said rightly or wrongly he has stuck with us and we are stuck with him whichever way you want to look at it , and at this moment in time financials, the board structure and the state of the playing squad are well before Bruce imo. Thankfully we dont need Xia to make another decision this summer as im not sure he would even get that right, his track record in all things football club related hasn't been great so far has it !

[TheStagMan]

11 hours ago, briny_ear said:

If England don’t win the World Cup I will tear off my Gareth Southgate waistcoat, jump and down on in it in rage and call loudly for his dismissal.

Stop being hysterical

[briny_ear]

10 minutes ago, TheStagMan said:

Stop being hysterical

Too late! The waistcoat is already in the bin. 

[sidcow]

Booo. England have lost.  BRUCE OUT. 

[HanoiVillan]

8 hours ago, Rob182 said:

Had Bruce not said what he's said, we could try to keep the illusion alive that all is not lost, and push for a hard bargain.

No, we couldn't. The only possible way you could believe this to be true is if you think Daniel Levy and Mauricio Pochettino make up their transfer strategy based on Sky Sports interviews. 

Everybody knows we're a basket case. The only trade-off that matters for Spurs is a] pay a bit more now and Grealish has time to train with the team and get a bit of pre-season in with them, or b] wait and drag the price down, but then he does his pre-season with us. That's for them to decide, but you can be 100% certain that that decision won't be based on a Sky Sports interview.