Steve Bruce

[Dave J]

24 minutes ago, rodders0223 said:

We have given out some ridiculous contracts in our time, we still continue to do so...but the Bruce one was not one of them. In an ideal world we would have managers beating down their doors to come here but the simple fact is we were losing games, we have been losing games for 5 years, we were in dire need of an "old head"

But surely we needed one - who knew what they were doing? I see his tenure as nothing but a waste of time   If I am honest 

[lapal_fan]

1 minute ago, Dave J said:

But surely we needed one - who knew what they were doing? I see his tenure as nothing but a waste of time   If I am honest 

Oh christ, just stop it.  It's embarrassing.

We win the play off final and is it still a waste of time? No. 

Absolutely ridiculous thing to say. 

You could say you didn't enjoy the style, you could argue we should have gone up automatically given the budgets compared to Cardiff etc, fair enough - but to say he didn't know what he was doing?  when he was 1 game away from reaching the Prem? Stop it.  I don't believe anyone could believe such genuine tosh. 

[Dave J]

6 minutes ago, lapal_fan said:

Oh christ, just stop it.  It's embarrassing.

We win the play off final and is it still a waste of time? No. 

Absolutely ridiculous thing to say. 

You could say you didn't enjoy the style, you could argue we should have gone up automatically given the budgets compared to Cardiff etc, fair enough - but to say he didn't know what he was doing?  when he was 1 game away from reaching the Prem? Stop it.  I don't believe anyone could believe such genuine tosh. 

In case you don't realise WE didn't win any play off and landed up almost in administration as a result.

He had two years to deliver his objectives and failed and at the time he departed we were almost as far away as the point he joined us.

If you see this as progress then good for you and I'm happy for you.

personally it's not what I was hoping for from his tenure 

[Stevo985]

1 hour ago, lapal_fan said:

We even got off quite lightly because he was on a rolling 12 month deal - it's not even like he was tied into a 3/4 year deal worth 20m a year like Arsene was or Mourinho is. 

So his pay off, while still a lot of money to mere mortals like us, is still peanuts compared to his peers.  We deal with bigger numbers than clubs like Brentford too, before someone says Dave Manager got sacked from Gillingham and only got £30 and a packet of Wine gums!!!      

Exactly. His payoff was probably relatively low compared to other managers, or compared to previous payoffs we've had to give. I bet RDM's payoff dwarfed Bruce's

[Stevo985]

16 minutes ago, lapal_fan said:

Oh christ, just stop it.  It's embarrassing.

We win the play off final and is it still a waste of time? No. 

Absolutely ridiculous thing to say. 

You could say you didn't enjoy the style, you could argue we should have gone up automatically given the budgets compared to Cardiff etc, fair enough - but to say he didn't know what he was doing?  when he was 1 game away from reaching the Prem? Stop it.  I don't believe anyone could believe such genuine tosh. 

Save your breath, Laps

[lapal_fan]

1 minute ago, Dave J said:

In case you don't realise WE didn't win any play off and landed up almost in administration as a result.

He had two years to deliver his objectives and failed and at the time he departed we were almost as far away as the point he joined us.

If you see this as progress then good for you and I'm happy for you.

personally it's not what I was hoping for from his tenure 

He was in the job for 20 months, but 2 years sounds more doesn't it.  Especially considering off season etc. 

This season, he did bad - in fact I think he lost the plot in the summer, resulting in us having barely any defenders and loads of right backs.  I'll give you that - but it doesn't discount last season where we were one game away from being "successful". 

So the 3rd sentence is more rubbish, because obviously this season there was no progress.  No one said it was - so that's you making things up. 

What you obviously wanted/hoped for was promotion.  That didn't happen, but I'd argue that we really were not that far from achieving it.  Your argument seems to be that because we didn't manage it, that means the whole year was a waste of time.  To that, I'd say that you can't just "skip time" and see what the results are at the end - you have to go through them and live them.  There were 24 teams in the Championship last year, I dare say quite a few of them were trying not to let us do what we wanted, like win the game we played against them.. 

Football isn't that easy, there are a million things that can happen, minute to minute, hour to hour, month to month - I think to call Steve Bruce's tenure as a complete waste of time is a bit silly, because even though we didn't get promoted, we still had a largely successful season, with lots of positives (like winning, which is something we were not used to the previous 6 years).  To me, Bruces' biggest problem was that he majorly messed up in the summer.  We lost a lot of key players like Snodgrass and Terry, and we simply didn't replace them.  

I don't agree with totalitarianism that is what your post signals too.  Did you hate beating wolves 4-1?  Did you hate Grealish's volley against Cardiff?  I don't think you did. 

[Dave J]

1 hour ago, lapal_fan said:

He was in the job for 20 months, but 2 years sounds more doesn't it.  Especially considering off season etc. 

This season, he did bad - in fact I think he lost the plot in the summer, resulting in us having barely any defenders and loads of right backs.  I'll give you that - but it doesn't discount last season where we were one game away from being "successful". 

So the 3rd sentence is more rubbish, because obviously this season there was no progress.  No one said it was - so that's you making things up. 

What you obviously wanted/hoped for was promotion.  That didn't happen, but I'd argue that we really were not that far from achieving it.  Your argument seems to be that because we didn't manage it, that means the whole year was a waste of time.  To that, I'd say that you can't just "skip time" and see what the results are at the end - you have to go through them and live them.  There were 24 teams in the Championship last year, I dare say quite a few of them were trying not to let us do what we wanted, like win the game we played against them.. 

Football isn't that easy, there are a million things that can happen, minute to minute, hour to hour, month to month - I think to call Steve Bruce's tenure as a complete waste of time is a bit silly, because even though we didn't get promoted, we still had a largely successful season, with lots of positives (like winning, which is something we were not used to the previous 6 years).  To me, Bruces' biggest problem was that he majorly messed up in the summer.  We lost a lot of key players like Snodgrass and Terry, and we simply didn't replace them.  

I don't agree with totalitarianism that is what your post signals too.  Did you hate beating wolves 4-1?  Did you hate Grealish's volley against Cardiff?  I don't think you did. 

You can dress it up however you choose Lapal - that's your choice and it's a forum at the end of the day.

However he failed and left us in a marginally better state than when he arrived - whilst being on a backwards trajectory.

make of this what you will.

[Dave J]

@Stevo985 you ignored me weeks ago  ? Why do you then feel the need to put an icon or quote against me so often ? If you are so interested in what I have to say just un ignore me - otherwise leave me alone and move on - surely that's better for you is it not?

[TRO]

1 hour ago, lapal_fan said:

He was in the job for 20 months, but 2 years sounds more doesn't it.  Especially considering off season etc. 

This season, he did bad - in fact I think he lost the plot in the summer, resulting in us having barely any defenders and loads of right backs.  I'll give you that - but it doesn't discount last season where we were one game away from being "successful". 

So the 3rd sentence is more rubbish, because obviously this season there was no progress.  No one said it was - so that's you making things up. 

What you obviously wanted/hoped for was promotion.  That didn't happen, but I'd argue that we really were not that far from achieving it.  Your argument seems to be that because we didn't manage it, that means the whole year was a waste of time.  To that, I'd say that you can't just "skip time" and see what the results are at the end - you have to go through them and live them.  There were 24 teams in the Championship last year, I dare say quite a few of them were trying not to let us do what we wanted, like win the game we played against them.. 

Football isn't that easy, there are a million things that can happen, minute to minute, hour to hour, month to month - I think to call Steve Bruce's tenure as a complete waste of time is a bit silly, because even though we didn't get promoted, we still had a largely successful season, with lots of positives (like winning, which is something we were not used to the previous 6 years).  To me, Bruces' biggest problem was that he majorly messed up in the summer.  We lost a lot of key players like Snodgrass and Terry, and we simply didn't replace them.  

I don't agree with totalitarianism that is what your post signals too.  Did you hate beating wolves 4-1?  Did you hate Grealish's volley against Cardiff?  I don't think you did. 

We clearly failed in our ultimate objective.

and the right decision to let him go when we did was correct IMV and its more exciting to see what Deano can do.

but to call SB's time with 24 wins in a season as a waste of time is beyond me, that has to strengthen the club as a whole in terns of confidence....but hey ho....all opinions count.

Edited November 22, 2018 by TRO

[Stevo985]

43 minutes ago, TRO said:

We clearly failed in our ultimate objective.

and the right decision to let him go when we did was correct IMV and its more exciting to see what Deano can do.

but to call SB's time with 24 wins in a season as a waste of time is beyond me, that has to strengthen the club as a whole in terns of confidence....but hey ho....all opinions count.

Said it before, but last season was one of the most enjoyable seasons I've had following Villa.

I went to the vast majority of home games expecting us to win, and most of the time we did. We scored loads of goals on the way, saw some memorable games and got a day out at wembley, ultimately spoiled by a shite game of football!

 

Yes, ultimately we failed in our goal. And that is Bruce's fault. But it was fun.
I think it's a genuine shame that some people missed out because of their dislike of the manager or inability to enjoy our football because ultimately we didn't go up.

[Dave J]

@Stevo985 I'm glad that you enjoyed last season.

i didn't I wanted Aston Villa to go up and I certainly didn't enjoy the play off final.

feel free to bang on all you like about your enjoyment - for me the overriding sense of failure is what I take from the season - and please drop the term dislike - this is a game of football - I'm sure I and others who comment on Bruce have no dislike of him as a person and comment only on his managerial ability which do not impress one jot - you have acknowledged promotion was the objective and therefore you cannot escape the fact it was a wasted season - irrespective of whether you enjoyed it or not 

Edited November 22, 2018 by Dave J

[Dave J]

1 hour ago, TRO said:

We clearly failed in our ultimate objective.

and the right decision to let him go when we did was correct IMV and its more exciting to see what Deano can do.

but to call SB's time with 24 wins in a season as a waste of time is beyond me, that has to strengthen the club as a whole in terns of confidence....but hey ho....all opinions count.

TRO - it depends entirely on your expectations and mine was promotion - surely this was yours as well ? How else can the season be qualified - regardless of enjoyment - which I guess given the previous season fayre is why some may say this ?  But I don't see this tbh with you 

[Tomaszk]

10 hours ago, lapal_fan said:

...

We still had a largely successful season, with lots of positives (like winning, which is something we were not used to the previous 6 years).  

That's what gets him off the hook. All the dross before him. He was horrible, but not as bad as Sherwood who isn't an actual manager.

We were such an easy job. And he came in and played with no plan with the best squad in the league. Of course we picked up wins. We had Jack Grealish, a £35m strike force and John **** Terry at the back.

A waste of two years.

[sne]

10 hours ago, lapal_fan said:

He was in the job for 20 months, but 2 years sounds more doesn't it.  Especially considering off season etc. 

 

He was signed October 12, 2016.

and sacked October 3, 2018.

That's as close to 2 years, or 24 months as you'll come.

Not that it matters, but anyway.

[TrentVilla]

8 hours ago, Stevo985 said:

Said it before, but last season was one of the most enjoyable seasons I've had following Villa.

I went to the vast majority of home games expecting us to win, and most of the time we did. We scored loads of goals on the way, saw some memorable games and got a day out at wembley, ultimately spoiled by a shite game of football!

 

Yes, ultimately we failed in our goal. And that is Bruce's fault. But it was fun.
I think it's a genuine shame that some people missed out because of their dislike of the manager or inability to enjoy our football because ultimately we didn't go up.

I get where you are coming from.

However I didn’t enjoy it because I knew we would fall short of our objective and that ultimately the season would a failure. I also had a fairly good idea of the cost of that failure.

I didn’t particularly think it was fun even if winning games is in itself enjoyable.

[TRO]

I see things slightly different to what I did last season, having had the benefit of watching the games this season under SB.

i know he had a difficult time with his family and our owner, but for me, more things came to light...i now believe all was not as it should have been at BMH, maybe it has taken me longer than some to come to this conclusion.....but I have finally arrived at it. 

Edited November 23, 2018 by TRO

[TRO]

7 hours ago, Dave J said:

TRO - it depends entirely on your expectations and mine was promotion - surely this was yours as well ? How else can the season be qualified - regardless of enjoyment - which I guess given the previous season fayre is why some may say this ?  But I don't see this tbh with you 

I don't expect anything.....I hope for things.

There are so many factors to get right.

[MrDuck]

Bruce stopped the rot initially, I don't think anyone can sensibly argue with that.

Unfortunately he then failed to kick on, and ultimately left us in the shit. So I'm fairly ambivalent about his tenure.

[Dave J]

4 hours ago, TRO said:

I don't expect anything.....I hope for things.

There are so many factors to get right.

You really didn't expect promotion last season ? Gosh TRO - I honestly did.

[Stevo985]

8 hours ago, TrentVilla said:

I get where you are coming from.

However I didn’t enjoy it because I knew we would fall short of our objective and that ultimately the season would a failure. I also had a fairly good idea of the cost of that failure.

I didn’t particularly think it was fun even if winning games is in itself enjoyable.

I mean I get what you're saying but then you're saying you didn't enjoy it because you knew we would fall short of our objective?

Does that mean if we'd scraped a 1-0 win in the playoff final you WOULD have enjoyed it?

 

I know that achieving our goals is part of enjoying the game, but that seems very black and white to me.

 

Anyway each to their own. I have no problem with people saying they didn't enjoy it. Everyone is different. I just get the feeling there are a lot of posters who had such a dislike of th manager and his football that even when we won games last season they couldn't enjoy it because they begrudged him any success.