Jump to content

Steve Bruce


Demitri_C

Recommended Posts

2 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

All "waifs and strays" according to Bruce though.

Pretty amusing when you think at the same time Warnock at Cardiff was getting in freebies like Holliet and Mendez Laing who nobody at championship level wanted and yet in short period meshed them all together to get automatic promotion over us.

He should've been sacked for not even winning the playoffs after Cardiff got automatic promotion over us. Showed him up on how a defensive team can play if they're well-coached. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Zatman said:

2 Top 10 Premier League finishes in 13 seasons as a a manager. One at Sunderland when Bent was on fire. Other at blues he deserves some credit

No trophies, 1 FA Cup final loss from 2-0 up and a couple of play-off wins, i dont even think the promotion specialist has won the Championship

2 relegations though he left blues the season they went down and a week or 2 before the season started when Hull went down. Was arguably taking Sunderland down as well 

Overall he did a really good job at SHA way back.

First manager in 20 years or whatever it was to get them up after Trevor Francis repeatedly failed with big budget. We painfully know from the first few years what a nightmare they were to face in those times and they comfotably finished mid table in first 3 years (indeed the year we finished 6th under O'Leary they were right up there behind us or just above for most of the season).

It always seems to go wrong when he has a bit of money to spend. At SHA in summer 2004 he got in Heskey, Jesper Gronkjaer and Mario Melchiot among others. They were being tipped for europe by some of the press in those days but instead went down.

On the flip side he'd probably have the honour of being Hull's greatest ever manager (for what it's worth) given he got them promoted twice and to an FA cup final but again he spent decent amount signing likes of Jelavic, Shane Long, Tom Ince, Tom Huddlestone and Michael Dawson amongst others (think Snodgrass also came in but did his ACL on first day of the season) and they went down on last day of 14/15 just off us by a few points.

It's worth remembering he's only been appointed by one prem club since he left Sunderland in 2011 so nearly a decade. Wolves were going to appoint him but u turned at last minute later that season. Only got the job at Newcastle because of where they are now under Ashley and they played on him being a fan of them a fair bit.

So it's different to likes of Pulis and Big Sam who played negative football but at least push the clubs on a bit when they spent a big of money, Pulis improved Stoke from just staying up given they played in europe before things just ran out of steam there.

SB is complete opposite of what he was as a player, very much an underdog manager with limited grasp of tactics.

Edited by VillaChris
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, The Fun Factory said:

Do you have any evidence for that? Grealish progression as a footballer under Bruce's time with us suggests not. He made it clear to Jack what was needed to make it as  top level athlete. Yes Bruce is a big fella now but he was a professional footballer for about 20 years.

My only other major gripe with Bruce is with Chester in that he certainly worsened his condition by playing while injured as for some reason he didn't fancy Elphick (even though he couldn't bring himself to sell him). That was bad.

I'd guess it was similar to MON, loads of days off and just running around the pitch and small sided games to keep everyone happy which is what RDL alludes to.

Certainly when you watched us play there wasn't much joined up thinking between defence-midfield-attack, just getting the ball up quickly to Kodjia or Adomah for most of his first year. And the thing that always annoys me is we picked exactly the same team and style to play Fulham in the final as we did Boro in the SF which was never going to end well given their two contrasting styles and Fulham just passed it around us for fun first half which is where we lose the game and were incredibly lucky that didn't mess up our next five years aswell.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, VillaChris said:

All "waifs and strays" according to Bruce though.

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/steve-bruce-aston-villa-rotherham-15160094

Steve Bruce's own words in September 2018 so he was of the opinion we did well to stay up in 16/17 which I think was understandably disputed on here the other day considering the squad cost.

Pretty amusing when you think at the same time Warnock at Cardiff was getting in freebies like Holliet and Mendez Laing who nobody at championship level wanted and yet in short period meshed them all together to get automatic promotion over us.

I have not seen that article or those comments before. That's revisionism at its absolute bullshit best. If that was his attitude to what he was given to work with then he had absolutely no right to be given the privilege of managing this club. Furthermore, with that mindset, he has no business being a football manager. Dean Smith came in, took those loans, waifs and strays and won the playoff final with them. 

The fact that we lucked out with where Steve's disastrous management on the pitch (and Xia's catastrophic management off it) took us should in no way detract from what an appalling manager he was for us.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Keyblade said:

He should've been sacked for not even winning the playoffs after Cardiff got automatic promotion over us. Showed him up on how a defensive team can play if they're well-coached. 

I agree. I said at the time Bruce would be judged on that season and ultimately he failed by losing to Fulham. He should have gone then, however, the club was imploding off the pitch at the time, with missed HMRC payments etc. That saved him I think.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, Xela said:

I agree. I said at the time Bruce would be judged on that season and ultimately he failed by losing to Fulham. He should have gone then, however, the club was imploding off the pitch at the time, with missed HMRC payments etc. That saved him I think.

Yes, the financial situation is what saved him that summer. The club was nearly wound up, there was no ability to do a manager hunt. I don't actually think the club would have had enough money to pay him off under xia. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, VillaChris said:

All "waifs and strays" according to Bruce though.

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/steve-bruce-aston-villa-rotherham-15160094

Steve Bruce's own words in September 2018 so he was of the opinion we did well to stay up in 16/17 which I think was understandably disputed on here the other day considering the squad cost.

Pretty amusing when you think at the same time Warnock at Cardiff was getting in freebies like Holliet and Mendez Laing who nobody at championship level wanted and yet in short period meshed them all together to get automatic promotion over us.

1st time saw that article, we were bottom of the league when he took over and amazingly brought in 25 million in his 1st summer in charge and spent 2. If Baker, Carlos Sanchez, Veretout and Bacuna came to 25 million then what a genius

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Would happily have him taking points off likes of Southampton, West Ham, Chelsea, Arsenal second half of the season.

Way Newcastle are they could do that and be still in serious danger of relegation as they're as likely to lose away to Fulham and Brighton.

Would suit us though.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...
Â