Steve Bruce

[Keyblade]

21 minutes ago, Rob182 said:

Ah, the old “we’ve had to beg, steal and borrow” line that he likes to throw about! Which is never true.
 

Just 2 examples, but at Newcastle he came in 4 days before £40m was spent on Joelinton, a few weeks before ASM was signed, and was able to spend £50m+ on Wilson, Lewis and Willock.

At Villa he probably took us up to the highest wage bill in the league, as he tended to spend money on wages and loan fees (£4m on Terry’s wages, was it?) instead of larger transfer sums. Again, he used to always say he had no money, but he did manage to sign a shit load of players and give them all lovely bumper contracts (and… different topic.. often had no clue how to use said players!)

To this point, he once signed Terry, Elmo, Snodgrass, Whelan, Onomah and Axel in the same window for a combined £3m.

[VillaChris]

8 hours ago, Sulberto21 said:

The problem with Steve Bruce the manager was the fact for a defensive oriented manager his team's didn't defend that well. Not tracked runners. Meek in the tackle, passing players onto space not realising that there's No1 there.

He never really adapted as a manager either, never moved forward with the times. The fitness of our players when he was here was poor.

Ironically some of our best performances under him were when the players seemed to ignore his tactics and play football. We outplayed Wolves who were the best team in the division.

That's what his tactics should have been. Go and attack. He would have gotten more plaudits for that.

I don't mind defensive football. But if then you can't defend you're hamstrung by the very nature of your tactics.

Signing Hogan aswell sums it up for me.

Perhaps guy didn't do himself justice here but really it always looked like to me we just looked at who was top of championship scoring charts that Jan and decided to sign him without any thought as to how he would fit in.

He went from slick throughballs played through to him by Brentford midfielders to having the ball just lumped to him here especially as G***lish had yet to establish himself in the 11 so to me that's indictment of his management.

It's interesting looking at his overall record with strikers at other clubs. Don't even mention Joelinthon but look at the huge amounts he's signed, either obvious ones or just randoms so he hasn't had success in other areas like he did at Hull with likes of Robertson and Maguire and even here McGinn was a really good pick up.

Probably last good strikerforce he had was at Sunderland with Bent, Asamoah Gyan and Welbeck and that didn't last long for a few reasons and eventually cost him his job. He replaced them with Connor Wickham and that Korean striker who scored once v Man. City.

[Zatman]

1 minute ago, VillaChris said:

Signing Hogan aswell sums it up for me.

Perhaps guy didn't do himself justice here but really it always looked like to me we just looked at who was top of championship scoring charts that Jan and decided to sign him without any thought as to how he would fit in.

He went from slick throughballs played through to him by Brentford midfielders to having the ball just lumped to him here especially as G***lish had yet to establish himself in the 11 so to me that's indictment of his management.

It's interesting looking at his overall record with strikers at other clubs. Don't even mention Joelinthon but look at the huge amounts he's signed, either obvious ones or just randoms so he hasn't had success in other areas like he did at Hull with likes of Robertson and Maguire and even here McGinn was a really good pick up.

Probably last good strikerforce he had was at Sunderland with Bent, Asamoah Gyan and Welbeck and that didn't last long for a few reasons and eventually cost him his job. He replaced them with Connor Wickham and that Korean striker who scored once v Man. City.

Rowan Vine on Under the Cosh said hat Bruce signed him mid season as he was near the top of the scoring chart. In his press conference he knew Bruce had never seen him actually play

[VillaChris]

2 minutes ago, Keyblade said:

To this point, he once signed Terry, Elmo, Snodgrass, Whelan, Onomah and Axel in the same window for a combined £3m.

Pretty sure he had that waif and strays line just after we signed Tammy on loan! Tammy wasn't as proven as he is now but had still scored 20 odd for Bristol City in 16/17 in championship.

As said hardly anyone at this level could've afforded John Terry and Snodgrass was a really good pick up at the time. Compare that season to Warnock getting Cardiff up with likes of Sol Bamba, Holiet and Mendez-Laing as starters, that's a manager getting most out of waifs and strays.

[Zatman]

Just now, VillaChris said:

Pretty sure he had that waif and strays line just after we signed Tammy on loan! Tammy wasn't as proven as he is now but had still scored 20 odd for Bristol City in 16/17 in championship.

As said hardly anyone at this level could've afforded John Terry and Snodgrass was a really good pick up at the time. Compare that season to Warnock getting Cardiff up with likes of Sol Bamba, Holiet and Mendez-Laing as starters, that's a manager getting most out of waifs and strays.

80k a week Bolasie when he said that

[VillaChris]

Just now, Zatman said:

80k a week Bolasie when he said that

One of those I ever forgot played for us. When excited when we got him in but barely did anything and just didn't look like he wanted to be here. Think I read he's still on Everton books.

[Keyblade]

4 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

Pretty sure he had that waif and strays line just after we signed Tammy on loan! Tammy wasn't as proven as he is now but had still scored 20 odd for Bristol City in 16/17 in championship.

As said hardly anyone at this level could've afforded John Terry and Snodgrass was a really good pick up at the time. Compare that season to Warnock getting Cardiff up with likes of Sol Bamba, Holiet and Mendez-Laing as starters, that's a manager getting most out of waifs and strays.

Its funny because those signings would have transformed even relegation candidates to promotion hopefuls. He even signed Lewis Grabban who had 15 goals by January for the worst team in the league in January. Yet he only spent 3m. There must be a reason why Wigan weren't making similar signings for that money. I wonder what it is.

[Rob182]

1 hour ago, Keyblade said:

To this point, he once signed Terry, Elmo, Snodgrass, Whelan, Onomah and Axel in the same window for a combined £3m.

I wonder what their combined weekly wages were… £160k maybe. It adds up over time! Not that Inept Cabbage Head would admit it.

Signing Hogan, then having absolutely no idea how to get the best out of him, was one of his worst moves at Villa. He’s so clueless. At least with Wilson at NUFC he knew how to use him. But Hogan just went from hot property to one of Bruce’s slum properties.

[Zatman]

4 minutes ago, Rob182 said:

I wonder what their combined weekly wages were… £160k maybe. It adds up over time! Not that Inept Cabbage Head would admit it.

 

probably a lot more, closer to 250-300k . Snodgrass just signed for West Ham for a big enough transfer fee plus the rest all came from the Premier League. Dont forget Grabban and Chris Samba

[Rob182]

Just now, Zatman said:

probably a lot more, closer to 250-300k . Snodgrass just signed for West Ham for a big enough transfer fee plus the rest all came from the Premier League. Dont forget Grabban and Chris Samba

Yeah, I was just talking those 6 mentioned (and being conservative with my estimates!)

[villa89]

1 hour ago, Zatman said:

Rowan Vine on Under the Cosh said hat Bruce signed him mid season as he was near the top of the scoring chart. In his press conference he knew Bruce had never seen him actually play

That is what sums up bruce the most. Zero effort put in, zero brain power, zero tactical ability, zero knowledge of how to judge player. A con artist of the highest order. 

[rodders0223]

£2m loan fee for Snoddy and 65k a week salary 

[tonyh29]

[Keyblade]

1 hour ago, VillaChris said:

Signing Hogan aswell sums it up for me.

Perhaps guy didn't do himself justice here but really it always looked like to me we just looked at who was top of championship scoring charts that Jan and decided to sign him without any thought as to how he would fit in.

He went from slick throughballs played through to him by Brentford midfielders to having the ball just lumped to him here especially as G***lish had yet to establish himself in the 11 so to me that's indictment of his management.

It's interesting looking at his overall record with strikers at other clubs. Don't even mention Joelinthon but look at the huge amounts he's signed, either obvious ones or just randoms so he hasn't had success in other areas like he did at Hull with likes of Robertson and Maguire and even here McGinn was a really good pick up.

Probably last good strikerforce he had was at Sunderland with Bent, Asamoah Gyan and Welbeck and that didn't last long for a few reasons and eventually cost him his job. He replaced them with Connor Wickham and that Korean striker who scored once v Man. City.

That January was funny, he just basically signed up the hottest Championship players: Hourihane who was the best midfielder of the last 18 months, Lansbury who was up there for a couple of years and whose contract was running out, and some guy who scored a lot of goals for Brentford for some weird reason. Convinced he never saw anybody but Lansbury in any meaningful capacity. Which is funny because he had no clue how to play Lansbury. He turned him from a dynamic box to box player who scored goals to some weird knock off lower league Pirlo.

[rodders0223]

2 minutes ago, Keyblade said:

That January was funny, he just basically signed up the hottest Championship players: Hourihane who was the best midfielder of the last 18 months, Lansbury who was up there for a couple of years and whose contract was running out, and some guy who scored a lot of goals for Brentford for some weird reason. Convinced he never saw anybody but Lansbury in any meaningful capacity. Which is funny because he had no clue how to play Lansbury. He turned him from a dynamic box to box player who scored goals to some weird knock off lower league Pirlo.

And played Hourihane as a winger. 

[Mark Albrighton]

On the handling of criticism, for me he gets caught between adopting a water off a duck’s back approach and trying to bite back and I don’t think either is his strong suit.

He claims to be thick skinned and he doesn’t pay attention to all that nonsense and that he’s above it. Ok great, ignore it. If you’re asked about it, just say it’s part and parcel of the game, the best way to answer critics is by winning matches. Done. But he clearly doesn’t ignore it and seems quite comfortable playing the hard luck card whenever possible (see how he refers to his time at Villa when the players were paying for their lunch as if that was the case for the entire duration he was here).

Equally if he wants to engage with the criticism and fight back, again great. But while you can get all high and mighty about a win against Rotherham, if you lose the next match against Sheffield Wednesday three days later you are going to get stick and to an extent you are going to have to take it. That’s the nature of the beast for every single manager in the game. Bruce is not special in that regard. 

The likes of Hughes, Allardyce, Pulis and Pardew all had shit thrown at them and I can’t recall them getting anywhere near as prissy about receiving criticism despite Bruce supposedly having skin as thick as a rhino. I don’t know any manager where this subject is brought up more.

He has this curious mix of arrogance (“who are they going to get that’s better?”) while equally being quite humdrum, downplaying expectations at every opportunity. It surprises me that someone with such a seemingly Droopy Dog persona was captain of one of the most successful sides in recent years.

[villa4europe]

He's smashed the victim card out the park 

[VillaChris]

Odd as he must've got loads of stick at Man. United from others as you're going to get playing for such a high profile club known around the world. Guess he just had Ferguson in his ear telling him how great he was every day so just didn't listen to it, bit different as manager.

Odd considering how much he won as a player he's adopted underdog mentality as manager, as said above you'd expect it from a Pulis or Warnock type who never had much of a career as a player.

[Keyblade]

29 minutes ago, Mark Albrighton said:

On the handling of criticism, for me he gets caught between adopting a water off a duck’s back approach and trying to bite back and I don’t think either is his strong suit.

He claims to be thick skinned and he doesn’t pay attention to all that nonsense and that he’s above it. Ok great, ignore it. If you’re asked about it, just say it’s part and parcel of the game, the best way to answer critics is by winning matches. Done. But he clearly doesn’t ignore it and seems quite comfortable playing the hard luck card whenever possible (see how he refers to his time at Villa when the players were paying for their lunch as if that was the case for the entire duration he was here).

Equally if he wants to engage with the criticism and fight back, again great. But while you can get all high and mighty about a win against Rotherham, if you lose the next match against Sheffield Wednesday three days later you are going to get stick and to an extent you are going to have to take it. That’s the nature of the beast for every single manager in the game. Bruce is not special in that regard. 

The likes of Hughes, Allardyce, Pulis and Pardew all had shit thrown at them and I can’t recall them getting anywhere near as prissy about receiving criticism despite Bruce supposedly having skin as thick as a rhino. I don’t know any manager where this subject is brought up more.

He has this curious mix of arrogance (“who are they going to get that’s better?”) while equally being quite humdrum, downplaying expectations at every opportunity. It surprises me that someone with such a seemingly Droopy Dog persona was captain of one of the most successful sides in recent years.

Ole has been catching it in the neck in the past week. It's part of the job as a manager. The problem with Bruce is that he makes it out like he's being uniquely singled out, unfairly. It's even worse because a.) He claims he's thick skinned and b.) He doesn't even know how to access the internet so there is even more effort on his (or his son's) part to even seek out  the criticism. Basically, he loves playing the victim.

[S-Platt]

51 minutes ago, tonyh29 said:

That photo shocked me for a minute thought he had a huge tarantula on his shoulder!