areNOTwhatTHEYseem Posted May 27, 2019 Share Posted May 27, 2019 Following Villa's promotion via the playoffs earlier today, I thought it might be worth considering how much influence our manager may have had in helping to shape their success. Of the 11 players who started today's final for Villa, Bruce signed seven, with another two of his signings making the bench... Jed Steer - Paul Lambert Tyrone Mings - Dean Smith Axel Tuanzebe - Steve Bruce Neil Taylor - Steve Bruce Ahmed Elmohamady - Steve Bruce John McGinn - Steve Bruce Conor Hourihane - Steve Bruce Jack Grealish - Villa Academy Anwar El Ghazi - Steve Bruce Albert Adomah - Roberto Di Matteo Tammy Abraham - Steve Bruce Lovre Kalinic - Dean Smith Kortney Hause - Dean Smith Glenn Whelan - Steve Bruce Mile Jedinak - Roberto Di Matteo Henri Lansbury - Steve Bruce Andre Green - Villa Academy Jonathan Kodjia - Roberto Di Matteo Of course, with his track record, it's hardly a revelation that Bruce knows what's needed to win promotion, but seeing a team of players who were mostly signed by him winning the playoffs certainly bodes well for our own chances of achieving success if we give him the time needed to shape the squad as he sees fit. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beholder Posted May 27, 2019 Share Posted May 27, 2019 Good to see- he defo has an eye for a player. Its what has been wrong with this club for a long time. The managers we have had have brought in too high a percentage of dross for us to be successful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suzuki_San Posted May 27, 2019 Share Posted May 27, 2019 It does bode well, sure. But playing devils advocate, why didn’t they perform for him, leading to him getting the sack? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
areNOTwhatTHEYseem Posted May 27, 2019 Author Share Posted May 27, 2019 (edited) 10 minutes ago, Suzuki_San said: It does bode well, sure. But playing devils advocate, why didn’t they perform for him, leading to him getting the sack? His players performed pretty well for him the year before, when they reached the playoff final. He was sacked after only eleven league games this season, which didn't really give him much time to turn things around...although that makes it sound like they'd been dire under him, which is untrue. They'd only lost two games and had four points less than at the same stage as the previous season, so who's to say it might not have turned out well under him, too? Edited May 27, 2019 by areNOTwhatTHEYseem Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Tom Posted May 27, 2019 Share Posted May 27, 2019 Villa boardroom are nutcases, especially that Xia character in 2018. Brucey had been stifling a 75-percenter for The Wednesday since the playoff final, was disappointed to be at poxy Villa and lost his mojo. It’s all worked out for him in the end. Here we go. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rogerwyldesmullet Posted May 27, 2019 Share Posted May 27, 2019 The hard thing for many of us is that he will have to break up the “nearly team” and sell some crowd favourites to do so. Busy summer ahead! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Tom Posted May 27, 2019 Share Posted May 27, 2019 Just now, Rogerwyldesmullet said: The hard thing for many of us is that he will have to break up the “nearly team” and sell some crowd favourites to do so. Busy summer ahead! Surprised myself at how unsentimental I feel about it. I’m normally the worst for that. But the ‘nearly team’ were very much a ‘nearly team’ at the time - that was the exact problem. They were hardly gonna get better with time. Great first season with CC out of the blue, but the dour follow-up campaign in which we bafflingly and miserably ground out a second stab at playoffs was hugely misleading and did us more harm than good. With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, only about four or five of the Wembley finalists should’ve returned the following year - hanging on to the vast majority another 2-3 years was a terrible call. Bring on the fire sale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doghouse Daz Posted May 27, 2019 Share Posted May 27, 2019 Remarkable amount of loan signings Villa have had. Anyone any figures ? Hopefully Bruce can pull off some early astute loan deals before pre season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WalthamOwl Posted May 27, 2019 Share Posted May 27, 2019 Nice to read that. Looking forward to seeing who he brings in this summer for us. I wonder if he will go in for any Villa players. Of the realistic signings I would take Jedinak or Lansbury. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prowl Posted May 27, 2019 Share Posted May 27, 2019 8 minutes ago, Mr. Tom said: Surprised myself at how unsentimental I feel about it. I’m normally the worst for that. But the ‘nearly team’ were very much a ‘nearly team’ at the time - that was the exact problem. They were hardly gonna get better with time. Great first season with CC out of the blue, but the dour follow-up campaign in which we bafflingly and miserably ground out a second stab at playoffs was hugely misleading and did us more harm than good. With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, only about four or five of the Wembley finalists should’ve returned the following year - hanging on to the vast majority another 2-3 years was a terrible call. Bring on the fire sale. I think we could have gone up that first year if CC hadn't lost his bottle. We were playing attractive, high pressing attacking football until the final and we should have carried on doing so. Carlos went defensive and we never got going. Second season was possession football, to be fair we did ok but again in the playoffs we went negative. Huddersfield would have crumpled if we'd gone for them. Carlos did it again at Swansea, they were going down, he got them winning until it was in their own hands then he went negative and they went down. I don't mind us losing if we give it our best shot. I hate it when we let other teams dictate the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank_Lucas Posted May 27, 2019 Share Posted May 27, 2019 I thought this was going to be a new song then...... Bruce built this team on dejphon's cccaaaasssssshhhh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke Posted May 27, 2019 Share Posted May 27, 2019 2 hours ago, areNOTwhatTHEYseem said: His players performed pretty well for him the year before, when they reached the playoff final. He was sacked after only eleven league games this season, which didn't really give him much time to turn things around...although that makes it sound like they'd been dire under him, which is untrue. They'd only lost two games and had four points less than at the same stage as the previous season, so who's to say it might not have turned out well under him, too? he was performing worse than Jos with a much better team,take the Wednesday glasses off Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VBQ24 Posted May 27, 2019 Share Posted May 27, 2019 3 hours ago, Rogerwyldesmullet said: The hard thing for many of us is that he will have to break up the “nearly team” and sell some crowd favourites to do so. Busy summer ahead! Spot on. No room for sentiment; we can't afford it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ash76 Posted May 28, 2019 Share Posted May 28, 2019 4 hours ago, Suzuki_San said: It does bode well, sure. But playing devils advocate, why didn’t they perform for him, leading to him getting the sack? Drew too many, lost 2 which came against both Sheffield clubs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobness Posted May 28, 2019 Share Posted May 28, 2019 1 hour ago, WelshOwl74 said: he was performing worse than Jos with a much better team,take the Wednesday glasses off Not sure if it was a contributing factor to his performance as Villa's manager, but let's not forget what Bruce had going on in his life outside of football, and why he wasn't in a position to jump straight back in when DC called. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
areNOTwhatTHEYseem Posted May 28, 2019 Author Share Posted May 28, 2019 4 hours ago, WelshOwl74 said: he was performing worse than Jos with a much better team,take the Wednesday glasses off Which perfectly encapsulates why you judge a manager over more than eleven games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james o connor Posted May 28, 2019 Share Posted May 28, 2019 8 hours ago, Rogerwyldesmullet said: The hard thing for many of us is that he will have to break up the “nearly team” and sell some crowd favourites to do so. Busy summer ahead! The fact that any care about that is astounding . The fact the likes of hooper have been released is brilliant . Too long this club has been obsessed with players who once were good but now deadwood . Seems we are finally looking forward not backwards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
helmut_rooster Posted May 28, 2019 Share Posted May 28, 2019 9 hours ago, Suzuki_San said: It does bode well, sure. But playing devils advocate, why didn’t they perform for him, leading to him getting the sack? Summat to do wi cabbages I think Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modboy Posted May 28, 2019 Share Posted May 28, 2019 Villa mate hates him. I'm excited for next year though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southie_Owl Posted May 28, 2019 Share Posted May 28, 2019 9 hours ago, areNOTwhatTHEYseem said: His players performed pretty well for him the year before, when they reached the playoff final. He was sacked after only eleven league games this season, which didn't really give him much time to turn things around...although that makes it sound like they'd been dire under him, which is untrue. They'd only lost two games and had four points less than at the same stage as the previous season, so who's to say it might not have turned out well under him, too? Personally I feel Bruce would have got Villa to the playoffs this season had they kept him on. Villa fans gripes with Bruce were, style of play, failure to sign a centre half to replace Terry and too many draws in the first 11 games. In the 20 games after Bruce left and before Mings arrived, they only won 7. Hardly a massive improvement on Bruce’s record and his 41% win percentage. It was villa’s wins from February to May with Mings in the team that confirmed them into the playoffs. Meanwhile in the same period with worse players, Bruce had a similar win % with us. And no one can doubt that Bruce would have signed another centre half in january for Villa. I hear James Chester has revealed that in those 11 games under Bruce he was the only fit centre half and he was secretly injured too. Bruce alluded to making mistakes at Villa, and I’m sure failure to sign a centre half last summer will be top of that list 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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