Steve Bruce - The Crossraods

[bobness]

Bruce leaving felt like a gut punch. We had a proper manager in place, and DC was finally changing his tact... although the warning signs were there before the announcement, if you cared to notice them. For example, Bruce  lamented the number of forwards we had, but seemed frusrated by the fact he had little to no say on the matter.

 

If you think Bruce left just because his boyhood club came calling, maybe it didn't seem so bad, but I was always under the impression he wanted out because of the way DC was running this ship.

Edited April 18, 2021 by bobness

[brando]

1 hour ago, heppers said:

When Steve Bruce left, was that the beginning of the end?

Yes

[83owl]

17 minutes ago, bobness said:

Bruce leaving felt like a gut punch. We had a proper manager in place, and DC was finally changing his tact... although the warning signs were there before the announcement, if you cared to notice them. For example, Bruce  lamented the number of forwards we had, but seemed frusrated by the fact he had little to no say on the matter.

 

If you think Bruce left just because his boyhood club came calling, maybe it didn't seem so bad, but I was always under the impression he wanted out because of the way DC was running this ship.

A number of interviews he talked of stuffing man being part of the fabric of the club but wouldnt say exactly what his role was. He also said the squad needed 4 transfer windows to sort out.

 

I find both of these points interesting when people comment about managers recruitment and also when they say that certain managers broke up our squad by releasing players.

[Yellowbelly]

As others have said, the beginning of the end was the failure to move Carlos on after the playoff defeat v Hudders.
Steve Bruce leaving was the end of the beginning of the end.

Monk was the beginning of the end of the end.

Tony Pulis was just Aaaarrrggghhh!!

Now we’re nearly at the end.

Edited April 18, 2021 by Yellowbelly

[Chriss]

Even if we'd have got to the prem, we still have Chansiri running the club.

 

He's a tuna fish out of water in the Championship, imagine the shitshow we'd have had in the premier league. 

[Grimesthorpian]

50 minutes ago, Tyto Alba said:

The crossroads was when Chansiri bought the club.  If we had gone up in those first two seasons the same things would have followed only worse.  We would have been relegated from the Premiership but would have spent even more.  It would just have been a further fall to where we are with even bigger spending allowed.

I dread to think what would have happened had we gone up. 

[Guest wilyfox]

Fell apart when we stopped spending. 

[bobness]

The actual beginning of the end was the day Chansiri contacted Milan about buying the club

[SallyCinnamon]

1 minute ago, bobness said:

The actual beginning of the end was the day Chansiri contacted Milan about buying the club

Think it was the other way round tbh.

 

Xbana Milan! 

[bobness]

1 minute ago, SallyCinnamon said:

Think it was the other way round tbh.

 

Xbana Milan! 

 

Swiped right on invstr

[heppers]

1 hour ago, meggoisgod said:

No it was the signing of Morgan fox that started it all

..for me anyway

His performance and that of Reach in front of him at Elland Rd was the worst I have ever seen.

[matthefish2002]

11 minutes ago, bobness said:

The actual beginning of the end was the day Chansiri contacted Milan about buying the club

 

For me the beginning of the end for Wednesday was when that meeting was called for at Aldephi Hotel asking for suggestions for something to do for the cricket club members during the winter.

[TomtheOwl95]

It was a major moment because for that squad and this owner, Bruce was the perfect kind of manager needed. Someone who effectively would be manager and a bit of a director of football. People, me included to be fair, poke a bit of fun at Bruce in the Premier League but at this level he's a very good manager. He also has a pair of coaches with him in Clemence and Agnew who are held within high regard.

 

I remember walking out of Hillsborough on the final day of 2018/19 feeling very optimistic for the future, I think the general feeling was for the first time in a while the fans were mostly on the same page. Then he left and sent us into a bit of a tailspin that we didn't really recover from. More so off the pitch than on it. The slide in the 2nd half of last season doesn't happen under Bruce. We'd have re-structed the squad better I think.

 

We'll never know but I'd say it was the moment Wednesday's proper last chance to "go for it" under DC was taken away and he hasn't really known what to do since then. The last thing Sheffield Wednesday needed in the summer of 2019 was a managerial change, we needed stability after the Jos year and it was snatched away. We haven't recovered.

[Morepork]

You can make a compelling argument that the beginning of the end was indeed the very beginning.......the day DC walked through the door! Totally naive, dreadful judge of character, delusional overconfidence in his own abilities combined with no real understanding of football or football finance........the writing was on the wall before the ink was dry on the purchase agreement.

[matthefish2002]

15 minutes ago, TomtheOwl95 said:

It was a major moment because for that squad and this owner, Bruce was the perfect kind of manager needed. Someone who effectively would be manager and a bit of a director of football. People, me included to be fair, poke a bit of fun at Bruce in the Premier League but at this level he's a very good manager. He also has a pair of coaches with him in Clemence and Agnew who are held within high regard.

 

I remember walking out of Hillsborough on the final day of 2018/19 feeling very optimistic for the future, I think the general feeling was for the first time in a while the fans were mostly on the same page. Then he left and sent us into a bit of a tailspin that we didn't really recover from. More so off the pitch than on it. The slide in the 2nd half of last season doesn't happen under Bruce. We'd have re-structed the squad better I think.

 

We'll never know but I'd say it was the moment Wednesday's proper last chance to "go for it" under DC was taken away and he hasn't really known what to do since then. The last thing Sheffield Wednesday needed in the summer of 2019 was a managerial change, we needed stability after the Jos year and it was snatched away. We haven't recovered.

 

I think from the outside things looked optimistic at end of 2018/19 season.

But I think Bruce had misgivings on how the club was being run off the field and if Newcastle hadn't come calling he would have walked before Christmas anyway.

[TomtheOwl95]

5 minutes ago, matthefish2002 said:

 

I think from the outside things looked optimistic at end of 2018/19 season.

But I think Bruce had misgivings on how the club was being run off the field and if Newcastle hadn't come calling he would have walked before Christmas anyway.

I don't think he walks without a job to go into though. That wouldn't look good on him.

 

I think there will always be the usual three sides to the story, Chansiri's, Bruce's and the truth. Same with what happened with Pulis.

 

I still think he'd have been able to get the team in a decent position to challenge even if he had misgivings about the club, he'd worked with owners in that mould before and done well.

 

[devonshire owl]

38 minutes ago, Morepork said:

You can make a compelling argument that the beginning of the end was indeed the very beginning.......the day DC walked through the door! Totally naive, dreadful judge of character, delusional overconfidence in his own abilities combined with no real understanding of football or football finance........the writing was on the wall before the ink was dry on the purchase agreement.

I thought everyone at the time thought this was the best thing that could have happened to us.hindsight is a wonderful thing.

[Django]

2 hours ago, heppers said:

Taking the goal scorer off. Criminal.

Saving him for the final 

[meggoisgod]

2 hours ago, heppers said:

His performance and that of Reach in front of him at Elland Rd was the worst I have ever seen.

Goodnight Morgan. Give Adam a peck for me

[Guest LondonOwl313]

4 hours ago, Sticky Micky said:

Giving Carlos the 3rd season and not selling 'the stars' that summer was the start 

 

We needed to freshen things up and could have done so, making millions from player sales 

 

Unfortunately we gave Carlos another half of a season and kept the failing players on and rewarding them with silly wages that no other club would pay. 

 

It's still laughable that we are still relying on some of the same players now and some fans want to give them new contracts to get us out of the mess they've put us in 

Most of the contracts were renewed in 2016 though, not 2017. That’s why the wage bill shot up plus the signings of Fletcher, Abdi, Jones, Rhodes, Winnall etc.

 

We’d have struggled to offload most of them because they were on premier league wages so unless PL clubs wanted them there was no market for them even if they were very good Championship players at the time.

 

The path of sh*t or bust was set in summer 2016. We basically left ourselves in the position where it was this group gets us up or nothing. Then we bottled it 2016/17, most of them got injured in 2017/18 and then we brought Jos in and wasted the last good chance in 2018/19 by having a poor first half of the season.

 

There was little that could have been done given the wages given out, FFP rules and Chansiri having already spent all his cash. Just a really dumb move and no plan B