Bruce Almighty

by @therowleyranger

After another poor showing, away from home at Preston, and another horrible drive home on a Saturday afternoon from another away ground, where we had been outplayed, out thought and outfought, it was goodbye to RDM. The summer splurge had been and gone and we were staring down the barrel of mediocrity and glaring deficiencies in the squad.  A midfield so lightweight a fan at Oakwell the previous Tuesday night, after another humbling experience, remarked “A breath of wind and our midfield would be on the Yorkshire Moors!“ An overreaction of course, but a decent point none the less.  RDM paid the price for a poor summer “setup”.  His “Supermarket Sweep” approach to acquiring players and his obvious joy at being allocated a budget other managers (including Bruce at the time) would have given their right arm for now seems rash and ill thought out sadly.  There’s no doubt about it,  the rights & wrongs of our summer actions are now hurting us. Our owner and leading officials at the club must have a look at themselves. Anyway, I digress.

RDM went back to Rome with his pockets lined presumably in the same Mondeo that Tony Xia bought him over here in. And Aston Villa were managerless and rudderless once more! Obvious names were thrown into the candidacy and some of the newer names like David Wagner, Dean Smith were given due consideration but deemed not suitable. The rights and wrongs of these decisions  can be argued until the cows come home, until your blue in the face, or you reach Rome in a Mondeo.
Steve Bruce was appointed and I for one was delighted with the appointment , finally a manager with gravitas and guts who didn’t mind hard work  and knew the division we were playing in , I  remember sitting at Villa Park in my ST seat around 11 rows behind our dugout and seeing how Bruce in that second half earned us a point with tactical  appreciation and getting every last drop out of a woefully unfit team. I  left the ground with  mates and family as per and went for a drink as normal  safe in the knowledge this famous old club had finally got a man who knew what  he was doing ,  nothing since has altered my view .

The excellent away win at the Madejski, battling performance at St. Andrews, and a hell of an unlucky showing away from home at the AMEX followed. Had the away curse lifted? NO poor showings at Norwich, Brentford  and Cardiff have put that theory to bed!
Our home form is good, for the first time in years we’ve had a run of games at home where we don’t look penetrable constantly. Yes, we’ve dropped points, against Preston for example but  let’s dig a bit deeper; if Mr McCormack had turned up to training that week he may have been on the bench and been a viable option to bring on to help secure 3 points,  but as we know #gategate took over.
I am no apologist for Steve Bruce, I 100% get the criticism of the style of his play or the fact in recent weeks we’ve struggled. We haven’t won in 2017, which Paul Franks on BBC WM loves to keep reiterating! We are going through another period of “transition “unfortunately.  Aston Villa always seem to be in a period of transition but this one is more glaringly obvious.

Most fans in pubs before/after the game, on social media or walking the dog in the park, agreed the midfield needed strengthening in the January window. The signings of Lansbury, Hourihane, Bjarnasson,  fix that.  We needed a new RB apparently, so step forward James Bree.  I for one think Jordan Amavi is massively overrated, imagine my delight when Neil Taylor joined.  Sam Johnstone signed and Scott Hogan joined in a successful transfer window where another wave of players joined and another wave left.  In 6 months, I make it around 30 players who’ve joined/left Villa park and 2 managers fair to say then it’s been a revolving door.

We all want to see excellent attacking football. I’d love to be thoroughly entertained every time I watch AVFC.

Am I under Bruce? No.
Was I under RDM? No.
Under Remi Garde? No.

My point is as Villa fans we’ve suffered apart from during the Gregory and O’Neill reigns where we played good attacking football at times. Barcelona we aint! So to beat Bruce with the style stick seems a little harsh in my opinion.  I then see the “we whack it thoughtlessly up the pitch “ I refer you to the Big ‘Eck days again Barcelona and Tiki Taka football we aint!

In October when Bruce walked in to Villa Park we needed substance far more than style. A no nonsense individual o get a highly talented group of expensively acquired players to become a squad then a team.  He did that by not losing his first 6 games and taking 24 points out of his first 12 games.  2 points a game is a good record.  Hard work, organisation is what Bruce has bought and will continue to bring. He’s had a January window now and people are beginning to scrutinise him more as a manager; that’s those people’s rights, I haven’t got to like it I’ve got to lump it.

My question for the Bruce detractors is replace him with who? Who’s better qualified to get us out of this league? Rowett, Smith, Wagner are the names bandied about but precisely how many promotions have they won? That’s not saying they aren’t able or won’t gain a promotion on their CVs.  However the predicament we’re now in is we need a manager who is a proven manager at building a squad for promotion.  Bruce has done that 4 times.


Again, when Bruce was appointed in the pub before the Wolves game I sat with my mates with family and put the AVFC world to rights. One thing I said, which I got castigated for and have had thrown back in my face I’ll repeat here...

“I don’t care how we play, how he plays as long as he sorts this team out “

Big statement that from a man who spends his spare time coaching youth football and lecturing on how football should be played to those youngsters.  Again it’s just one man’s opinion and one man’s rambling much like this opinion piece, I’ll quantify though -

As a club we need to be back in the Premier League. How ever we get there, we need to be back there by any means necessary in my book. Am I enjoying the Championship? it’s exciting but I’d much rather be at the top table thanks.  Bruce is proven in terms of promotion hence he was the right choice for me.  In my honest opinion we need to give him time. I think he needs 18 months which runs out April 2018.  If we’re in this predicament then that’s when I’ll start judging. One thing I think we all agree on is AVFC needs stability; it needs someone there for longer than the previous incumbents by about 3x to nurture the youth talent we undoubtedly have through, to create a style.

Unfortunately, this isn’t FIFA and the malaise of previous years is still permeating Villa Park. Bruce has doubled the wins we achieved in a whole season last year again throwing light onto the darkness of last year.  We need a man who’s going to stick around and try his hardest to make AVFC great again in my opinion, that man is Steve Bruce.  You look at the jobs he could’ve had or been interviewed for whilst turning our club down. It’s no secret Bruce has always wanted this job, his old boss Simon Jordan said he told him in the summer “Wait for a big club” and he has.  With a big club comes big responsibilities and big problems which take time to sort out.

I am a Steve Bruce fan and would love to see him given time at Villa Park to put in the ground work to make us great again. He can do it and he is already doing it, taking a hard approach with slacking players by not being warm and cuddly to them in the press, when they don’t perform. May not appease and pay lip service to some of our fans but what goes on behind closed doors is apparent.  It’s Bruce’s way or the highway.  Amen for that!

Steve Bruce in my opinion is getting a team at AVFC, it’s taking a while but people remarked around me against Preston at home that the players seem to enjoy playing for him and maybe just maybe his hard work is beginning to pay off.  I’m not stupid enough to know that he needs results and quickly,  but he also needs time. With Steve Bruce and his coaching squad at the helm and Steve Round as Technical Director  we seem to have the foundations to be stable for the first time in 5 years.