MikeMcKenna

We have a old pro who cannot manage and a rank amateur of an owner

He must go, no f****g debate - he was never right for AVFC.

New manager, new owner, new players, new coaches. Imho it is nothing to do with an innate AVFC cultural issue. On paper we have one of the best squads in the Championship but the last 10 months has proved we have a manager who doesn't know how to get the best out of them. Xia has invested but via the wrong manager.

People are not just judging him on this season. Last season we had a couple of good runs interspersed with dire spells of absolutely crap. Our play was rarely convincing and this was directly down to Bruce. The better football even at VP was invariably played by the opposition.

'" **hopefully** we will mount a challenge......" That tells you everything about Bruce's mentality. A manager of AVFC should not be using the word "hopefully" two games into the season. GET RID NOW!

I hear it's not just the fans who have massive doubts. This isn't going to run and run. My sense is that he is very close to the door

Not sensitive at all - impossible when you have been a Villa fan for decades. he is word removed though!

Obviously many don't give a shit about Terry's past and cannot wait for his signing tomorrow but............ FWIW I WILL NEVER APPLAUD THE word removed

5 minutes ago met Harry Redknapp down here in Poole at restaurant. Quote: "We offered 100k p/w - he is signing for Villa tomorrow"

Don't know if this is the thread to add a story but as it's about an Aussie Villa fan I will fire away. Some years my daughter spent a year in Australia. While there she made friends with an Aussie girl in an outback town. A few months ago my daughter got a call from a lad who was a friend of said Aussie girl. He told my daughter he was coming to the U.K for a months and asked if she knew any Villa fans and she said I was an die hard fan and maybe able to help. As a 7 year old kid his football coach gave him a Villa shirt after a trip to Europe and from that day forward his dream was to see Villa at Villa park. He wanted a ticket for any home game before end of the season, so I bought him one for the derby v sha a few weeks. He was over the moon with the offer and subsequently in heaven when we beat them. Of course he was buzzing andamazed by the atmosphere that day as the ground was rocking! As we were in the corporate area, after the game I introduced him to Ken McNaught who in turn introduced him to Peter Withe, Sid Cowans, Des Bremner and many other members of the 81/82 teams. As he was leaving Villa Park he bumped into Doctor Tony, got his autograph and a photo with him. Needless to say he had the day of his dreams and is now even more of a Villa fan for life :-)

Get used to the Championship folks. I have absolutely no faith that Bruce can take us up. He had two good runs of results which were almost solely achieved with dire football. Inevitably both times the wheels came off. He may be a "Nice" bloke, Xia may be a "Nice" bloke etc etc but I don't give a f*** about "Nice" anymore - I want someone to get us out of this shitty f***** league. With 3/4 exceptions we have a squad of dross and prima donnas who were billy big bollox at their previous clubs. No teamwork, no tactics, no passion, no progress likely under Bruce IMHO. AVFC have been dire for 6/7 seasons - we go again!

I fear Bruce as manager could lead to us being a Championship side for years to come and have little confidence he can get us promoted next year. His signings in January together with the remaining squad should have been good enough to get us much closer to the play offs. Inferior squads to ours have at times played us off the park and ultimately our inability to function as a "team" is down to the manager. If we do not get promoted next year we will be f*****!

Some years ago, I had the tremendous pleasure of sitting and chatting with Ron for ten minutes at the Former Villa Players Association 50th Anniversary. We chatted about the great years leading up to winning the league and he was on tremendous form. Towards the end of our chat I asked if it was true that he left because of Ellis's pending return to the club and he just smiled and said "it was years ago". Throughout our chat people were coming up to him and asking for his autograph and he asked them politely to wait till we had finished. Will never forget it. He was with his daughter who subsequently took a great photograph of us together. Ron Saunders is one of my all time heroes who genuinely felt that the fans were the most important thing about the club. I agree that it is a disgrace that he is not properly acknowledged at VP. Maybe we need to do something about that....?

Top of the league! http://www.footballwebpages.co.uk/championship/form

Excellent - 3 on the bounce and above sha!!

TRO I will not deny that I thought I was wrong when we went on the winning streak but personally I never felt he was "basking in the sun". Some of the football even during that time was dire and I am hard pushed to remember when If ever Ithought Bruce was the manager to turn us round. I am far from certain that the next manager will do a job but see absolutely no point in giving SB more time.

Losing 0-1 at home to Ipswich Losing 1-3 at home to Barnsley One point from a possible 21 in 2017 tells me SB is totally the WRONG manager

Makes you wonder doesn't it?

So much for loving the excitement of the Champsionship. Yet again we are staring into the abyss. WTF is wrong with AVFC???

"It makes me desperately sad to witness how wretched our beloved club has become"

Despite our **** run I really wanted to go to the game but only arrived back from holiday about 8 hours ago and was too jet lagged to make the 3 hour journey. I now feel like I missed a bullet! The state of our club under Bruce is an absolute disgrace and he has to go. We all thought we had seen the worst but F*****G 1-3 down at home to against Barnsley is the lowest of the low. This a nightmare of massive proportions. Bruce hasn't got a F*****G clue, everything he does turns to dust!

I wasn't over the moon when Bruce was made manager but given his record of promoting clubs and the need to be positive accepted his appointment. However despite the extended unbeaten run we rarely looked convincing and invariably have actually looked crap. I can't remember more than 2, possibly 3 games I have enjoyed since he arrived. I don't accept that all the former players were crap but think Bruce was unable to make them function as a team and get the best out of them. On paper we had plenty of talent but bugger all tactics or team play. I now believe my first instinct was right and that Bruce is the wrong man for the job. I personally would get shot now but if we finish in the lower half I think he should go at the end of the season. I haven't got a clue who should replace him but think persevering in the hope that he will turn it round is a waste of time. Too many excuses have been made and imho he hasn't got what it takes.

Pity he can't defend which ultimately is his first priority.

He also needs a lot more than a spoonful of sugar. Frankly I am sick of our club, irrespective of the manager or owner, being unable to gain traction.

This could be a description of the Villa team for the last 6 years.