I saw this on twitter the other day and, being as Steve Bruce returns this weekend with his latest club, Newcastle United, I thought I’d do a quick blog because I couldn’t agree more.
Unpopular opinion – Steve Bruce stopped the rot at our club, so whilst I acknowledge his limitations and I’m glad he’s now elsewhere, I don’t agree with some of the abuse he gets. He also brought in SJM so I would say he more than played his part in our current revival #avfc
— Wayne T (@witton_warrior) January 19, 2021
He steadied a ship that very much needed to be steadied. And he went above and beyond when he continued despite losing both of his parents. Like Wayne T says in his tweet, that isn’t to say I’m not glad that he departure, it had grown stale, the atmosphere at Villa Park was toxic and unfortunately I do feel Steve is stuck in a rut tactics wise – as can be seen watching Newcastle United now.
But the abuse he got then, and from some still on social media, always looks uncalled for to me. What compounds it is he is a really nice bloke. Anyone who met him would struggle, I think, not to realise he is a ‘proper football person’ and just an all round good guy.
A group of us met him via the Fan Consultation Group. He was so excited to finally be at a big club, he said it is what he had been waiting for all of his managerial career. I was gutted when it all went wrong, and it did, but even more so the ridiculous bloke that walked down to the pitchside – where I used to sit (before the PL bullied me and others out of our seats – that is another story!) – and threw a cabbage at him. He wasn’t satisfied with throwing the cabbage and saying, “That is what you have turned our club into.” Yes, because we were doing so well before he came weren’t we? He had to continue to call him a “Traiter ****.” You know the four letter word, I can’t publish it. Exactly how was he a traitor? And exactly how was he the other word?
A manager that had taken us as far as he could, yes. The rest? Just nonsense.
Spot on Wayne. Totally agree. And put up with both parents dying and still didn't take time off. Lovely guy as well (as an aside).
— Vital Villa (@VitalVilla) January 19, 2021
Massive agreement. Fair play to you. He turned around the oil tanker of losers, which so many failed to do before him.
— The Villa Decree 🇱🇻🇫🇲🇱🇻🇫🇲 (@TheVillaDecree) January 19, 2021
I don’t think that’s particularly unpopular. He definitely helped get the club back on its feet. He fixed the disconnect between fans and players and got us winning matches again. But he’d lost the plot by the time he was shown the door.
— My Joneration (@grindrod1874) January 19, 2021
One thing's for sure if we had of got the Bruce appointment wrong at the time we could have done a Sunderland. We were in an awful place with what we now know was a lunatic chairman in charge. For where we were then he was the best appointment to steady the ship
— StanTheMan (@StanStaunton) January 19, 2021
Of course, as is their right, plenty also disagree in Wayne T’s thread.
One thing is for sure, he brought us Super John McGinn. That’ll do for me!
He does seem in self pity mode right now, saying that a good percentage of Newcastle fans were against him from the start. He said similar at Villa as well. I would imagine when – and it usually is a when with the Magpies – he is sacked, it will be time to call it a day and enjoy his life. Tough blinking job, lovely wages aside, being a manager. Not sure I’d like the pressure.
He did also say about Aston Villa: “It’s a great club with big tradition big history.” We can all agree with that at least.
Looks like his win ratio for Newcastle United is that far off Rafa’s though, their problem is their vile owner, Mike Ashley.
🏴 Steve Bruce in 67 career games at Newcastle: 21-19-27 (31.3 Win%)
🇪🇸 Rafa Benitez's final 67 games at Newcastle: 22-15-30 (32.9 Win%) pic.twitter.com/EMuX0ol3sH
— Matchday365 ⚽️ (@Matchday365) January 15, 2021
🗣 “We were absolutely frigging hopeless the other night. We were absolutely sh*te."
Steve Bruce is not happy with his Newcastle players 🤬 pic.twitter.com/QamlzAgNFP
— Goal (@goal) January 16, 2021
As for the game v Newcastle, lets hope for more of this!
32': @ConorHourihane ⚽
36': @AElGhazi7 ⚽Tomorrow: Newcastle United v Aston Villa! 🙌#AVFC pic.twitter.com/45SO8aomn7
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) June 23, 2020
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You can follow me on twitter @FearConquers, my instagram @fearconquersall and my own blog site as well thefear.net Will wonders never cease (or in my case, ever start!) As well as Vital Villa
(I’m making a tentative return to writing, something I’ve done for 20 years now, following yet more brain ache issues and my 14th operation. I was close to hanging up the keyboard, but I’ll see how it goes. Hopefully this article is error free! Right now, the lights are on but no one is home so to speak!)
