Bit of a storm in a tea-cup all this I will admit. Some of you might remember – although hopefully you have lives and so don`t… but massage my ego and pretend you do please – I did an article not long back, Dear Steve Bruce saying the way he was talking about ‘mass hysteria` made the fans looked bad and also brought about an ‘us v them` vibe.
I even blogged in The Sun mentioning it.
I think the reason it`s annoyed me is I think most have been well behind him, myself included, then you get the ‘mass hysteria` or ‘this crisis is ridiculous` type of comments.
Fans having an opinion was allowed last time I looked?!
Anyway, The Birmingham Mail have some quotes from Brucey (I repeat, I`m a fan) trying to clear up what he was on about. He should have been clear in the first place really and still, it doesn`t really wash.
He rightly says “When you`ve got seven points from seven games, it opens yourself up for criticism.” (Especially when you look at his record last season as well, it wasn`t great but plenty of us were willing to be patient)
“Of course here, at a club like ours, it turns into mass hysteria. A couple of bad results and all of a sudden it`s the end of the world again.”
How is that different to the way football has always been?
He says the mass hysteria comment was meant about social media.
So?
You are still having a dig at fans. There are plenty on social media who don`t like him, plenty who do and plenty on the fence and just hoping. Same as the fans around a pub table talking all things Villa, and those talking with mates, or those at the games.
He is paid to bring the results. IF he does, most will be happy. If he doesn`t fans will moan.
Surely he`s been in the game long enough to understand this? Now fair enough, he`s at a big club now and we`ve been force fed ‘we are a big club` by all the owners, managers and players, so not our fault we have standards is it? IF the seat is too hot for him, he has the option to get out, if not, surely he could just concentrate on his own job and leave the fans to be fans?
Only caveat to that is the knuckle dragging, abusive sorts. Fine, I agree that they are way out of line.
On the fans at Villa Park he added, “The supporters have been nothing but fantastic towards me since I arrived here. There`s a few shouting at me (by the dugout) as to what I should do. But the majority have been right behind me, and that`s all I`m interested in.”
“All these people on social media and media platforms… there were 30,000 people out there helping the team get over the line on Saturday. There was no negativity. They`ve been like that since I walked in the place.”
But we are mostly one and the same Steve. His son argued with Howard Hodgson recently on social media, so I assume it is Alex telling his dad about SOME comments. Quite why they expect differently is beyond me.
“But I`m under no illusions, if we lose the next two then they`ll circle again.”
Yup, because it is a results game and the pressure is on. I just don`t think any of this is what he should be discussing personally. As said, I`m a fan, but if he can`t take the criticism when we aren`t getting the desperately needed points, he appears to be at the wrong club.
“That`s the way it is but I`ve been round the block a few times and I`m determined to get it right.”
And the vast majority hope you do Brucey, far easier with us behind you I would imagine. Please excuse us if we have opinions though, if we didn`t we wouldn`t care and if we didn`t care, Villa would soon see even less fans turning up than there is now. It is a game of passion and is also a game of total insanity.
UTV
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