UNDER BRUCE, WE JUST DIDN’T CLICK AS A TEAM
“For many Villa fans the departure of Steve Bruce is all but unanimously approved of, but with sadness. There are some who were bile-ridden, hateful and plain nasty towards the end, but hopefully Steve and the media won’t turn this into “they hated him because he worked for Birmingham City before”. It was about no such thing. When Bruce took the helm from Roberto Di Matteo, the club was in a terrible state. We’d been one of the worst-ever Premier League sides the season before and were struggling to find our feet in the Championship. I met Steve early doors (see, I have the football clichés down to a fine art) and he said he was so excited to finally be at a big club. He was a very accepted appointment. But it turned recently and he brought a lot of that on himself. I had hoped that he would step down in the summer after failing to get us promotion. Yes, he got us to a play-off final, but, for me, with the money spent and the players at our disposal, we should have finished second to Wolves. We haven’t ever really clicked into a team, just a collection of individual players. The football at times has been woeful but still the fans stuck by Bruce, pictured. This season we were still abject. The Rotherham win was one of the poorest games I’ve seen. Bruce waxed lyrical about that game, we did not! Then he questioned a few of the Press for having the temerity to write anything critical of him. Then he came out with the classic ‘the intelligent fans know what I’m trying to do’. Well, I’m a relatively – on a good day – intelligent fan and I didn’t have a scooby. To be two-up against a poor Preston and drawing is not acceptable at Aston Villa. I liked Steve Bruce, I had some lovely banter with him during games (my Villa seat is near the dug-out). He’s a top fella and the way he continued working during the time of such grief after losing both his parents was admirable. I send my thanks and wish him well. I hope he takes a long, deserved break.”