Holmesy

It's absolutely incredible man. That is literally the job requirement to organise the team tactically and give them instructions on how to function in order to be an effective unit And we have these oafs continuously disregarding and denigrating tactics It’s just incompetence on a ridiculous level and he not even trying to hide it. He should be sacked for that comment alone.

If the game has nothing to do with systems or tactics, what the fuck is a football manager’s job? Motivation alone? Baffling, dinosaur stuff!

I think a lot of the current plight is down to lack of motivation and belief from the players. They know Bruce isn’t capable of turning this round and they’re sick of playing for him. There’s more than enough talent and ability in the squad to avoid relegation and I’m sure a new voice with new ideas would fire the players up again. That would be enough for a bounce.

One of the best CBS in the premier league under Rafa and a joy to watch. He’s been well and truly Bruced.

I don’t know about unlikeable but they’re complicit. Just 3 s*** blokes called Steve doing s*** stuff Yeah, I think it’s just how pointless they are. And the contrast between the last set of coaches, which is really the only time we’ve had active, engaged coaches in recent memory. As chalk and cheese as you’re ever going to get. Rafa is the kind of guy who surrounds himself with intelligent people who will contribute ideas and challenge/push him. Bruce will surround himself with ‘good lads’ who get on with the players and are good at laying out the cones. I’d love to hear the kind of amateur shite they chat on the touchline

I don’t know about unlikeable but they’re complicit. Just 3 shit blokes called Steve doing shit stuff

At least Pardew had the crowd he could deflect some of the blame onto - ‘booing and negative chants affecting the team’. This incompetent fraud is being laid bare for all to see and he has nothing else to blame. Useless cunt!

You couldn’t pay me to listen to that.

That passing and moving stuff Villa are doing is interesting. Not sure it’ll catch on but it’s decent to watch.

Ashley is literally prepared to let us sleepwalk our way to relegation purely because Bruce doesn’t cause him any problems. Unbelievable!

Have we really got no one in this squad capable of delivering a decent cross?!

He’s playing as a false 9.

I wouldn’t bank on it yet, we’ll probably offer him a pittance in wages

If something was happening I would hope we would be aiming a lot higher than this. If Ashley has spoken to the prospective buyers about the slump in form and the potential sacking of the manager, perhaps they’ve agreed that bringing on another coach (who is significantly cheaper than a manager) is a good compromise.

Well he's a weak as p*ss journalist then. If he can't separate his professional life from his personal one he shouldn't be doing the job. I'm sorry I disagree completely with that, firstly he's easily the best North East journalist, and secondly i'm fairly certain pretty much most people would struggle to slate there mates to the entire world, rightly or wrongly, at least Caulkin's willing to admit that he struggles to criticise him, unlike some. I get that's he's being honest and that is commendable but his job is to report the facts. He wouldn't be criticising Bruce's character and personality, he would be reporting on what is without question an awful managerial performance. It's not even up for debate - the stats completely substantiate the fact that we are shit in every department. If a journalist can't report that because the guy is his mate, that's bullshit. Do your fucking job!

Well he's a weak as piss journalist then. If he can't separate his professional life from his personal one he shouldn't be doing the job.

Saw him put in 3 defensive blocks, pretty good ones too. Probably the biggest contribution of any of players today. Too work lad!

Good to see this guy is back to being absolutely shit. Fooled us for a couple of weeks with a couple of slightly less terrible performances but he’s right back on track.

Yeah but Roy Hodgson is well known for coaching and drilling his teams - learnt it in Italy apparently. Dickhead! ?

Get me out of lockdown so I can stop giving a shit about this lot again!! FFS!

As an ex Liverpool player, why is he so determined to back Bruce over a Liverpool legend. Odd. I think the modern day pundit needs to justify their position as an 'expert' by going against what supporters feelings are because they wrongly presume that fans are judging their thoughts by emotion rather than their own football knowledge, god forbid a fan speaking more sense than someone that played the game professionally. One of my pet hates with them is the sentence "what the fans don't understand is". Rednapp, O'hara and the likes of Jason Cundy are not very high up the IQ scale, but they played the game so they must no what they are talking about Pundits get paid to talk, they don’t get paid to know. They’re just trying to keep themselves relevant so they keep getting picked. If a requisite for the job was intelligence and knowledge there would be 2-3 pundits Max. Talksport have made a successful radio station from deliberately talking shite to antagonise fans, Sutton is the latest pundit to do it. The whole profession is basically a fucking racket build on peddling shite.

That's why all the nasty boys think you should be nowhere near the job, Steve. Every other manager in the league has at least half a brain, and uses it. Try your best!? Fuck me man, we're relegated.

This guy worked under the most successful manager in the history of the Premier League for 9 years. This is the thing i find most baffling. Of course he's never going to be as good as him or have players as good at his disposal, but surely when your own shit plan isn't working you'd just revert to copying exactly what Fergie did?

I’d take the lad from Lincoln in a heartbeat over this useless cunt, at least he’s achieved something

Pardew was utterly detestable but there were some entertaining performances during his tenure (most of them despite him rather than because of him). The 4-4 against Arsenal springs to mind. Under Bruce we’ve seen nothing in 18 months and if anything, it’s getting worse. I know Pardew had better players but Bruce could have the Man City first team and we’d still be boring as fuck to watch. He’s No.1 for me now