Steve Bruce (now managing Blackpool)

[STM]

Makes you wonder what they actually do on the training ground. I swear it all starts with the sheer lack of training the players do. West Brom players probably aren't fit enough to walk onto the field after a session with Brucey and the lads.

 

 

Edited October 6, 2022 by STM

[wormy]

It really is like clockwork, isn't it? The soundbites will soon be flowing about how he's getting abuse that goes too far and too personal when he's just 'trying' to do his job.

 

When he's finally punted out on his fat arse I look forward to hearing about how it was so devastating he might retire as he doesn't think he can do it again. Until the next dipshit owner is willing to throw money at him.

[KaKa]

I'm on the verge of tears at how perfect this all is man

[joeyt]

42 minutes ago, Paully said:

 

 

 

[Nun tumblers]

Eggshell skin man,can't take any kind of criticism ....when we rolled the mackems over 5-1 at SJP and sang cheer up Steve bruce, he went fucking ape shit ... the fat tub of whale lard is a fucking baby.

[Cattletrucked]

It’s all the fat, useless twat wants, he’ll play the victim then walk off to count his millions  

[80]

Should we set up something like the Cabbage Cup to be contested among his former clubs?

[RUHRLYASLEEVESUP]

4 hours ago, Abacus said:

I loved the moment when Joelinton was being interviewed after signing at Newcastle, and met for Steve Bruce for the first time, who just bungled into the room.

 

Not only did he interrupt someone else's interview instead of his own for a change, but it was so clear he had no idea who he was. This being a record signing that he insisted was 'his' despite that being patently untrue.

 

Less than Howe level research on his very own £40m player ensued.

 

"How are you? Are you fit? Any English? You OK? See you in training tomorrow! Maybe twice, haha!".

 

All the while clapping him repeatedly on the back, before saying "Good lad!" and then wandering off.

 

Big Joe's confused expression says it all.

Immense 

[Joey Linton]

 

[LionOfGosforth]

More of a general point/rant on PFM and the state of modern "boardrooms". This whole circus of Bruce and his hopeless cabal of "coaches" over the past 3 years+ should serve as a huge cautionary tale. Surely enough is enough man. Bruce and his "type" only hang around the game because these idiot CEOs haven't got the good sense they were born with and no imagination to do things differently, beyond handing these positions out to someone with a name.

 

Surely to God there are some young up and coming coaches lower down the leagues that a sizeable club like WBA could look to, instead of handing out free money to these leeching pricks? A young coach with modern ideas and at least the will to improve and learn instead of these dinosaur cunts only interested in a payoff and rolling out the same tired cliches? It's beyond a joke that this carry on continues. There's no excuses any more man. WBA et al, fucking learn from this pathetic charade.

 

To contradict myself slightly, I'm just glad he's someone else's problem now. As much as I want to see change in the way all clubs do things, it hurts my head and heart to think about it. I try to no longer wonder about his methods or lack of them because it tires me out and makes me angry.

 

We're a year removed from Ashley and Bruce, we're now run by professionals who care and managed and coached like a real PL club. Hard as it is to do and as much as I relish watching him implode at another club after all the grief we got for wanting him out, it's time to just enjoy what is happening here and let go. When I can finally fully do that, it'll feel wonderful, I feel like i'm close.

 

 

Edited October 6, 2022 by LionOfGosforth

[Dokko]

West brom are Sunderland from a few year ago. Just keep getting it wrong with managerial appointments who weaken the squad in their time there and blow a bit more cash, meaning less room to manovuer and more critical they get every decision right. Hard to grt off that spiral.

 

Whoever takes over next is going to have their hands full, and they'll revert to type...safe pair of hands, can't risk being creative, and has experience. Unfortunately they've gone through most of them now and all they'll attract are those who are experienced at failing. Another Bruce. Imagine we still had Ashley and he sacked Bruce a year ago. Who on earth would we have ended up with? 

[Nobody]

3 hours ago, SUPERTOON said:

Brilliant this from the West Brom fans 

 

 

 

3 hours ago, Miggys First Goal said:

We did tell them. Then they told us we were wrong.

 

 

[huss9]

3 hours ago, Paully said:

 

"what do you expect him to do?"

 

is this guy for real. he should have been apologising on behalf of his son.

there's no coming back after that.

he's a dead man walking.

likely stand-off with the owner over a pay off.

lets see who blinks first.

WBA fans that suffer in the end.

 

Toon fans are due a lot if fucking apologies.

[Paullow]

This won't go down well on here because he's still generally very disliked, and understandably so, but I think one of the most damning things for Bruce with me is that I don't actually mind Pardew, and that's almost certainly escalated from my pure disdain of Bruce.

 

Now obviously there's a lot to be angry with Pards, but he is what he is, and doesn't pretend otherwise, and he did at least provide anyone between the ages of 17-25 with their best / most successful ever season following NUFC, and I do remember listening to some phone in, probably BBC Newcastle, in 2012 just after finishing 5th and around the same time of him picking up his LMA MOTY award, and it was a really good listen, he spoke a lot of sense, and I was looking forward to it, and his stock was generally pretty high at the time. It obviously massively went downhill shortly after and there was a lot of anger around, but at least there were some good moments looking back. I also remember him playing 'good guy' vs Souness not too long ago in the build up to a Sky Super Sunday match.

 

It will clearly be recency bias and my contempt for Bruce playing a massive part, and the fact it's almost 8 years ago will help, but I don't wish failure on him and if he does well at Aris or AEK, or whichever Greek club it is, then I'd be fine with that, but it's a completely different story with Bruce. I was honestly watching the closing stages of that Preston match the other day as if it actually was a Newcastle match  

[St1pe]

I keep reading praise for Pardew over the last couple of days and it honestly makes me want to headbutt my phone. 

[GideonShandy]

8 minutes ago, St1pe said:

I keep reading praise for Pardew over the last couple of days and it honestly makes me want to headbutt my phone. 

Saying he was better than Cabbage Heed doesn't really count as praise tbh.

 

And headbutting rarely works out well.

 

 

[nufcjb]

10 hours ago, Paully said:

 

Aaarrghh.. this is all part of his grand scheme. He never needed to confront that fan but now that he has, he'll use it as an example of him being abused and not being everyone's cup of tea. Had it planned all along. The fucking fraud

[LV]

Wonder if we’re at the ‘death threat’ stage yet of this story. 

[Holmesy]

How many other walks of life are there where a proven failure consistently lands jobs earning millions of pounds? Politics? Banking?

Is anyone actually held to account for making these decisions in the first place? Hiring Steve Bruce should be an instant sackable offence because the outcome is inevitable. It's absolute lunacy!

 

 

Edited October 7, 2022 by Holmesy

[St. Maximin]

28 minutes ago, Holmesy said:

How many other walks of life are there where a proven failure consistently lands jobs earning millions of pounds? Politics? Banking?

Is anyone actually held to account for making these decisions in the first place? Hiring Steve Bruce should be an instant sackable offence because the outcome is inevitable. It's absolute lunacy!

 

 

 

The thing is (and I'm going against the grain a bit here), his record doesn't necessarily suggest that. We know he's a disgrace but it's not like every season his final league position suggests he was a miserable failure - even if everything else does - but ultimately it's the league table that gets noticed most by people who don't follow his teams closely. He would have absolutely taken us down if he'd stayed, but the sacking spared him from that and the 13th and 12th place finishes were reasonable on paper. Pretty sure he finished above Potter, who everyone has been praising for ages.

 

 

Edited October 7, 2022 by St. Maximin

[Lazarus]

39 minutes ago, Holmesy said:

How many other walks of life are there where a proven failure consistently lands jobs earning millions of pounds? Politics? Banking?

Is anyone actually held to account for making these decisions in the first place? Hiring Steve Bruce should be an instant sackable offence because the outcome is inevitable. It's absolute lunacy!

 

 

 

 

Dido Harding.....Liz Truss....

[Chris_R]

17 minutes ago, St. Maximin said:

The thing is (and I'm going against the grain a bit here), his record doesn't necessarily suggest that. We know he's a disgrace but it's not like every season his final league position suggests he was a miserable failure - even if everything else does - but ultimately it's the league table that gets noticed most by people who don't follow his teams closely. He would have absolutely taken us down if he'd stayed, but the sacking spared him from that and the 13th and 12th place finishes were reasonable on paper. Pretty sure he finished above Potter, who everyone has been praising for ages.

 

 

 

 

I know you're not defending him, but it's about trajectories and that's the bit that always gets overlooked.

 

Sure, he finished 13th and 12th which as you say look OK on paper. But he took over Benitez's team which was 7th in form the second half of his last season and even better in the last quarter of that season. We were playing expansive football, looking really good. Then he comes in and torpedoes it. Plus although the 13th placed season was a fair reflection of us, anyone who watched us the year after will remember how utterly dogshit we were but outperformed our XG massively by loads of flukey wins. There was  no chance that was sustainable long-term, and the following season it all unravelled to the surprise of absolutely nobody at all.

 

It was so fucking lazy (or disingenuous) when journalists would say "But they averaged about the same over a few years" when Rafa took over a dogshit team on the way down and turned us into a team that could go toe to toe with nearly anyone, then Bruce took over that team and turned us into one heading back down again. Yeah sure, the average is the same, but fucking hell factor in the start and end points of each of their reigns.

[St. Maximin]

17 minutes ago, Chris_R said:

 

I know you're not defending him, but it's about trajectories and that's the bit that always gets overlooked.

 

Sure, he finished 13th and 12th which as you say look OK on paper. But he took over Benitez's team which was 7th in form the second half of his last season and even better in the last quarter of that season. We were playing expansive football, looking really good. Then he comes in and torpedoes it. Plus although the 13th placed season was a fair reflection of us, anyone who watched us the year after will remember how utterly dogshit we were but outperformed our XG massively by loads of flukey wins. There was  no chance that was sustainable long-term, and the following season it all unravelled to the surprise of absolutely nobody at all.

 

It was so fucking lazy (or disingenuous) when journalists would say "But they averaged about the same over a few years" when Rafa took over a dogshit team on the way down and turned us into a team that could go toe to toe with nearly anyone, then Bruce took over that team and turned us into one heading back down again. Yeah sure, the average is the same, but fucking hell factor in the start and end points of each of their reigns.

No I completely agree with you here. Aside from the odd nice spell where we had some impressive performances (e.g. Bournemouth away 2020, Leicester away 2021), we were absolute turd to watch and it should have been apparent to anyone that the organisation and plan we had under Rafa had been unravelling and not replaced. 

 

I was just saying based on the final league positions he wouldn't have been deemed a failure. I think he was in probably every other way here and he also would have taken us down if he'd stayed, but if you didn't watch the football closely (like I imagine the West Brom chairman didn't), then it would be easy to look at that record and think he did well enough to keep us safe. We had a poor squad with injury problems to our star players. He also must have had a decent Championship record until Villa as he managed to get teams promoted. He could probably get away with his managerial style of being a 'man manager' more back in the day, but hasn't been bothered to learn and progress with the times.

 

 

Edited October 7, 2022 by St. Maximin

[Nun tumblers]

Must be close to getting a cabbage stotted off his heed.

[Paully]

30 minutes ago, Chris_R said:

 

I know you're not defending him, but it's about trajectories and that's the bit that always gets overlooked.

 

Sure, he finished 13th and 12th which as you say look OK on paper. But he took over Benitez's team which was 7th in form the second half of his last season and even better in the last quarter of that season. We were playing expansive football, looking really good. Then he comes in and torpedoes it. Plus although the 13th placed season was a fair reflection of us, anyone who watched us the year after will remember how utterly dogshit we were but outperformed our XG massively by loads of flukey wins. There was  no chance that was sustainable long-term, and the following season it all unravelled to the surprise of absolutely nobody at all.

 

It was so fucking lazy (or disingenuous) when journalists would say "But they averaged about the same over a few years" when Rafa took over a dogshit team on the way down and turned us into a team that could go toe to toe with nearly anyone, then Bruce took over that team and turned us into one heading back down again. Yeah sure, the average is the same, but fucking hell factor in the start and end points of each of their reigns.

 

Superb post!

 

Anybody who regularly watched us during 19-20 and 20-21 knows that we were very lucky not to go down! 18-19, Dubs kept us in matches numerous times and I've just looked at who was our top scorer - Shelvey with 6 - we scored 38 league goals! 19-20, an outrageous goal scoring run from WIllock literally saved the wanker's bacon! 

 

Here's hoping he gets all sorts of grief from the Baggies tomorrow!