Ok both barrels you absolute Tos......

[TrianonDave]

Tosser.

Steve bruce you complete effing dinosaur! Your not Alex fergusson your just a team manager but still you wise old owl can inform us supporters that our few stars have to go But even though money is as tight as a nuns knickers, you drcide to keep a 20 plus goal scorer on 40k a week out the team....why. i just hope you walk or get the sack. No one is going to pay anything but 1 million for Ross Mac. Yet you think because he failed training once, we should just sweep him under the carpet.
This and your crap team decisions at wembley now make me think get rid. Get a knew man in who wont be so selfish and spoilt. Restore the guy who cost a lot and make him earn his corn. Modern football means you have to adjust or remain a dinosaur!!

[bongosdad]

Oh come on Dave you harp on about Ross more than I do Gabby. He's a rotten apple and the quicker we get rid the better along with Richards and a few others. I would rather us get shot of people like this and keep Grealish. We have enough fire power up front with Kodja Hogan Murphy and others.

[TrianonDave]

So who is goin to score the goals?
Grabben gone and kodija, hogan and adoma up for sale. Its not were going to replace them is it. Ross is a good playmaker and will get you 20 a season. Im sure a new manager would get the best out of him but to pay him 40k a week and not play him is sheer madness.

What we gonna do get gabby back in a pay as you play?

[bongosdad]

If Kodja hogan and adoma go were really in the poo. Davis can't score to save his life and makes heskey look like Gary Lineker. I'm more concerned about Chester and Grealish going and loosing the spine of the team.
I hope I'm proven wrong with Ross. Is he in pre season training? I've not seen him in the photos but I've only seen a few.

[freer]

What we gonna do get gabby back in a pay as you play?

Pity we didn't base Gabby’s Villa earnings on pay as you score terms, he'd owe us well in excess of our (FFP) deficit

Who's culpable in

Buying multiple players for the same position seldom (if ever) works
a) Full backs b) Whelan when we had Mile Jedinak

Enticing players with epochal championship wages then not playing these expensive acquisitions

Signing Scott Hogan and playing hoof-ball in his general direction,

Enlisting consistent goal scoring midfielders Henri Lansbury & Conor Hourihane & playing them out of position….. or worse not at all


V Fulham

Birmingham City & Derby caused Fulham all sorts of problems playing a powerful front/ target man Keinan Davis should have been on the bench

Birkir Bjarnason performing at his best gets dropped




And ultimately Steve's Pièce de Résistance

Alerting all & sundry we HAVE to sell !

If you have to trade in your prized assets you ain't gonna get top dollar by providing bargain hunters details of an impending fire sale !

Apart from that, its wonderful !

[picasso]

I can’t believe Bruce would not play a super fit, fully firing Ross Mac just because he missed training once. Instead I suspect he has an overweight sulk with the fitness levels of a Sunday league player. That guy has taken the piss out of our club and I have no time for him. It would appear other clubs feel the same. No offers.......not even for a quid.

Bruce, on the other hand has nailed his colours to the mast and committed himself to the club in this time of trouble when he could easily walk and get another job in no time. His record at this level speaks for itself. He is the one constant we have at this troubled time and I for one hope he stays.

As for going on record for telling us how it is, then I applaud him. Us fans have been in the dark for too long and now we know for sure. At least we can all deal with that knowledge rather than Dr X riddles and guesswork.

If I could choose someone to make something from the debris that will be left of this club at the close of the transfer window, it would be someone with the experience of Steve Bruce.

[freer]

Very well thought out legitimate intelligent points Picasso



But I still hold firm on my pure emotional supposition based on little or no evidence whatsoever

[TrianonDave]

The gut wrenching feeling i had after Bruce blew it at wembly with his tactics just wont go away, having to pick my lad up after that game was tough.
Bruce wont wuit cis he will lose big bucks but if another team lije sheff utd coming sniffing he will be off quicker than hookers knickers
I can still see him leaving just before the season starts..
Not for me know, Bruce must go, lets do a swap with Warnock. He would play Ross and he would get goals.

[westcountryvillain]

Good post Picasso, Bruce is a man of integrity and tells the truth - now whilst that may not be what we want to hear, at least he can be trusted to be honest. He is of the Fergie mould having played under him and he won't suffer fools - the fact he had more faith in Gabby than Ross Mac speaks volumes. He also will have more than enough money already and so could have walked, he hasn't & whilst there's no crystal ball, that too speaks volumes.

It's no secret we are in dire straits financially so the selling players comment is of no consequence, the sharks are waiting to go in for the kill, in my view they will leave it until the very end of the transfer window to force our hand. Less cashflow threatens us and means we can't even sign cheaper replacements for the expected departures.

Grealish has turned into a great player under Bruce, he also signed Johnstone & Snoddy, made a good call on Hutton at LB and people forget that Jedinak can't play every game. I do wonder though if he has the man management skills to re-evaluate his approach to Ross Mac and turn him into a sellable asset, Lambert ruined Bent's career, costing us a fortune and this looks to be the same kind of thing.

When all is said and done this season, if we finish top half then he will have done a decent job.

[bongosdad]

Good posts westcounty and Picasso.