Yep 100%, as I've said many times, some of his decision making was poor, but it seemed to always be a case of when we lost it was his fault when we won it was due to the greatness of Graeme Jones.Bodacious Benny wrote: ↑Wed Oct 20, 2021 11:46 amSome fair points, and whatever people think of his ability football wise I don't condone in any way the people who level personal abuse at him (or any other person doing a job). It was the same with Pardew, sure - if you didn't like his management then criticise him for that, but personal abuse is totally unwarranted.lassassinblanc wrote: ↑Wed Oct 20, 2021 10:39 am
These quotes from him are heartbreaking, as I always said I think he did as good a job as he could under an Ownership who pretty much told him how high he could jump despite him wanting to jump higher.
He got a lot of unwarranted criticism at times which as I've said when Rafa was in charge was directed towards Ashley rather then the manager.
Despite what his criticisers said he did care a lot about the club and only wanted what was best. A lot of his bad periods came at points where we either had terrible injury, covid issues or just a really tough run of fixtures but once we got our better players back we improved.
I'll just point out too I'm happy to see him go and look forward to what a new ideas will bring to the team.
But I'll always say to him as above he done his best under difficult circumstances
I'd say the last 2 seasons he has done okay generally, all things considered. I do think a lot of it was in spite of him though rather than down to him.
This season has been an unmitigated disaster though, and the blame for that is solely at his feet. Injuries haven't been too bad, but his baffling selections, tactics and playing players out of position has completely sunk us. Why hasn't Lewis had a chance? Why doesn't Fraser get a chance on the wing (rather than cameo's at CM), why is Gayle sitting on a new 3 year contract yet doesn't ever feature, why is Schar not featuring, why is our best DM regularly played at CB, why do no young players ever get a chance...the list goes on. His choice of language when talking about the fans was also poorly thought out.
There was many times he was criticised due to the position of the club but we were in the same position under Rafa the previous years and while there were a few who criticised him, it was mostly don't worry Rafa has this we'll be OK and as said everything was fired at Ashley under Bruce he got the flak as did his son.
One last opinion here and for Mods to delete if it causes any issues
I do see also that Craig Hope is gloating his views around. I've said many times Hope is a prick who seemed to have it in for Bruce from the start and got the hump when Bruce was able to throw his spiteful comments back at him.