Steve Bruce’s Call Outs Isolate Him as Dr Tony’s Influence Shrinks

Bullish Bruce

After Aston Villa’s win against Rotherham, their first victory after a winless run of six games, Villa boss Steve Bruce decided it was a good time to call out his critics. He labelled them “the mad few” and suggested that ‘intelligent people’ knew what he was about.

Wiser heads would have perhaps waited until after a good run of wins to start acting so bullish publicly. It didn’t pan out well for the Villa boss, as the following home loss to Sheffield Wednesday simply relied up his critics even more, as a result of his mid-week post-Rotherham comments.

Villa’s opening couple of months worth of fixtures certainly were on the soft side, but a woeful defeat against Burton in the cup, a shocker at Bramall Lane and poor showing against Blackburn, meant voices calling for ‘Bruce Out’ were also now being heard from the stands and not just on Twitter.

The sad reality is the start of this season has mirrored last season (Villa even have the same 13 points from their first nine games), and ultimately Villa haven’t progressed on the pitch from the day Bruce walked through the door, two years ago. This sentiment informs many of the listener questions asked in the latest episode (52) of the MOMS podcast.

Bruce calling out the media and fans was one of the questions raised by a listener…or should I say, by one of ‘The Mad Few’. Thanks for that moniker Brucie, we’ll run with it. As well as addressing several tactical and player-based questions, a question about Tony Xia’s current influence and Birmingham City’s current plight are also answered.

As usual, there’s a lot of fun along the way, as we try to get to the truth of the Villa-verse.

Press Play to Listen

Show Notes

After the Rotherham win bought an end to a five-game winless run, Aston Villa boss Steve Bruce got bullish calling out Villa fans for voicing criticism about his management. Labelling them “the mad few”, he went on to say that intelligent people understood what he was doing. According to a MOMS Twitter poll of over 1,500 Villa fans, 77% considered themselves ‘the mad few’, as opposed to being the ‘intelligent people’.

Against this context and recorded before Villa’s Sheffield Wednesday home loss, My Old Man Said’s podcast show’s David Michael, Dan Rodgers and Chris Budd answer the latest round of listener questions that cover a very wide of Villa-related topics.

Show highlights include:

  • Director of Football & CEO
  • Could a new manager be able to quickly change our style
  • Thoughts on the John Terry situation
  • How far down is BCFC?
  • How many players have improved under Bruce’s coaching?
  • Dr Tony’s current influence
  • Is Bruce right to call out the media and some fans?
  • Holte Suite
  • Tammy Abraham thoughts
  • Tactical flexibility
  • How long has Bruce got?
  • Kodjia and Abraham together, or just one of them up top?
  • Late subs
  • Hourihane, Grealish, McGinn together
  • Bolasie thoughts
  • And much more…

Enjoy & UTV

#AVFC

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Credits:

David Michael – @oldmansaid 

Dan Rodgers – @avfc_vilr

Chris Budd – @BUDD_music

Producer/Editor – David Michael

Voices – Dan Rodgers

My Old Man Said – https://myoldmansaid.com

Villa Underground – http://www.villaunderground.com

4 COMMENTS

  1. The sad thing for me is that we appear to lack a leader on and OFF the pitch. How much are we missing John Terry. As for Steve, a really nice guy but nice guys win nowt. Change is needed now before this fiasco turns into one horrendous nightmare. Sorry Steve.

  2. I would like to see Dean Smith given a go as well. It would be good to see Villa trying to build something more substantial on the pitch, with a clear footballing identity and seeing players improve each week because they fit into a well defined pattern of play. For years we have been ruining players

  3. I’m with Colin. The cost in anti-depressant prescriptions alone will bankrupt me if old potato head doesn’t get the hook soon.

  4. You will have to bear with me, because according to Bruce I am not very intelligent possibly mad. But my opinion is that he needs to go now. We have the players to stroll this leauge with a decent younger manager and I would give Dean Smith a go but I would be happy with anyone decent, Bruce is an old manager in a modern world and there’s no justification for having a pop at fans.
    I just hope our new owners are going to take action before it’s too late.

Comments are closed.