He's still our most successful manager. Would be a good scalp if we ended his tenure by beating him on Saturday mind...
Possession stats are often meaningless. As you say it is very often one team passing the ball endlessly across the back line. What counts is what you do with the possession you have - as Burnley well know - they once beat :Liverpool with less than 20% possession
We should've fired him the year he took us down. I know he got us back up but that squad he had was ridiculous and they still managed to **** up autos. Weren't we top with like 10 to go?
I feel a strong need to defend Steve Bruce here. The man was a legend in my eyes. What he achieved with us during the ‘Hull Tigers’/Allam farce was simply incredible.
I'm surprised we haven't had Chazz on defending him, he usually does. FWIW I think SB did great things for us and the city in general and he gave us some great times, but I think in some way he's a fundamentally flawed manager. Not sure what the flaw is but in all his managerial career he's never really got to the top table and despite his numerous successes he never really kicked on to greater things.
Name an English Manager who did ‘kick on to greater things’. He was seen as failing at Newcastle, but he had a better record than Rafa, who was idolised by the Geordies.
He stuck up for the Allams, went along with their devious plan, was a big fat bullshitter, took us out of what could possibly be our only ever European adventure because the next game at home against Stoke was too important (which he only managed to draw) then took us down anyway. Oh and remember that absolute pile of complete and utter **** he came out with to defend and try to justify Alan Huttons pathetic play acting when Jozy Altidore ‘head butted’ him? And he took Michael Turner off us. The bloke is a grade 1 ****.
His first 2 years were incredible, but he really dropped off for me. I was always pretty indifferent to his treatment of young players, benching Maguire was a huge error
I liked Steve Bruce. Genuine man who had to balance some funny stuff from the owners with getting on with the job. Brought some great players in( funded by the Allams ). FA Cup final, promos etc. only thing that had me scratching my head was the struggle to get promoted the play off season.
I just think he should only be judged on the time before the attempted name change. And in that time, as you say, he did great things.
And ****ing off Tom Carney for next to nowt so he could stick his son in central midfield. I have nothing against Alex, he earned his place in our defence despite his dad being the manager, but playing him in midfield was an absolute piss take.
