Not for me, he was still heavily backed that year we got into Europe. He completely ****ed that up and made a complete mess in the transfer market too. Our success was built on hardworking players but he decided to **** them off for players like Ramirez, Diame and Ben Arfa, who were all technically very good but their work rate wasn't. That's the difference between the recruitment this year. We've gone for a technically better year but they do put a shift in too
Bruce is a bit of a dinosaur in today’s game. I’m not even talking about the style of football he has his teams playing. It’s all the other managerial/coaching stuff he does that’s dated. His training methods, the lack of training (too many days off), the fact he uses international breaks to go off on personal holidays instead of preparing for the next game etc. He had some good years with us but I think the fact City fans are the only fans from a club he’s managed that have nice things to say about him says more about us than him. He overachieved with us but underachieved everywhere else, and even then he cocked up our once-in-a-generation run in Europe and had us relegated. I think that sums up Steve Bruce as a manager.
His record at Newcastle wasn't great, 28% win rate or something? Fact it was better than Rafa's is neither here or there. Not sure about the English manager bit, Sean Dyche stuck it out a while, Tony Pulis? Could be others but I've got to go out now...
He might have been backed with money but the unrest was there at the club at that time. Although it’s true that Ramirez and Ben Arfa weren’t great additions! Diame wasn’t too bad.
Biggest eye-opener for me about Bruce is how much Newcastle improved under Howe. Yeah, I know, they’ve got serious money backing them now (though it’s not like Ashley didn’t give Bruce money to spend either) but Newcastle under Bruce and under Howe is night and day. It’s also very telling that Newcastle players don’t shirk an opportunity to make sly digs at Bruce whenever they give interviews about how much they’ve turned it around under Howe. I think those Newcastle players genuinely hated him and the fact Howe got a tune out of them suggests Bruce was always the problem. Towards the end at Newcastle, Bruce went full-Pearson and was behaving like a passive-aggressive cock to every local journo.
Think new money coming in and the club raising its ambitions meant the players had to play for their futures. That was a factor also. They knew Ashley wasn't going to get the cheque book out and they were safe whatever league they were in before that.
100% this, he also got miles more backing then Rafa. £40m on Joelinton, Callum Wilson all brought in for him. Look at the difference in those 2 for example under Howe… night and day
Joelinton wasnt Bruce's signing. Think Rafa had previously vetoed it. Still not worth 40m despite improving under Howe.
I also loathed his condescending ‘little old Hull’ comments. He might’ve thought it was cute as part of our underdog status in the cup final but he made it sound like we’re a bunch of hicks who hadn’t discovered fire yet when we’re a city with 250k people that produced the man who was crucial to ending the Transatlantic slave trade.
Did he even want those players? Because when we were in the Championship, he didn’t get the players he wanted, the Brentford striker that was coming with Odubajo. It’s all history now anyway. Anytime someone asks me the best manager we’ve had, I always say Steve Bruce. Since I’ve been a supporter since the 80’s, we’ve not had that many, Brian Horton, Peter Taylor, Bruce, you could maybe add Warren Joyce for the great escape, Phil Brown for the promotion, but the rest, I wouldn’t say were good, most scraping by, doing a basic job. McCann got us our first title, but it was his fault we were relegated IMO, so just did what he had to, to get us back where he started.
Not to forget Steve Bruce vetoed us signing a certain Mohamed Salah from Basel for £1.5m because he said he was ****.
Rafa's win percentage was c 31.5 compared to Bruce of c 27.5 Bruce had two good seasons with us but then he completely ****ed up with a combination of 1. spending £40 million and getting us relegated and messing up Europe 2. playing his son and pissing off half the squad - putting Macca and Davies on naughty step for weeks, sending Maguire out on loan even playing Livermore at right back just so he could play Junior - playing him was one of the main reasons we got relegated - take the first Prem seaso, Junior started 20 games, we won 3, Junior didn't start 18 games, we won 7 - Junior got a prem career, played in Europe, played in the cup final but as soon as he was booted out after daddy left, he was a bench sitter at Bury, Wigan, Kilmarnock and Macclesfield - not one manager thought he was any good so it's hardly any surprise that his next big job happens to be at West Brom taken on by daddy 3. and the final thing he ****ed up was siding with the Allams against the fans - I appreciate the Allams were his employer but to come out and say the Allams had every right to change the name and then tell the fans to stop protesting and sing Allam's name from the hilltop was the final nail
The nepotism with Junior was, as you say, shameless. He wasn’t the worst player to ever play for City but he’s very lucky to have played at a level he was nowhere near good enough for. Alex Bruce playing in the Europa League rivals Darren Ferguson getting a Premier League title medal.
Former Hull City AFC man accuses Steve Bruce of nepotism By Sarad Bade Shrestha | July 8, 2014 please log in to view this image Former Hull City defender Abdoulaye Faye has launched a scathing attack on Tigers’ manager Steve Bruce for favouring his son, Alex, over him last season. Faye had played an integral role in Hull’s promotion from the Championship to the Premier League during the season before last but saw himself limited to only 3 Premier League appearances last year. The former Senegalese international has since been released by the Tigers and upon his departure from the KC Stadium, Faye has sensationally claimed that his lack of first team action was down to manager Steve Bruce favouring his son, Alex, over him and insisted that his exclusion from the first team was not justified. please log in to view this image Steve Bruce accused of favouring his son Alex last season by Abdoulaye Faye The defender said, “I’ll say it loudly, coach Steve Bruce dismissed me in favour of his son Alex Bruce. This was a choice that was not explained and was not justified. This situation was so bad that even his team-mates protested whenever they saw him on the bench.”
Didn’t even know about this. Thanks. When you look at the centre-halves we had when Junior was here, Hobbs, Chester, Faye, Macca, Davies, Dawson and Maguire, it’s a disgrace he started ahead of any of them when fit and available.
