Time to think about a contract extension for our Steve..? Steve Bruce City record so far....game ratio, 29 games, 15 wins 6 draws 8 lose = 51.72 Win % ( source Wiki ) longest he has stayed at a Club 270 games with Birmingham
I don't think a contract extention is needed just yet. Things can change so quickly in football. He's done a great job so far and I think the main aim is to continue for the second half of the season. I do however think if we go up he'll be given a new and improved deal to keep him at the club long term.
The Maggies can't help being daft; they have never forgiven us for their relegation, as, apparently, it was our fault!
IF Hull City get to the PL in May and we are still in the PL come the summer of 2014 then thats the time to offer a good extension. Not before.
Agreed and I refer you to my OP (below) from December: It's obviously a big 'if', but if we could get promotion this season Steve Bruce would be the perfect manager for us in the EPL. Cast your minds back to the difficulty Brown and knob head had recruiting anyone when we went up and the astronomical fees and wages they had to pay for average players. We were an unfashionable club who were seen as favourites to go straight back down so decent players didn't want to take the risk. We would be in the exact same position if we went up again, but with Bruce's mastery of the transfer market and his experience and reputation I think we could recruit much better players for far less. I know the typical reaction to this will be - "Let's worry about it when it happens and not tempt fate." but Bruce's stock will rise enormously if we get promotion and we will struggle to keep him. The Allams need to be putting a package together now that will tempt him to commit to the club if we go up. Also having supported City since 79 I think SB is the best all-round manager we've had and we won't get anyone better if he leaves.
"Cast your minds back to the difficulty Brown and knob head had recruiting anyone when we went up and the astronomical fees and wages they had to pay for average players." Did we sign any 'average' players?
Boateng, Zayatte, Mouyokolo possibly. Geovanni on his day was a class above, Hunt was decent for his work rate and if Bullard's knees hadn't packed in he would also have been above average. I can't think of any others that achieved average.
Isn't Brucey already on a 3 year deal? If so, you're saying you'd extend it to 5/6 years? Pretty ridiculous to give out that contract when he's only half way through his first year really. What if we got Promoted and ended up 'Doing a Derby'. Sacking him would be devastating for us financially due to the compensation he'd need. You'd wait till he's at least proved he's able to keep us in the Top Flight first. We need to learn from past mistakes regarding money and contracts. I think the Allams know what they're doing.
That might technically be true - I don't know, but in truth the written document doesn't have much effect if a manager wants to move on. We need to make sure SB is comfortable enough with the terms to stay with us if bigger clubs try to tempt him. That may be what he has already signed, but if not some of the terms might have to be improved.
He'd be able to walk from a 5/6 Year deal too though. You can't have a contract that restricts a Manager from leaving, or at least I didn't think you could. I don't see why everybody's scared of him leaving TBH. He's here, doing a good job, winning games, getting financial backing, why would he leave? If an EPL Club fighting for relegation want him, he'd probably say no because he's winning games here. Why leave a side where you're winning to go to a side that struggles to win? A manager would be stupid to leave a Club like us to go to a team such as Aston Villa, Reading or Southampton where he could potentially be sacked again if he fails to keep them up. I wouldn't worry about Brucey leaving, he seems happy and unless things were going incredibly bad, he wouldn't go. Sunderland fans gave him a torrid time, and I think he's relishing the respect he gets from us.
For managers, the only difference between a 1 year deal and a 5 year deal is the payoff that a club has to give if they give him the sack. They can still resign or be approached by other clubs at any other time. The players are a far bigger concern for me at the minute. In fact, the whole squad's contractual situation at the moment is unbelievable - I think there's only Quinn and Proschwitz who have contracts beyond June 2014, with the exception of possibly one or two more.
Trouble is if we go up it's more likely that we'll lose more games than we win in the first few seasons. If Bruce is offered a job with a more established EPL team with a bigger budget his head could be turned. The length of his contract is less important than the terms included being to his satisfaction.
The only difference from our point of view is that if we have him tied down to a five year deal we would get far more compensation than if he had one year left on his contract. Obviously he still has a long way to go on his deal at the moment, so i wouldn't extend it but there is some benefit to him having a longer deal. Also if we do go up and come back down i would still want Bruce in charge.
What we think doesn't really matter, it is what the Allams have in mind. I think they were very astute getting him in, in the first place. I have always thought that they used this situation with NB as an excuse to get him out, as they realised that he was not experienced enough to get the team into the EPL. Whether you feel that was the right thing to do or not is open to debate if that was the case, but the result is that we have a manager in place, who has quickly put a team together that are playing the best football I have seen for a long time. I suspect that if we do get promoted this season, then they will look to extend his contract, or there may already be a option for that to happen in his existing contract.
As long as we're not doing shocking, he should be fine. He wouldn't get sacked if we were a bottom half of the League side, but stayed up quite comfortably every year however, if another team doing better with a bigger budget came in for him as you've said, then his head may then be turned. I can't see that happening anytime soon though, so we'll have at least a few good Seasons with Brucey yet.
Seems Bruce is becoming a bit of a favourite for you lads.. He'll certainly take you on a roller coaster ride, plenty of ups and downs.. We had highs of beating Chelsea away 3-0, and lows of getting knocked out of the cup by Brighton on a night when he decided a team with no strikers was a good idea.. Seems like he's heading your club in the right direction though, and will certainly bring in players. About time he came back in for Campbell.
