Harry’s Call
Ex-Blues boss Harry Redknapp loves to talk and early this week, during an after dinner speech at Walsall’s Banks’s Stadium, he gave the details of a phone call he had with his once opposite number Steve Bruce, earlier in the month.
As reported in the Birmingham Mail, according to Redknapp, the Villa boss called him on the eve of Villa’s trip to Barnsley and highlighted the pressure he was under.
“Everybody wanted to sack Steve Bruce!” Redknapp told his audience in Walsall.
“Brucie rung me (two weeks ago), he went: ‘I think I’m going to get the sack if we get beat tomorrow’.
“I said: ‘No, you’ll be all right’, and Birmingham sacked me instead!”
While not his biggest fan due to the past year, on the MOMS podcast we called for the common sense approach of patience as Bruce was waiting for certain factors to help boost Villa’s fortunes.
Jonathan Kodjia and Mile Jedinak were still to return, Robert Snodgrass had just signed and several other players introduced from the summer transfer window, needed at least some games to settle.
Villa Supporters in the MOMS survey also seemed to very much agree with our thinking on this.
Although, as we say on the podcast, if Villa had lost against Barnsley and not beaten Forest, it would have been hard to see him surviving much longer.
Greatest Podcast Show in the Sky
On the latest podcast episode, which was mainly recorded at Villa Park during the Villa vs Brighton U-23 match, we discuss what has changed in the Villa team in recent weeks and what Bruce’s settled first XI is getting it right.
The show sees a debut appearance for Holte End season ticket holder and music producer Chris Budd, as we also highlight a few U-23 players, discuss the Nottingham Forest game, before we teleport (literally!) into the future to look back at Villa’s 4-0 away win at Burton.
We also look ahead to the Bolton game and the expectations after the upcoming international break.
There’s also ‘Twitter with Tony’, while Negatron is concerned by all those away goals against Burton. Right at the end of the show, we teleport to visit Negatron in the future…
Thanks to Chris Budd for joining the show at Villa Park. Check out his music here: Budd Music
Enjoy
UTV
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Podcast featuring:
David Michael – @oldmansaid
Dan Rodgers – @avfc_vilr
Chris Budd – @BUDD_music
My Old Man Said – https://www.myoldmansaid.com
Villa Underground – http://www.villaunderground.com
Producer – David Michael
Voices – Dan Rodgers
Portal Gun – Rick Sanchez
I think he really was that close to the sack. And while I wasn’t fully signed up to the “mass hysteria” calling for a change, I wasn’t convinced things were getting any better. After the Brentford and ‘Boro 0-0s, our record after twelve months of Bruce, and his two transfer windows, left us no better off than after RDM’s departure. But here we are. With a much improved away record, close to the play-off positions and in touching distance of the automatic promotion spots, and scoring a hatful of goals with Kodjia yet to make his mark. But I’m not signing up to the current “mass hysteria” either that everything has changed and Bruce has now got everything right. We still give the ball away too easily (I know possession isn’t everything, especially when teams like Forest do little with it). Tomorrow we should win easily. Bolton bottom. Shipping goals. Villa scoring goals for fun, full of confidence. But as somebody once said, “Football, eh? Bloody hell!” Let’s hope we go into the international break with another good win, inside the play-off spots. There are tougher tests ahead in October…