Perryqhill
Striker
As I've said Keane did some good here. I'm not dismissing him as a failure by any means just pointing out the unprecedented amount of money he had really should have taken relegation out of the equation not have us in 18th and staring down the barrel at time of his departure!
You seem unable to give Bruce any credit yet he had to almost start from scratch given we stayed up by skin of teeth season before he arrived thanks to the side that Keane had assembled so to claim all it took was a couple of quality arrivals to turn it round is frankly ridiculous Perry and I'd expect better.
I could be wrong but I don't remember ever being in the bottom 3 at any point under Bruce.
The manager who saw fit to spend that on Reo Coker and Davies also decided it would be a good idea to spend 5m on Graham and thought that Cahill wasn't good enough for his Villa side!
My overall point is that I can't understand for life of me (well I can actually but I can't be chewed to argue toss again) how Keane is some kind of hero whilst Bruce is despised!
Again though, you say one thing and then do another, it's clear you have a massive downer on Keane, why else try and twist things or mention it every other day on here at the moment? Why claim Keane wasted our chance, when Bruce had a similar one with a more established squad more recently and we're only just getting rid of his deadwood now?
Keane got us to 15th in his first season. He left us in a poor position after a tough run but it was November, with on paper what looked easier games coming up. Yes maybe we shouldn't have been in that position and maybe he could have spent that bit better, but you never ever take into consideration the context of events, it seems beyond you, it's just black and white and Keane never stayed long enough to fuck things up completely, which Bruce did with his last season of transfers. As for the side Keane built being the one that just kept us up, come on there was a world of difference between Sbragia's side and Keane's, we even got rid of about 5 or 6 players and brought two centre halves on loan. We should have been safe before April arrived that season if Sbragia hadn't sucked the life out of the squad.
I give Bruce credit because he managed to get some good players together and for a couple of spells we looked really good, but he had a golden opportunity to build on what we'd done and he messed it up completely, when for a time it looked he could get something right. Actually no he didn't have to almost start from scratch like you say, that's the biggest load of bollocks going. In Bruce's first season his side revolved mainly around one of his signings, Darren Bent and many of Keane's Gordon, Bardsley, Richardson, Malbranque, Jones, Ferdinand and then Meyler, all being regulars and I think this is the point you keep on missing, it wasn't such a bad base to add quality to. In fact of the players that Bruce signed Mensah spent a long times injured, Turner too IIRC. Cana was eventually left out for Meyler, another Keane signing and Campbell was in and out.
I don't see Keane as a hero, I just think he done very well initially, then it was beyond him, but he got us where we wanted to be. No excuses or nothing. Bruce got us thinking we might move on, we did for a short while and then completely messed it up and started making excuses and contradicting himself, it left a sour taste. You can rant on about Keane wasting his chance all you like, but Bruce had it set up for him - money, some reasonable players, being taken more seriously and a load of players already on the way out.
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