Championship side Aston Villa sacked Steve Bruce on wednesday after a 3-3 home draw against Preston North End.
Ian Holloway has made a very interesting point about Aston Villa’s decision to sack Steve Bruce on Wednesday.
Bruce was given his marching orders after the 3-3 Championship draw with Preston North End in midweek. But would the former Sunderland and Wigan boss still be in a job had Glenn Whelan not missed a stoppage time penalty against Alex Neil’s side at Villa Park?
That is the question Holloway is demanding an answer to while speaking to talkSPORT’s The Social on 5 October (3.30pm).
“I’m very disappointed for Steve,” said Holloway, who hasn’t managed since leaving QPR at the end of last season.
“He turned around the squad and although there’s a lack of legs, it’s full of quality.
“Whelan’s penalty; would he have been sacked if that had gone in? I don’t think so. For me that’s ridiculous.”
Villa might have one of the most experienced sides in the Championship right now but Bruce certainly had to operate with one hand behind his back over the summer.
Aston Villa were in a financial crisis after losing the play-off final to Fulham in May and for much of the summer it seemed as if they were set to lose most of their star players with no real possibility of replacements being brought in.
Bruce was also forced to contend with Thierry Henry being heavily linked with his job during the end of the summer and Holloway believes this hardly helped the now-unemployed tactician to prepare his side for the new season.
“It’s not just the last couple of weeks, it was the fiasco in the summer. It made it very difficult for Steve, he’s been undermined since the start of the season.
“There was rumours of Henry getting the job and it was more than rumours cause there’s never smoke without fire.”
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