Bruce has steadied the ship even if a cruise to promotion looks well beyond Villa at the moment.
If there was any niggling bad feeling on the behalf of some Aston Villa supporters when Steve Bruce, a promotion winner with local rivals Birmingham City, returned to the Midlands to clean up the wreckage left by their relegation campaign, it has surely been swept away after a positive first few months at the helm.
After all, the prospect of successive relegations looked a lot more conceivable than an immediate top flight return with predecessor Roberto Di Matteo tallying just one win in his first 12 Championship games in charge.
However, though the prospect of standing 13th at Christmas is hardly what ambitious owner Tony Xia would have had in mind, Villa can take some solace in knowing that the play-off places are still within reach. In fact, they’re just six points, or two wins, away.
Consequently, any initial ‘blue nose’ jibes aimed at the genial Geordie gaffer are looking rather irrational in hindsight. After all, Bruce has taken charge of 11 games so far and has emerged victorious in six of them. That’s a 55 per cent win ratio; the best in the club’s history, better than Martin O’Neill, Ron Saunders or Joe Mercer.
True, the sample size is small and the opposition much weaker than they’re used to, but when you consider that Di Matteo’s 8 per cent win ratio ranks as by far the worst of any Villa manager in almost 150 years, Bruce’s impact at Villa Park cannot be understated.
And, even if a fourth career promotion proves beyond him, Bruce has laid the groundwork for Villa’s revival.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
