Aston Villa tasked Steve Bruce with returning them to the Premier League, but he was sacked earlier this season after a poor run of results.

The experienced manager led Villa to the play-off final last season, where they were beaten by the impressive Fulham. 

Since then, Villa were poor, and struggled at both ends of the pitch. 

Should Villa have sacked him, though? 

We debate…

Jay Taylor

“Nothing much has changed.

“It got to the point where Bruce had run out of time, and those same problems are plaguing Dean Smith, as they did the previous boss.

“The new manager bounce has worn off, and Smith will be given the time Bruce was not to sort out the problems.

“Whatever Villa did the same results would have followed.”

Louie Chandler 

“Definitely.

“The atmosphere at Villa Park had become absolutely poisonous and you could see that it was damaging Bruce to be there.

“I still think the way the fans turned on him was pretty disgraceful but with Smith in charge now I think they made the right move.”

Gary Hutchinson 

“The question isn’t should they have sacked him, it’s should they have sacked him earlier?

“He should have gone in the summer, leaving a new man to build a legacy.

“Instead they’ve wasted a season picking up his broken pieces of a team.”