A section of Aston Villa fans have taken to Twitter to tear into ex-Villa Park star Darren Bent for claiming that Steve Bruce is under more pressure because he used to manage Birmingham.
The Villains squandered a two-goal lead and missed a last-minute penalty to draw 3-3 with bottom-of-the-table Preston on Tuesday night as the home crowd chanted for Bruce to leave the club.
Former Villa striker Bent believes that the amount of animosity shown towards Bruce is because he used to manage Second City rivals Birmingham.
“The fans are going to turn quicker on him that previous managers because o the Birmingham connection. For me, he is still the man for the job,” Bent said on TalkSport, as quoted by Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast’s official Twitter account.
Is Steve Bruce getting harshly treated by #AVFC fans because he managed fierce rivals Birmingham City? ?@DarrenBent thinks so… pic.twitter.com/Xmek0QEpza
— talkSPORT Breakfast (@TSBreakfast) October 3, 2018
Some Aston Villa fans blasted Bent for his comments about Bruce, with one saying that he is spouting “nonsense”.
This is Futbol has rounded up some of the best tweets below:
That’s offensive. We watch week in week out. He’s had 2 yrs,huge budgets that almost bankrupt us, he loaned out only our 2nd CB with no replacement leaving one! We have 4 wingers,but doesn’t start any prefers Grealish on wing.Then at end of game it’s GK RB RB RB RB CM CM CM CM RW
— The Villa Decree ???????? (@TheVillaDecree) October 3, 2018
https://twitter.com/stewiek/status/1047404036117471232
Lazy, inaccurate rubbish. Bruce has had more resources than any other EFL manager but we’ve had two years of mostly rubbish football and excuses. Look at the defence, look at the goalies. Woeful. We couldn’t give a stuff about the Blues connection.
— Risso (@manxvilla) October 3, 2018
https://twitter.com/BritishBuIIdog/status/1047404681482444800
https://twitter.com/D10WE/status/1047412447341174784
https://twitter.com/thetrees80/status/1047403563020943360
What a load of nonsense..Would Villa fans accept Garry Monk at this juncture? Absolutely!! Bruce has had 2 years at Villa & it's his turgid, slow, sideways, backwards, hit & hope football (if you can call it that) why Villa fans want him out NOTHING to do with being ex Blues!
— JulieBAVFC (@Julie_Bayley_) October 3, 2018
OPINION
Bent looks as though he may have booked himself another slot on TalkSport with this outrageous, ill-thought claim – they sure love a controversial comment from a guest on that radio channel. Bent couldn’t be further from the truth with this comment. If he was talking about Alex McLeish then fine because a lot of Villa fans were completely against hiring him as an ex-Birmingham manager when he arrived. But Bruce was a much better choice at the time than McLeish was when he was hired, so no one really cared about him being a former Blues boss. And in the club’s current state, it doesn’t matter who he is and what he has done because the way he is managing the club is simply inexcusable. It really is a shock that Villa haven’t sacked Bruce yet, but he could be gone by the start of the international break next week if they don’t win against Millwall this weekend.