Steve Bruce makes admission about Aston Villa January recruits
By Danny Wright
Steve Bruce has admitted that Aston Villa’s January recruits will need time to settle at the club.
Villa signed seven new players in January and six of them started against Nottingham Forest on Saturday evening.
Sam Johnstone, James Bree, Conor Hourihane, Birkir Bjarnason, Henri Lansbury and Scott Hogan were all named in Bruce’s starting line up with Jacob Bedeau the only new signing not in the squad.
Jack Grealish and Nathan Baker were the only two players in the starting 11 to have played for the West Midlands club before this season.
Bruce’s men lost 2-1 to Forest in the dying moments of the game after taking the lead in the 19th minute from Jonathan Kodjia.
“Look I’m very privileged to stand here and be Aston Villa manager and when you see the support like that they’re terrific,” Bruce said to the Birmingham Mail.
“I think they realised on Saturday they’ve got beat but I think they realised we looked a half-decent team with a threat and played with a spirit amongst them.
“They want to do well, the five or six we’ve brought in really want to take the club where it wants to get to.
“It’s going to take time, we all know that but there were encouraging signs.”
However the Villa fans may not want to be as patient as Bruce, who replaced Roberto Di Matteo as manager in October, as they will be still be hoping for an immediate return to the Premier League after their first relegation from the top flight since 1987.
The Birmingham-based club currently sit in 14th place in the Championship, 13 points away from the play-off places, but worryingly for some, just eight points above the relegation zone.
Their next two matches in the Championship are both home games. They face Ipswich on Saturday before playing Barnsley the following Tuesday.
In other Aston Villa news, this Villa midfielder says he has endured a bad experience at the club.
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