Cabbage-Gate: Steve Bruce didn’t deserve it

The Aston Villa chronicle of the past 24 hours has been decked out with the tapestry of two major stories.

Firstly, Steve Bruce and his backroom staff have been given the boot. They are no longer needed at Villa Park and have had their contracts terminated. Villa will now search for a new manager to guide the club forwards, towards promotion.

Secondly, Steve Bruce had a cabbage thrown at him before his final game in charge - when Preston North End came to see out a 3-3 draw at Villa Park.

Our focus, and quite rightly, is going to be the fact that Steve Bruce, a man who continued to perform his role at Aston Villa despite the failing health, and subsequent deaths of his parents - finished off his time at Villa by having a vegetable launched at him. We’ll talk more in future about the weird and toxic atmosphere of last night soon, but come on - there is nothing Bruce has actually done to deserve objects being chucked his way.

The thing is, this is being treated like banter because it was a vegetable that was thrown. Yeah, that’s all well and good - but why is it any less sinister than an object of a similar weight being launched at him? It’s funny because it’s a cabbage, I guess so. A cabbage also weighs the same, if not more, as a bag of Tate-Lyle Cane Sugar, or a third of a house brick. If one of those objects connects with you, does it not hurt? Especially if it’s being thrown at you by a bloke who doesn’t like you.

Details on the exact trajectory of the cabbage don’t really exist - and it’s one thing if it had simply been rolled at Bruce, but it’s a completely different thing if it was thrown towards him.

All-in-all, while this salad has a dressing of banter, it’s still downright sinister that someone though it wise to throw something at a football manager, whose only crime was not be a good enough football manager. What does that say about this entire saga?

Aston Villa can do better, in both respects.