Bakes, I agree to a certain extent, but after working with him a year he should have some idea what he is like. He came back unfit, not interested and obvious he wanted away. What was said and how it was handled is anybodies guess, but Bruce was criticising him in the press, probably not the best thing to do when the player is already unhappy.
For me it looks like Bruce's man management leaves a lot to be desired, unless you are one of his favourites (like most managers) too many players have come and gone quickly or never been on the pitch, there seems to be a mismatch between getting them to the club and keeping them happy once at the club, begs the question whats going on. When under pressure he tends to play the blame game and use excuses like squad, injuries, youth and inexperience with little thought for any knock on effects to the players themselves or morale. As you know I am not a big fan of Bruce, it can by argued that he has not spent a lot of money (and is by some) but the reality is he has had the money to spend more than the majority of clubs that we can compete with in the league and not spent it wisely. The team is unbalanced, still no LB lacks pace and guile, he has bought 20 odd players in his 2 years but still can't field a balanced team, its incredulous tbh.