"Let's be fair, Aston Villa went down with a whimper. There was no association with the players anymore, it had broken," Bruce said.
"I remember speaking to the technical director at the first game against Wolves and thought oh, oh, wow! Of course the culture of the club at the time was... I mean, we hadn't won away from home for 18 months. Some of the stats were just absolutely ridiculous.
"My initial thought, and (technical director) Steve Round agreed with me, was, 'we've got to stop the rot here and just keep the club in the Championship', would you believe. That's how low I thought it had got.
"That is why I went down the route of bringing in the likes of (Glenn) Whelan and (Ahmed) Elmohamady, John Terry of course, (Mile) Jedinak - all people who can handle playing for Aston Villa.
"A lot of work has gone in in 18 months. We've worked tirelessly and changed the squad round hugely and thankfully with winning a few games it's certainly starting to mend with the supporters.
"It certainly wasn't there when I arrived 19 months ago. There were certainly times when they wanted to rip my head off and rip the head off the players. But now, I do believe they have enjoyed seeing what we have got at the moment."