I like to share too. Our last three years final positions. You know, the bit that counts. 16th...13th...10th...
Yeah, least I'll admit we were very lucky to finish where we did last year. Very lucky. Not going to get into an argument with fellow fans, if you like where were headed with Bruce, have fun and enjoy. Not me though.
Aye, those show we have improved year on year, but with a little bit extra from the man in charge we could/should have added at least an extra place to (at least in the last 2 seasons) our finishing positions. It's far too soon to start any Bruce out campaign, but serious questions need to be asked, at the very least an older/more experience guy needs to be made available for ideas/questions to be bounced off him during the course of a game.
Here is the goal again, try and make sense of it.... Who's in the wrong position, etc. [video=youtube;-ATK9MuUAns]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ATK9MuUAns[/video]
You can call it lucky if you like. I've seen many with the same opinion. I will of course take the opposite view. How you can call the Judas affair coupled with the well noted injury crisis which ultimately cost us a push for Europe, lucky! Is beyond me.
Well **** you too pal. I am entitled to my opinion and you yours. I think Bruce is a dead man walking. He DID blow yesterdays game whether on purpose, or thorough a complete lack of tactical ability. Either way, I want him out ASAP. Its just my opinion and not going to sway the Chairman, or the owner so get off your ****ing high horse. This is a fans forum not the board of directors weekly meeting FFS. What I think or say is not even slightly influential at the club but its my opinion. Oh, and by the way this has nothing to do do with just the game yesterday - bad as it was -it comes form an appalling home record for the past 8 months. 1 win at home in 11 games? Thats as bad as the 15 point team. Bruce will be found out this year but by the time the decision is made to rid us him, a ready made, highly credible replacement in MoN will probably have gone somewhere else. That lucky 10th placed finish has masked over the cracks of 2 terrible seasons of slumps under Bruce and clouded everyone's judgement into thinking all is well. It isn't and the shame is the more Quinny backs him and the more Bruce lets him down, the less credibility he will have in Ellis Shorts eyes in the long term. The owner looked as pissed off as I did yesterday and I bet it was an uncomfortable after match discussion AGAIN for the Chairman. Bruce = excuses
Let's be honest if you can't beat this current NUFC team you never will. You can talk all you like about dominating the game but when you consider the key moments, i.e. the non penalty, and the fact that Sunderland should have had three players sent off (Larsson & Cattermole as well as Bardsley who's tackle on Colo was a disgrace) then it was fair result. The sad thing for you is that Sunderland at Board room level are light years ahead of us but because you have one of the most overated managers in the game you won't take advantage of it. Bruce has never done anything of note as a manager. He has spent tens of millions in the transfer market and turned Sunderland from a midtable PL team to a.......midtable PL team. He is tactically inept and has shown he cannot manage when the pressure is on. It's no coincidence that in both seasons under his management Sunderland have gone on terrible losing streaks which has shown he cannot turn around. Trying to claim last season was a success on the basis of finishing ahead of us on goal difference is a joke when you consider we were newly promoted and in the process of selling our best players. Get rid of Bruce and get someone like Martin O'Neill in and Sunderland could really push on. Keep standing by Bruce and you have no chance.
Ive read this whole thread now and its nothing but dissapointment about us losing. If we bagged a couple of chances in the first half we may have won or if Newcastle got a little more rub of the green they could have won by another one or two. I watched a game last night Chelsea V West Brom and based on the chances West Brom could have easily won the game, would that have meant they were better than Chelsea??? I am so gutted we lost to Newcastle and i very dissapointed with the squad we have and if we dont get a couple others in we will struggle to get into the top half of the table. I have been saying for ages that Bent needs replacing but i also know 'Darren Bents' dont grow on trees. I think we need to realise that we arent much better than Newcastle and as a first 11 i would say they edge it only because they have the right players playing in the right positions except maybe left back....but we have been doing this for ages. Im dissapointed in Bruce and the signings this summer, not in terms of quality but in terms of positions, LB, LW and striker.....how long do we have to be short in this area? I though Shane Long was excellent yesterday and he would have been a good signing, but for some reason he would not be good enough for some sunderland fans who want Forlan, Van Nistellroy, Messi.........etc. We cant even attract Crouch or Defoe. I look at our team and im worried, very worried, Midfield is good, Sess is amazing but without a goal scorer we will struggle, Gyan is not a goal scorer. Saying all this though we are still a Premiership team, battling it out with Newcastle to be NE top dogs in the toughest league in the world, a few years ago i would snap your hand off for this, i think like most things these days this isint good enough and instant success is demanded. Im neither a Bruce In or Bruce Out fan at the moment, i really feel most managers would have us in the same position and people must realise that being a premiership manager is not the same as playing Championship manager on the PC. Well done Newcastle, you deserved it (god thats hard to say lol), Good luck for the season, i hope we finish above you howvere and i hope we get some pride back in March!!!!
I dont agree that other managers would be equally as inept and tactically pathetic as Bruce. Give Martin O Neill that squad and team and we would see a much better return on our investment. You are right about the signings though although not as you state it. Our buys this summer have been very good IMO but the fundamental weaknesses of the past 2 or 3 years (namely a total lack of left sided players) has still not been addressed and the most obvious one of a replacement for Bent is still no closer to being resolved. Like you, the Longs and Doyle's of this world ARE good enough because we have no chance of attracting the top players we would all love to have. However, the fact remains that we have bid for NO strikers/goal scorers this summer and Won and Wickham are too raw to call this seasons signings. If they are used a lot this season, then Bruce will have ****ed up big time in not bringing in experienced strikers and should be lambasted for that failure too, not praised as some fans seem to want to do at his every failure. By the time March comes around I sincerely hope and pray that Bruce has gone and that we have a new manager who wants to beat the mags in charge and not a craa supporting 5th columnist desperate that we dont.
Apart from anything else, I don't think Bruce has ever been a real Newcastle supporter, which undermines this conspiracy theory somewhat. If anything, he is a Man U supporter. I remember when Newcastle beat Man U 5-0. He gave no credit whatsoever to Newcastle on Sky Sports but kept whining about a first half penalty he felt the Mancs should have had.
I wasn't impressed with either team to be honest - I suppose I'll reserve judgement on the whole 'Steve Bruce issue' until a few games in. I was watching on a poor feed so don't really have any idea how bad some of the tackles were and how much was play acting. Looked like we had a clear penalty denied but again that could be the quality of the feed. The sending-off looked nailed on mind. I liked some of our passing and thought we looked okay first half but it it becoming embarrassingly obvious we need a proper finisher. Also Gyan has looked off his game so far and I thought Wickhams first touch was poor... putting that down to nerves. Don't want to comment on the Mag players really because it will look like sour grapes but I didn't see anything to make me feel envious of (apart from the bloody goal of course ) and I even thought Tiote looked average yeserday (and I don't think he is normally). Anyway well done to the Mags once again for not bottling it.
