I mean this in all seriousness, I think Bruce is the best manager we've had for many a year, the proof is in the quality of squads he inherited and the quality he has given us now. Lets remember Bruce has a net transfer spend of almost break even, maybe tops £5-10million spent more than sold, for the experience, quality and winning mentality he has brought in for just over £10 million, the guy has done an outstanding job: 08/09 squad: C.Gordon T.Carson M.Fülöp P.Bardsley G.McCartney N.Nosworthy D.Collins A.Ferdinand R.Anderson P.McShane P.Da Silva T.Tainio Whitehead (team captain) C.Edwards S.Malbranque K.Richardson D.Murphy G.Leadbitter A.Reid K.Jones D.Healy M.Waghorn A.Stokes R.OâDonovan 11/12 squad: Craig Gordon Keiren Westwood Simon Mignolet Phil Bardsley Michael Turner Wes Brown John O'Shea Titus Bramble Louis Laing Lee Cattermole (team captain) Sebastian Larsson Craig Gardner Kieran Richardson Jack Colback David Vaughan James McClean David Meyler Ahmed Elmohamady Stéphane Sessègnon Nicklas Bendtner (on loan from Arsenal) Fraizer Campbell Connor Wickham Ji Dong-Won How can anyone look at these squads and say that Bruce has taken us anything other than massively forwards? We have champions league winners (O'shea and Brown), some of brightest young prospects (Wickham, Ji), Players with passion who can stir the crowd and the team (Gardner, Cattermole, Bardo), Players with class and skill (Sess and Bendtner). If it were not for Bruce we would not have signed players like Bendtner and Gardner both of whom said Bruce was massive in them coming, I also highly doubt we would have got O'Shea and Brown in, people seriously need to get off his back and realise three things: 1) This is an incredibly difficult league, there are no easy games, geting on Bruce's back because we drew at Swansea is ridiculous, they just pasted West Brom (who many of you would have said are a better team than us a few weeks ago), any point away from home in this league is brilliant. There is no right to beat anyone, everyone seems to think we have a right to beat the bottom half teams at home easily, it is not that easy. 2) Players can't instantly gel, most of you have probably never left the north east. Try moving home, settling into a new area, moving your family, finding new schools, settling into a new job and then having to answer to 40,000 people every week. It aint easy, again we have no right to win premier league games and just expect the players to instantly be beating teams in this difficult league. 3) Most importantly, we are not a big club, big clubs win things, we haven't for years and big crowds may attract players but do no entitle us to win football games. Given where we have come from 10th place last season was fantastic and 4 games into the season is no time to start calling for the managers head. Bruce has given us a squad to be very proud of so lets start geting behind them. Sorry for the rant, I just find it embaressing some of the negativity I read on here, don't forget where we've come from
I find it difficult to say this is the best manager we have had in years after you look at his win ratio since he has been here. The best manager we have had in recent years is Peter Reid by a country mile. 7th twice and got zero support from Murray to progress just when he needed it. I'm afraid Bruce is an ok manager, but Reidy was a much better manager in my opinion
Fantastic? Not even I'd go that far. He has however made steady progress over the last few years. Reidy and Smith are probably the best managers I can remember at Sunderland. None of them exactly set the world alight which just goes to show how crap we have been. Bruce certainly has a chance to overtake both of them. I hope he takes it.
valid points flanders, i do think though that brucey would have done a lot more if players like Bent and Gyan hadn't left him in the lurch twice now, we were 6th when bent left, he had us going for europe in fairness to him
You could say he's been a great recruitment consultant, one of the best we've ever had, but he hasn't been a great manager. There's a big difference, although I do agree that if Bruce left tomorrow, we could unquestionably say he'd progressed the club. If he'd have kept Jones, Bent & Gyan, we wouldn't be worried about his tactical naivety.
cyprus, i think that is a very fair assessment, it jsut winds me up how quick people are to slag off bruce, relatively he has done a really good job in a short space of time, given the money grabbing tossers have pulled the rug up from under his feet a few times now too
Totally agree. MUCH better squad, top 10 finish, good stlye of play...but we lose to NUFC and apparently we are terrible and going to get relegated. I am very positive about our team and whole ethos right now. Keep it up Brucey!
Bendtner is classy and skilful??? I think he's a good player but that's not a well thought out evaluation of him
I'm a Bruce fan but I try and keep it secret. I agree that Reid is still the best in my opinion but Bruce can take his title. I thi k the reason for the backlash against Bruce is understandable and TBH I dont get this blinked all good or all bad view. We all know the bits that have us scratching our heads, the Brighton team stands out, but we can all see the bits he gets right. If he is given the time, and I think he will be, he can become a legend, or a flop. Thats the fun of being a footy manager.
Bruce just needs to win games. Everyone will be back on side soon enough when we get back in the top ten. You shouldn't underestimate the power of the Derby. That game hurt very badly and may have clouded peoples opinions a tad. That said our home form has been shocking for quite some time, people are right to point it out.
Although I loved jones. He hasn't got the right head on his shoulders mate, he was far too lazy, but what a player he could have been, I think Bruce made the correct decision to sell and bring in gyan BUT then gyan turned out to be a greedy bastard. And bent, just hate the geeza, he done it for all the wrong reasons. So I think bruce has been unlucky really, we could have had a very strong team now if it wasn't for the ones that left.
I'm prepared to give him a wee bit of time, i think we all got a bit panicked with the start, when in reality we knew it was tough, and a new team. Problem i still have is the lack of any apparent plan b, everyone back for corners, but these things alone don't mean he's no good. He scored points back with me last week by dropping Catts, i didn't personally think Catts needed to be dropped, but it was the balls behind the decision that i liked. To leave Vaughan in there for Mondays game, and not revert to type as it's an away game, that will raise him even further up my page. Problem is, we need a full season without any sustained bad run for him to receive the full confidence of all, and that is tough, really tough.
I wasn't blaming Bruce for them leaving fella, KJ was his choice, the other 2 he got ****ed over. Point i was making is, with the correct goalscorer, we could easily overlook many of Bruce's inadequacies, and we are good enough under him to do well WITH the goals.
You can't rely on delivery on time though. The post takes ages & even the women have bother getting the bairns out in their allotted nine months. Other than that BOB/BIB? Just having a sit on my fence just now.
I honestly think you my man are an arse-hole of the highest order. These lads will soon suss you but from Joe just ****ing do one..
