I havent been on here for some time now, which is due mainly to a mixture of other commitments and a large amount of fatigue of the message board circuit. However, yesterday was the catalyst for a return and to pose a thought to all Sunderland fans. As was well documented at the time, I threw 100% of my support behind Steve Bruce and despite the current circumstances would still love to do so. However, with a heavy heart it must be said, I am beginning to have some very grave reservations about his continued tenure-ship of the clubs team affairs. We have all been down this route on far too many occasions (discussing the respective managers position so early into a reign) and on nearly all previous occasions with some justification. Buxton, Crosby, Butcher, Sgt Wilko and Sbragia etc, all deserved the critique but with Bruce, it is definatley with a very heavy and saddened heart indeed that I find myself depressingly asking some very searching questions. Unprecedented financial investment; unprecedented boardroom stability; a former SAFC football legend for a chairman; top quality international players at his disposal (most of them his players) and above all universal fans support have still seen us plummet into the depths of the relegation dog fight. 35 points on January 1st and a European challenge very much on the cards and now 38 points on April 10th is an absolute disgraceful position to find ourselves in. Humiliated into admitting we are a total shambles yet again after building up our hopes (for the umpteenth time in my case) that we may have at last turned the corner of being able to compete at this level, have all turned to dust again. I do hope Niall shuts his mouth now about fans turning up or not as he now looks and sounds extremely foolish at best and downright obnoxious at worst, having a go at some fans for not coming to watch this garbage week in week out when 40,000 still turn up to be ritually made twats of home and away. Since January and the shock announcement that DB wanted away, the whole thing has disintegrated into farce. What has happened behind the scenes that we are being kept in the dark about because trust me, something catastrophic has occurred to effect this swiftest of demises. Quinny knows the game is up and rushed a contract through for Bruce to sign. I know of not one fan that was clamouring for that contract to be offered or signed and indeed the consensus of opinion in my circles was the close season would be the correct time. However, mirroring the Capello contract rush, Bruce has been secured in his financial status, by a chairman who is just far too cosy with his manager. Quinny is a good man but far too soft and nice to be a chairman of a club. In any other club in Europe, given the same scenario, the manager would have been asked to leave. Its all well and good to support the incumbent manager but there has to be chinks of light to aim for and I am sorry to say, I saw none at Man City and worse still, none at home to WBA yesterday not to mention the previous 8 or 9 weeks debarcles. WBA totally played us off the park in that 2nd half and thoroughly deserved to win. A relegation haunted club, coming to our home ground and totally outplaying us for 45 mins. Indeed, if it were not for the impressive Mignolet, we would have conceded 8 or 9 last week and probably another 2 or 3 yesterday. That is unacceptable. Its clear to a blind man that Bruce has lost the players and the dressing room. Nothing he is saying either publicly or behind closed doors (so much for the supposed clear the air talks this week with the players), is even remotely sinking in. Those players don't care if Bruce is manager next week or not. Take Muntari (please take him someone), a triple winner of the Scudeto, Italian Cup and a European Champions winner in one year, star player for Ghana at Wembley the other week and yet a total waste of space at SAFC. How can that be? Granted he has played with better standard players but he looks more like Shaun Cunnington than a European Cup winner in a red and white shirt and dont get me started on Sessegnon. Has any player looked more busy and yet offered so little than him? Did Brcue actually have him watched at all? The pace of the game has just passed him by so why chuck the lad straight in at the deep end. I think it has pissed off some of the other lads who had got us to 35 points before they came along and caused a deep split in the camp. They dont play like a team at all and thats the management team to blame not the players. Quinny may have the decision taken out of his hands because Ellis Short made it very clear 2 years ago that Bruce had one major remit and that was to stop the club being a yo yo one and not be involved in an annual relegation scrap. Bruce has failed now 2 years running and that's the reason fans are staying away not pubs showing the game. Its the pile of dog-**** they are being asked to pay to watch that keeps them at bay. I swear that were I not already a season ticket holder, it would be an easy decision at the minute to choose not to go to the game and spend more time with my family on weekends, especially on warm sunny days like yesterday. I am just pig sick of always coming back to this situation at SAFC. Continually been force fed promises of jam tomorrow are our dietary nightmare and its a diet I am sick of having to eat. I'm on my 6th or 7th 5 year plan and unfortunately, it may be my last. Like so many others I speak to, yet another relegation will be my last and even if we do escape this time by the width of a gnats foreskin, do I really believe we have any kind of positive momentum at all to take into next season? Bruce is unfortunately a dead man walking which ever way the season pans out. Will Ellis Short open up his cheque book for Bruce again to spend ã20m or ã25m, just to be a relegation haunted club in 2011/12? Absolutely not. Therefore, he will be forced to get in sub standard players or loan ones who have little or no impact. If we had gone down fighting yesterday I would be fiercely defending Bruce and urging everyone to get behind the manager but there was nothing. Absolutely nothing at all to get behind. Bruce looked like a man who knew the game was up in those last 10 mins or so and in the interviews afterwards. Flushed of face and down in manner he looked like a man waiting for the inevitable call from the Chairman. Whether it is at the behest of the owner or the Chairman himself, that call has to come. Bruce has lost the dressing room and he knows it. With Matin O Neill sitting at home watching old re-runs his past glories on Video/DVD, there is an obvious answer which would cost us nothing more than Bruce's severance package and he would have 6 games to ensure we are safe from the drop and then offer something we can galvanise around for the season to come next. To simply offer the line that changing managers isn't always the answer I offer this thought. Not to change things now will result in a desperately sad and ultimately very damaging season of horror next time out. Will that put bums on seats? Will that move the club forward? Will that ensure Short doesn't lose interest? We are once again the butt of jokes and ridicule from our bretheren up at NE1 and who can blame them. The club talked big and got us all excited and have then deflated us all quicker than a blow up doll in a sad Benwell bedsit. Massive decisions to be made in this next 48 hours and I only hope and pray someone at the club has the balls to actually make them before the whole thing collapses around our feet. Lets not kis ourselves everything will be okay. Without this change, they wont.
For a change I don't disagree Cest, sat through most of that rubbish yesterday and like you wanted SB to succeed because that would mean SAFC succeeding just can't see it happening though. As for new management not sure O'Neill will be the answer and to be honest can't think of anyone bar Mourhino (ha ha ha) who I'd want in. Got a feeling we'll be hearing what happens to SB after next weeks game win and he is safe ish lose and he'll be gone.
Van Gaal wouldn't offer us what we need IMO. A foreign coach wants to be in the Champions League not mid table club building and it would be a disaster. Martin O Neill is a British stalwart of the EPL and would relish the chance to take on SAFC under the current regime. He would have money to spend and a team of good players to manage already and his record is excellent. Look where Villa are today after he left them. They were on the verge of Champs League and now they are like us, relegation threatened. I desperately wanted Bruce to succeed but he is dead in the water. His sheen has been lost and fans like me who threw all their support at him are being shot down by those who didn't want him to start with and to be honest, I have no argument to offer. What I am witnessing now is no better than any of the aforementioned wastes of space managers teams and not even as good a battling team as the 15 pointers. We have excellent players at the club who are just not performing. Either they have become crap over night or the manager has lost them. Either way, changes have to be made now.
Van Gaal isnt the answer to SAFC's future. We need a manager that knows the english game and has past history. At 59, O Neill has one last chance to finish his career on a high after the shambles at Villa. Pick up the phone today Niall before your magic carpet is grounded for good.
Great thread but i think it's too late in the season now to change management although i think it will happen in the summer regardless of where we finish.
We have seen this all too often in the past-in my case over the last 57 years or so. It's why I'm no longer a season ticket holder (dropped after our record low points total season) and why I need to see that the Club is run professionally before I get another. I support the Club, will always support the Club but I can't take a lack of effort and have to watch. It's bad enough sitting at home and agonising over tv reports as the debacle unfolds.
I disagree. With 6 games to go a new face could galvanise the current squad to better things and give the season some momentum for the next campaign. We will probably stay up even if there were no manger in charge but its how the season ends that counts now. Will it be limping and dying under SB or perhaps with 3 or 4 wins under a new man. Those players have washed their hands of Bruce - which is why I say something of biblical proportions has has happened since Christmas and its about salvaging some pride and setting a platform for the new campaign 2011/12 now.
An excellent read any some very good points raised Cest. from me! I wrote on the poll thread earlier that I was not sure that sacking him now would be the answer, and that we should at least give him until the end of the season. What you have written has made me think again and I agree totally with the suggestion of Martin O'Neil taking over, should SB walk the plank! I did say on another thread yesterday, that I was uncomfortable talking about the sacking of managers, but having read this, I can clearly see that it is something that must be considered for the sake of the club.
You cant compere Shearer to O'Neil. O'Neil is a top class manager, Shearer let his heart rule his head, he shouldn't have managed us for those last 8 games.
Absolutely correct Barnaby. I'm not saying replace Bruce for the sake of it, or with just anybody, I'm saying there is a proven top class alternative out there sitting at home twiddling his thumbs. MoN has pedigree and history at this level and we need an alternative without a shadow of a doubt. Could a bigger gift horse ever be looked at so closely?
Do you guys even HAVE that much money? If so, why are a third of your first team players loanees? If you take away: Mensah Muntari Onuoha Welbeck Elmohamady (up until one month ago) Your squad is very thin indeed on quality players in key positions. In my view, this is one of the big reasons why you guys are falling. It was a stupid idea. Sure, you can take someone on loan, perhaps even 2 players. But that many players means that your squad is packed with people who are signed to different clubs. Why should they give a crap about Sunderland? It's not their club. When it's crunch time, there won't be the team morale or fight for the club there. It isn't just about being on the pitch either. It's in the dressing room. How can you build up long-term team spirit and companionship when half of them are only there on loan for a while? Just look at us. We had Ben Arfa who we've now signed permanently (not like he participated in any of the matches, mind) and at the moment we just have Ireland, who has yet to play. Other than that, all of the key members of the squad are signed to the club and have had years to build a team spirit, which means that when it's time to pull our fingers out, we can (most of the time, anyway).
As he has lost the dressing room, if we don't go ahead and replace him, i bet Gyan and a few more wont stick around then we will be limited on who we can pull in
Back up the truck lads.The Quinn regime has seen steady improvement in the club's fortunes.Like his predecessors Bruce knows this has to continue and this years goal is and always has been to finish in the top half.He deserves the opportunity to achieve this.
I think Van Gaal very much can be that man. People miss the fact that a lot of the time, teams he manages AREN'T champions league teams, he MAKES them champions league teams. Before Bayern, one of the biggest and wealthiest clubs in world football, gazumped us, he was a strong contender pre-Bruce. He is a winner, simple as that, and will handle the ego's and underachievemens of the 'big name' piles of ****e we have. Incidentally, Van Gaal's last job before Bayern was at AZ Alkmaar, a mid table Dutch team that had had decent backing (for the Eiridivisie), but couldn't make that next step. They became Dutch champions, for the first and so far only time in their history. Curveball? Guus Hiddink, currently unemployed if i'm not mistaken? (About as likely as sex with a nun, in the next 5 mins, admittedly)
You seem to have a facination with having sex with nuns brucey. Good post cest, I hope you stay around coz we missed you.
