It wasnt long ago since everyone was talking about Bruce saying he was the next man Utd manager and he has done a brilliant job for the club. Whats happened to that talk, afew bad results and hes 'once a geordie always geordie' with no spine who instigated newcastles victory and draw against us. Its the biggest load of rubbish i have ever heard in my life. Some people have to get realistic here, you cant heckle a manager out like what newcastle did starting with Bobby onwards leading them to go into the championship and not being that european club they were. Its what, our fourth prem season and already expect what? Europe. Get real. Wasnt Fergie seen as a joke at United at the start of his reign? Come off it all you, 'we should be doing better than Bruce' people. **** the Martin Oneill talk, i dont care if hes a sunderland fan, I'm a Sunderland fan and apparently some people on here are too (you wouldnt have guessed it) but we wont get the job. Were on terrible form, yes but we are still 5 points off Bolton in 8th and they are having a 'class season'.We only finished like 2 points ahead of them last season. Our players are **** now too, Sess and Muntari are championship level ect. People are just looking for anythingto have a good go at the team and some people will always be like this. Lets Support the team here and not blast them out of the Stadium. If your going to turn up to the rest of the home games to heckle at the team Stay at home and let everyone else actually encourage the team and show them that the fans are behind them. KTF lads and lasses, were in a better position that what we were at the end of the 08/09 season by a long shot with way better players, a better owner and a better manager. Dont Ruin it here or else we could be in the championship and back to square one. Its a building process and were still building our team!
Good article. I've been a Bruce fan since day 1 and i believe he's brought some quality players to Sunderland. My support of him is beginning to crack now though and Sunderland fans are well within their rights to question him after what's gone on the last few months. It would be small club mentality NOT to question him. I simply can't accept the left wing of our team. I WILL NOT ACCEPT IT! Our team is now the ugliest, most useless team in the league almost entirely due to having NO left wing. We can't enter a game of PL football and expect to get anywhere with this standard of football and lack of balance to the team. How can the manager have allowed this to happen? We've tried to save a million quid by not meeting the N'Zogbia transfer fee, we'll have lost more than money than that not signing him. We'd still be in the top 7 had we only signed N'Zogbia, is that not worth the extra million quid? We've NO players capable of playing on the left side of the team. This is the manager.
'one chance somoa' --who says Bolton are having a 'class' season like?? Might be class for them-with them being a smaller club, but in the big picture they have a pretty poor points return. If you finish lower than 6th or 7th then formm what i have seen you will be at best an average side-even if you finish 8th. Just look at the number of games won etc. and it looks poor. Don't compare yourselves in any way to crap like Bolton ! Apart from that I agree with what your saying. the turnaround in fans attitude in 3 months has been quite shocking. I know results haver been crap-but you lost your goalscorer Bent and have struggled since- yet now the well run/organisedmanaged club now in many eyes is crumbling and the manager needs to go !! This is not the way to build a successful club
All ifs buts and maybes. What if we hadn't gone 14 without a win last year? Bent never left us last year. This year is too similar.
I am a big Bruce fan and like the man but I am even more a big Sunderland fan, was here long before Bruce and will be here long after him. We are a well run club, thats why he is still here and we have some good players, thats my concern. With good players and a good set up we are playing rubbish, why? Motivation, team slection, formation, effort, training, whatever is wrong it alls on the manager to put it right, I want him to. The big question's are, what if he cant and how long do we give him?
FFS it isn't the crowds fault the team are playing ****! It isn't the crowds fault at set plays no one seems to have a clue! It isn't the crowds fault our manager doesn't have a plan "B" and his plan "A" isn't working! In my 50 years of SAFC I have cheered some right ****! But I have also booed the ****ers off when I have seen no effort or grit! A few years ago we were watching a very mediocre Sunderland performance led by our Captain at the time Mr Whitehead. It was an amazing display of ineptitude where every pass he played went astray, not one successful tackle or interception. Must have been about 60 minutes in when after another miss placed pass and the crowd as one groaning and face palming. My mate stood up, a big lad with a bigger gob and shouted through the silence...... "Oi! Whitehead we are playing in Red and White!" Got a laugh and a ripple of applause. Whitehead heard coz he looked over, for that last 30 minutes he upped his game flying into tackles and was a general nuisance. (His passing was still **** mind )
The support of the manager is admirable and one that I would like to concur with but I would like to shoot one huge hole in it. I'm not sure what top expect after 4 years in the EPL but what I certainly dont expect after 4 years in the EPl, after the biggest investment in our history, the highest wage bill and the biggest sales pitch to sell season tickets by the Chairman personally, is not 7 defeats in 8 games and totally outplayed by a relegation haunted WBA team AT HOME. A manager deserves support of course but in return we have to see some improvement for our investment. 2 relegation battles in 2 years and 2 total collapses in the 2nd half of the season (Bruce’s 4th such collapse with 3 different clubs) is not my idea of progress. Had we finished the season with a bit of a flourish and won say 4 and drawn 2 out of the 7 remaining games, then there is hope for the coming season. Losing 8 in 9 on Saturday at Birmingham will be the straw that breaks the Bruce regime back IMO. I thought SB was 'the man' for us and would have loved to see him emerge form this slump with a bit more fight and vigour. Sadly, his body language at the end of the game on Saturday and in the interview rooms post match, told a different story for me and he knows the game is up. His time is over at SAFC for him and his backroom staff. He has not made the best fist of things with the resources and backing he has received. Also, I thought the crowd were fantastic in their support on Saturday despite the absolute ****e on offer and only showed their feeling when the 3rd one went in and at the end of the game. After 35 years of disappointments and false hopes, yet another one shouldn’t bother me but it did. Massively.
Bolton are having a class season. Yeah 5 points ahead of us and safe. They also took the cups seriously and can look forward to at least one trip to Wembley in the next few weeks. On a side note, they also finished on the right side of a 5-1 result to the mags this season. Pretty ****in class if that was our season.
this is my feelings we have invested well in all areas we have more than decent players at safc but why at the second part of the season do we fould under and lie down. for more then 50 years now our hopes have been that we can establish ourselves in the top flight and again we have faded away. this squad we have now will be hard to strenghthen as many players will not join a team who find it hard to cement there place in the top flight.we need to complete the season in style and maybe let other people we mean buisines for 2011 2012 season
A good article, with good response from fellow fans, but for me Bruce has to go , be it now or later, totally lost faith in him.
I do think Bruce is a good manager but when runs like this happen twice a season then questions must be asked. Also I believe Sunderland fans are one of the most tolerent in the league when it comes to giving managers a good crack at the whip but I can also understand the fan's frustration that we have ended up where we are today. You will always get some neds coming on calling for his head after a few defeats but they are part of football and every club has them. Like you say though one win and we are back in the top 10. The only gripe I have with Bruce is similar to that of Keane prods the giant whereby in two seasons he has failed to address the left side of our team, although I do feel Bruce recognises this and in the summer we will sign left sided players to balance the team. KTF
I would also like to add I also thought the crowd were fantastic on Saturday, fully behind the team even when 3-2 down but obvious dissappointment at the full time whistle.
For all to see sunderland afc are crumbling however if you can limp/crawl over the line then in the summer spend the money for bent and have a rest then get rid of the carp at the club then you will be ok however i have to say on 606 at the begining when you started to belive you could be 7th at the end of the season the regulars were all saying then you need to keep your feet on the floor. and calm down your not going to be relegated like some of us and stick by bruce because he has just been unlucky with suspensions,injurys, selling players, having a small squad and having a young squad
Uhhhmmm no. Your squad has quality players, and should be doing better. It was once, until the form suddenly nosedived. Why? Who knows. However, there WILL be reasons for it, and brushing over them is an easy way to send yourselves into the Championship. Pretending these issues don't exist is just moronic. In my view, Bruce has a lot to account for: Injuries. This many injuries isn't normal, and it isn't just bad luck or a fluke. Something is wrong with the training or workload which is leaving the players unconditioned. Tactics. Numerous tactical errors which have cost matches Squad selections. It's taken three or four losing games before Bruce finally realised and made some selections. Too little, too late. Morale. The squad is low on morale. It IS the managers job and responsibility to sort that out and bring the team together.
Very good article. For me, sadly, I think SB has to go, and go sooner rather than later. I would have loved it if he had succeeded but just staying up isn't enough now. I would love to be in Bolton, or even Stoke's position. Relatively safe and a good day out to look forward to. Yet again we are staring up the league. x
Yep - pretty accurate summary, I reckon. The buck has to stop somewhere, and it's with the Manager. I feel that he has to go at the end of the season, irrespective of our final position. By the way, you did well with the predictions, considering you left two out - entering again?
I wasn't overjoyed in the first place with his appointment, and feel we could have and should have done better. However i did stick by him once appointed, after last seasons 14 games of agony, he slightly turned it round, then with this seasons bad run of form,well its just not acceptable, in any other type of employment he would have been shown the door, so i like many others i have grave doubts as to whether he can raise the tempo, and results for the run in, personally i do not think this is the man to take us further in our quest.
I actually won ã20 with a ã1 accumulator that week. I had ã5 on for the same results as the ã1 bet, but I put Blackburn to win against Brum. The extra quid was for them to get a draw just to cover myself. And yeah, probably will.
I think many of us feel we probably will stay up but the next 6 games are key to our opinion on Bruce. If we do well and win 4 out of 6 or something and play well then I am sure we will be happy with Bruce enxt season. Quinn's tune isnt going to change and he backs Bruce all the way but the key man is Short, hes the man whos plowing the money in and getting very little in return.
