I would agree with that Syd, as an aside people seem to under estimate Gordon's contribution. Hard to see how Bruce could be held responsible for his injury, no doubt somebody will though. Perhaps we should have kept Fulop(joking)
I have read with great interest the OP and subsequent comments and it seems to me that there are alot of people supposedly 'in the know'. We will never know the whole truth and nothing but the truth even when a story hits the newspapers how do we know it is true? Just look at how many players we would have signed if every story was true. In January, 99% of articles were pro Bruce. Everyone was happy that we had signed Sessignon and Muntari. Even the debate about signing a striker to replace Bent an awful lot of people agreed that we should not be held to ransom and sign anyone. Now we have the benefit of hindsight it is easy to pick faults and blame Bruce. Injuries have been awful this season and needs looking into but do we really know for sure that Bruce makes a player play when he is not fully fit? If a player really wants to play will he not say he is fit when only the player knows he is not fully fit? Short and Quinn will make the call that they think is in the best interests of Sunderland football club and not a knee jerk reaction! KTF
His tactics against Chelsea and in many other games were spot on IMO. Its only since Judas left and we got an unheard of number of injuries to key players - that we have struggled. I would add however, that one of his mistakes has been to rely on loan players - this is a policy which needs to be abolished next season. FFS - SAF would not have done much better over the last few games. Lol Bart
...and in others were absolutely appauling. What was he thinking of yesterday, leaving a striker on the bench and bringing on a defender when we needed goals at 2-0 down? I agree that Bent & injuries have not helped the cause, but some ridiculous formations and tactics have also cost us dear
Very rarely have I read a more sensible post than this one. 'Even the debate about signing a striker to replace Bent an awful lot of people agreed that we should not be held to ransom and sign anyone. Now we have the benefit of hindsight it is easy to pick faults and blame Bruce.' I also remember most people on here saying things like ' save the money until the summer, we will pay an inflated price for a striker now as other clubs know we are desperate and have money'. I say give Bruce a chance, he will have learned a helluva lot this season and surely wont make the same mistakes again.
Well said scatty and bart and please is anyone saying Bruce is perfect, no, he has made mistakes and needs to learn from them but to look back and re write history is wrong.
this is one of the best threads iv'e read, cest crafted a very cleverly worded thread to start things off. lots of anti bruce mob came out in support, then scatty moo and bart shoved it right back at them, especially the bit about many people agreed in jan we should hold off on a striker. shows how split we are on bruce, arguments on both sides. brilliant. SOB Save Our Bruce....
One of the best threads I've read for a while, and an excellent exchange of views. This reminds me of why I came on to not 606. I was also of the opinion that Bruce should go, then thought who would we get? I personally don't think MON is the answer, but again I could be wrong. Bruce has been very very unfortunate with injuries, and possibly he has rushed players back to cover positions that he had no-one for. But it is his tactical knowledge or lack of it, would be my biggest criticism. In matches when tactics (plan A) hasn't worked, he doesn't seem to have a plan B. On Saturday when he took off a rather inefectual midfielder at 0-2 down to put on an even worse central defender, I must admit I was ready to leave. Messrs Short and Quinn may have the answers, and I agree with ScattyMOO, we all thought that steve bruce was great just before Christmas. I would keep Bruce for another season but not accept another mid season slump.
Had the club not led us to believe that Campbell was only weeks away from full training then I'd agree I didn't want to be held to ransom. However, had the full facts of Frazier's injury been made public (and the club knew fully in Jan he was not going to make it before April) then if i was asked if I believed we could go through the rest of the season with only 2 fit strikers I'd have said we need to recruit, even short term. We were unfortunately misled at best and totally lied and conned at worst. Either way, it was a gamble the club didn't fully admit to at the time and we have paid dearly for it now. Its no use burying heads in the sand and saying it all turned out good anyway. Bruce has lost the fans (well that's the majority viewpoint amongst those I have spoken to anyway) and the road back is both long and arduous from this point onwards. With a half support at games and a majority ready to pounce on any errors or defeats, next season is already one I am not looking forward to in May.
