First, my stance is that he is a great manager, and although i have questions about his subsititutions he is good at bring players along, commands great respect from the dressing room (this talk of his lack of motivational skills is bull****) and he knows who too sign and goes into his signings with great thought, trying too get the best for Sunderland AFC long term. Like at all clubs (North East ones more than most) they have fans who want the manager out for whatever reason, whether they are valid, i.e. He has went on 2 terrible slumps and we cant risk it next season or whether they are stupid, i.e. He is a Mag who is sabotaging us and deliberately lost to Newcastle or because he is selling our best players even though earlier on in the season i wanted too drop bent and sell Henderson (not my opinion) however we are still all fans and surely only want the best for our clubs. For me Bruce is the right man for this club to progress, and for that to happen, the fans have to be behind him (like it or not), you dont get anywhere with animosity and unrest with your manager. So too those who dont think he is the right man, provide a valid reason of why.
I back him 100% but i must admit having to rebuild the whole team after two years is not what i expected us to be doing. I think he has a lot to prove to some people and as he openly admits our expectations are high. I think this is a make or break season for bruce
That was put over very well for someone so young my friend. If I knew how this ****ing rep thing works you'd have a positive for me. I genuinely like the guy & will back him but not nesessarily agree with everything he does. I want him to succeed so much but sometimes the bloke baffles me with his decisions. As has been ststed, it's make or break time.
Made a statement awhile ago, ` if somebody was decent enough to post a thread, he should be replied to` one for the Bruce brigade, so howl away NO. Reasons,,,, no tactics, no vision, sells all the assetts, brings in no cover, only set pieces we have are corners, and penaltys, but we dont get many of them he is a frightened man, and transmits that fear into the dressing room, only wants to Buy from people who he respects as managers, and they play him like a fiddle, all the south americans he bought didnt get a fair go, and on and on. and now we are in limbo, a good manager?.your call like I said it will bring on the howlers.
Sorry, I must be stupid, after a long time of sitting on the fence as to keep or get rid of him, I decided that it would prob. be best if he and us parted ways. After 2 years, I've now formed my OWN opinions from what I'VE SEEN OR READ. I posted this a while back as to my reasons, for wanting a change of manager. With a full fit squad to chose from I reckon any manager has a fairly easy choice of his first team and the tactics pretty much pick themselves, but consider when you have injuries, your tactics aren't working or you've gone on a long losing streak. Personally I think a manager earns his money when things aren't going well. His plan A isn't working (everyone can see it, the fans, the media and more importantly the opposition can see it), so can he generate a plan B, C or even E? or does he just blindly carry on with it more in hope than expectation? When his team are under the cosh how does he respond with substitutions? does he play a blinder and with one small change, turn the game on it's head or does he swap like for like with no overall effect? When he speaks to the media does is he like a small scalded puppy, all meek and pitiful or is he bullish and is adamant that things he will kick some arses cos the players aren't doing the job? I'm sure Bruce is a quite capable manager, when the confidence is high and he has a full squad to pick from, but in football (as in life) when things get difficult he struggles, and looks lost. He can't account for injuries (and yes I know we have had a boatload of them, but still surely he could have done a little better) his tactics are sometimes baffling, he only has a plan A and sticks to it even though we are getting tonked and his subs make me scratch my head, wondering if he knows what he's doing. For me the deciding factor was two mid season collapses, not blips but COLLAPSES, he seemed to have no ideas. As much as I'm sure he is a decent enough guy. I just don't feel he is the man for us. Sorry if that angers you, or you think I'm a ****, but that's how I feel.
As long as Bruce is our manager I will always give him my support but that doesn't mean I have to feel that he is the man to take us forward and I like you will still support Sunderland no matter who is in charge or who owns the club.
Once again this season he nearly took us down and only luck and other results took us up to 10th. That is not a great manager that is a bad manager. We lost games after scoring early goals because of his **** tactics and substitutions. Too many times 11 players have been out on the pitch for us and didn't even resemble a team. I have seen Sunday league teams better organised than some of our games. Allowing players to leave without even having some semblance of cover is unbelievable. Dithering about getting replacements in, which leaves us wide open to be gazumped by so called bigger teams. You say you have questions about his substitions! Great managers don't make those sort of mistakes.
I'm sorry to say that I lost faith in him in January. Below, is an extract from a post I made on another thread yesterday..... The Academy of Light is held in high regard by many clubs in the English football leagues. The youth team is very well run, due to the excellent management skills of Kevin Ball; with the reserve team run equally well by Keith Bertschin, who made sure that when called upon, the reserve team players were ready to make the step up to the first team as cover for the many injured players that we had last season. I canât put my hand on my heart and say that the first team is run as well as the youth and reserve teams, because letâs face it, it isnât. The first team is the public face of our club, the most important facet of the whole SAFC brand, so why is the first team in such disarray at the moment? I would not go as far as to say that the current situation is embarrassing, but what I would say is that itâs all a bit of a shambles. I am not aware of any other club in the Premier League (including the 3 promoted sides) that has to recruit 8 new signings before the new season kicks off in August. We are about to embark on our 5th consecutive season (Steve Bruceâs 3rd season) in the premier league and yet we, the fans, find ourselves watching Steve Bruce and Niall Quinn frantically trying to recruit enough players to give the club at least a fighting chance of getting through next season without another crisis, caused in the main by a shortage of fit players and the serious error of going into last season with a squad that was too small. Steve Bruce said last season that he was hoping to add just one or two quality signings for the new season. How on earth could he say that when we had 5 loan players at the club last season? Correct me if I am wrong, but I donât recall seeing any other premier league club with 5 loan players last season, so why are we doing it? The policy of signing so many loans has really come back to bite Steve Bruce and Niall Quinn right in the arse and has to stop. Quality has been blown out of the water for the sake of quantity. The need of 8 new players means that it is highly unlikely that we will be âbreaking the transfer recordâ in the search for Darren Bentâs replacement. Let's be honest, we're in a bit of a mess, aren't we? We have been in the Premier League for 4 consecutive seasons and we find ourselves having to undertake a rebuild of the first team, at levels normally seen by relegated clubs offloading highly paid players in order to recruit cheaper players. All of the potential new signings are also going to take time to gel, or to get used to the pace of the PL if they haven't played in it before. Add to this, the fact that we have sold Jordan Henderson and now Asamoah Gyan coming out in the press, stating his love of Spurs and that he would like to play in London! Worrying times ahead.....
Well this one may well open up a can of worms....... When he was unveiled as manager, as many of you will remember, I went on records as stating it was a brilliant appointment. Yes, there was some debate whether he was the right man or not and opinions were divided at the time and like it or not, much of the opposition to him stemmed from his b&w past not his actual record as manager. He was on the record as being a mag and knowing that, it was a brave decision from Niall. It was something that was always going to sway some to start with and it can be said that because of this, he needed to make some head way pretty fast to win round the doubters. To be fair, we signed Bent, Catts and Cana; brought in Mensah and blooded Jordan and others and looked like we were on a bit of a roll. Then came that first slump. 14 games without a win and a good promising start resulted in a relegation scrap. It wasnt what we wanted but hey, we were realistic and accepted it would take time. At least we picked up draws in this time. Then came his second season. Gyan and Welbeck were added to the strike force and we all though **** me we are really cooking and the run up to December was amazing. However, then came the 2nd slump and this time it was compounded by the sudden and shocking loss of Bent. What happened to make a player seemingly so content suddenly turn on its head. It wasnt just money because that was only offered AFTER he decided to go. Something changed in the club in January and we again went on a 1 win in 11 game run which effectively ruined the season completely and started the sour taste for many of the supporters of him and lit the fire that burned under his already detractors. What swayed me was that 2nd slump and although there were some mitigating factors (injuries being the biggest one) we looked like a lost club for 3 months and Bruce lost control of the situation for me. Even with injuries we shouldnt have lost so many games. Substitutions and tactic seemed like pure guesswork at times and the club looked knackered. That was the end game for me and if you are really honest, he has had 3 such 2nd half slumps now because he did exactly the same thing at Wigan the year before he joined us. Its a trend not a blip. Then comes the decision not to strengthen the froward line when he knew Campbell was going to be long term out and we had only a 21 loan player and a new signing in his first year in the EPL? that shows a manager who flies too close to the sun for me and we nearly got burned as we fought out yet another relegation scrap. Okay, by a total fluke we finished 10th but if his supporters really want to use that as a positive, it is a clutching at straws argument. Now comes this close season and after 2 full years, we are still looking to bring in 7 or 8 players? Ridiculous and very poor team building for me. We are going to start the new season with probably 4 or 5 new faces all trying to get to know each other. A poor start will have us ****ting bricks by October. Then Henderson wants away and don't think that's the end. Stories of Gyan being unsettled now are emerging and as with JH, no smoke without fire for me. Yes Bruce attracted some big names and players but he hasn't been able to man mange them. He's a small club, small player manager who will be happier with players that are just glad to be here but are no use at all. He cant manage top players, or even ones that will take us forward. Simple as. All i see is the club limping along for another year and another year wasted waiting for the inevitable to happen. I don't see any hope of us progressing and if signing a lame Wes Brown and a total gamble in Danny Gibson is his answer then we are doomed. O Shea is fine and so would Larsson and Westwood but them alone wont make us better. For that we need to add the Pavlyuchenko's, N'Zogbia and Crouch's to the squad and not just one of them. ALL of them such is the depletion of our squad. I don't think we will attract many of them but may well get N'Gog and this unknown Korean lad who could be good, bad or indifferent but is that the way to run a club after 2 years? Banking everything on a couple of gambles? I'd have sacked Bruce 5 mins after the last game at W Ham and brought in Martin O Neill but then i wouldn't have offered SB a 2 year extension before I saw where the club was heading. We are stuck with him now and we will get behind him on the pitch. These forums and message boards however are a different kettle of fish and we can say what we feel here. The SOL crowd have stuck by Bruce through 2 humiliating slumps, a thrashing by our local rivals and his home team and through the loss of Bent but patience is running thin and even his staunchest supporters must have nagging doubts now. he does need a good summer and a decent start, or the crowd will turn and no amount of blathering that its the fault of people like me who will have caused that. That will be down to Steve Bruce and no one else.
Personally I was frothing at the mouth when we ignored Mancini begging for the job and appointed Bruce. He isn't the man in my eyes currently but the moment he shows he can take us forward, noticeably not by a fraction, I'll be happy to say he's the man for the job.
How on earth can he be called a GREAT manager? What has he achieved? Won cups? Leagues? Inspired wonderful players to do amazing things? Has he even been lucky (a big part of being a GREAT manager)? Sorry. Like most on here I will support him because I have to. I will not boo. I will have my say if I think he is wrong. Great manager?! I'm stunned!
As things stand Bruce is only the second manager in my lifetime to achieve the fantastic feat of placing Sunderland in the top ten English clubs. For that alone he has my full backing. None of us know what's going on at the SOL. Granted it doesn't look good but I have to believe that two men (Bruce and Quinn) who have both spent a lifetime within the game of Football. Know what they are doing. I just hope that by the end of the window we are all feeling a tad more optimistic.
Exactly. To call him a reasonable manager at this point would be even premature, but great? Get with the program. Great my arse!
I'll certainly go along with that. I'm on my knees, praying he can get things right to prove me wrong.
