ASKED whether the last few weeks had been the most pressurised of his managerial career, Sunderland boss Steve Bruce could only smile. âI was at Birmingham City when the chairman told me we had to get four points from our next two games and we lost the first one,â he said. âI think thatâs what Iâd call pressure!â In contrast to his experiences at St Andrews, the one reassuring thing for Bruce in what has undoubtedly been the most troubled spell of his time in charge of Sunderland, has been that owner Ellis Short and former chairman Niall Quinn have been rock-solid in their support. But he is the first to acknowledge that it has been an uncomfortable time in the hot seat for him. He has not enjoyed these past couple of months. His pride has been wounded by the questions being raised about his abilities. His feelings have been hurt by the the supporters who have turned against him. But he remains the most dogged of characters and is determined to complete his original mission of making Sunderland a club that looks at home in the top half of the Premier League. âIt has been a difficult period for the club, but Iâve been a Premier League manager for a long time now and my experience has helped me,â he said, following Saturdayâs 2-0 win at Bolton. âThe problem has been that weâve never been able to quieten the storm since the second game of the season, when we lost the derby. âI couldnât quell the unhappiness of losing that match by getting good results afterwards and, with the results not going our way after that, it made things all the more difficult âBut Iâm not going to be derailed from what Iâm trying to do here because of that or because of all the things that surround that. âThe negativity weâve gone through has not been helpful, but hopefully our season starts with this Bolton win and I do feel that the longer the season goes on the better we can get as a squad. âNow we have to look to get back-to-back wins with the match against Aston Villa, because after that comes the nice easy game at Manchester United.â Bruce knows that Sunderland are far from out of the woods yet and he has sympathy for the likes of former Black Catsâ boss Mick McCarthy, who came within a whisker of losing seven on the belt at the weekend, or Bolton boss Owen Coyle, who has lost all five home games this season. âItâs the toughest league in the world and itâs very easy in the Premier League to go six or seven weeks without a win, or without a win at home,â he said. âItâs something that youâre always wary of â even when things go well. âBut I know weâre improving and getting better and I know how much a better squad of players this is compared to the one I inherited. âUltimately, no matter what the ins and out, you get judged on your results and at least this weekend, we can say of the Bolton game: thatâs a good result.â Pressure/expectations, come on Steve turn it around and get everyone back onside (myself include), and i mean it when i say "best of luck with it".
Some ****ers are easily pressurised. Ask the wives of those lads coming back from Helmand whose coffins are draped in the Union Jack what pressure is. Bruce needs to grow up & act like a man.
He certainly looks like a man with the world on his shoulders at the moment, but a couple of victories should ease the pressure, so hopefully a win against Villa should do that...
How to you compare anything to duties as a soldier?? No job compares to that one. However, there are a number of high pressure jobs that fall below that of the life of a front line soldier, and football manager is one of them. Hell, you can get pressure in any job, from factory worker (done that) to high earning project manager (doing that). Regardless of what Cest thinks, Bruce is a decent bloke and will be hurting from the questions been asked about his abilities as would anybody who's abilities have been questioned.
i'm sure his £60 k a week makes it a lot easier marra!!! if he was on £21k a year like me i could handle the fact it will get to him but not the stupid wage is on!
The pressure is still on Bruce. One win against a very poor Bolton side is not a turning point. However, it is a start and we must build on this. All the work done at Bolton could be undone if we lose on Saturday...then the pressure will be back...even more so if its Bent who scores the winner.
His feelings have been hurt by the the supporters who have turned against him. “The problem has been that we’ve never been able to quieten the storm since the second game of the season, when we lost the derby. Doesn't he think he's hurt our feelings this last nine months, the poor darling? And wasn't the storm at the end of last season a little before the derby? What a self-pitying pack of sh*t. Relieve him of the 'pressure' as soon as possible.
More than happy with the win at Bolton but, not getting too carried away with it remember when we beat Stoke? We need to put a run of 4 or 5 games unbeaten to get us moving up the league, this will be hard with Man Utd as our next away game. So lets win all our home games which I believe is a possibility and draw the 2 or 3 away games barring Man Utd, then it's happy days again.
No human being should be vilified for doing a job to the best of their ability, although we can all argue about how good that ability is, and we do on this board frequently. But whatever his faults as a tactician and man manager I think Bruce is an honest man and is trying to do a good job here. IMHO. However the fixture planners did him and us no favours at all. Scheduling us to play Newcastle first home game was a terrible decision. If we had played any other team and lost would we have been so unhappy? I doubt it. But because it was the derby, all the problems were multiplied by a zillion (I may be exaggerating slightly here!) and, as we have seen, it heaped unnecessary pressure on the losing manager, with the season barely started.
Agreed mate but, if we had won that game would we have gone on the same run the barcodes have? I don't think we would have. To be fair to Bruce he did get it spot on Saturday so maybe he has finally learnt from his many mistakes, we can only hope he has so we can get shot of the BIB v BOB debates.
do i really have to list about 30 quotes proving this? i really can't be arsed but i will pull out the evidence if you like your simply not true stance is simply a load of bollocks!
