I believe that given our recent footballing non-achievements and geographical location, Steve Bruce has done fantastically well in recruiting the players he has this summer. The team selection that Poolie put forward has got to be one of the best, if not THE best I've seen in 50-odd years supporting the team. Certainly SNQ has to take a lot of credit too (how he can be taking stick on here is beyond my comprehension!) but I do feel that SB has done a fantastic job getting these players together. Sure, we are missing a few (essential) elements but on paper, we have progressed immensely. However, as manager of SAFC, things have to stop there. For me, Bruce can acquire these players but does not have the man-management qualities to bring out the best in them, to get them to play beyond their means for him and for us. Indeed, reading the body language of some players, I would say he has started inspiring the opposite. When I read his profile on Wikipedia, he really comes over as a great bloke, as well as when I see him interviewed in the media. However, when I read the statistics and his professional background, I see someone who has reached his limits with us. Peter's Principle says that professionally, many people aspire to their level of incompetence, i.e. that they move onwards and upwards until they reach a level where they are are at their best but then move on up to a further level where they just can't perform. They've overshot themselves. I feel Bruce is there now. As a recruiter, he can go on, but as the manager of this football club, no. Watching the Swansea match, I was very calm - normally never the case - because I was indifferent to the final result. If we lost, well, it would allow people to see that the ship was rocking and we needed a new admiral. If we won, great, three points. I've never felt like this, even with some of the poor managers we've had since Alan Brown in the early 60s. I've never felt this lack of passion for Sunderland AFC. I firmly believe that NOW is the time to thank Steve Bruce for everything he's done for us. I would be happy to have him leave with the money he is due to see out his contract - he deserves it as a golden handshake for bringing us up this far - but now we have to move on, take full advantage of the players he has assembled for us and get into that European place - the next stage - which Stoke have usurped from us. Just this minute, I've received an SMS from my brother saying: "Bendtner was on loan at Birm 5 years ago when they finished 2nd to us under Bruce. He may get best out of him." I've written back: "Maybe but I just don't think Bruce has the qualities to bring out the best in people over the long term. They shine for a while and then the fire goes out. I'm not feeling enthusiastic this morning." Let's say "Thank you, Mr Bruce, great job, will always be grateful. You will have a place of honour in the history of Sunderland AFC. Sure you can do an equally good job elsewhere but as for us, we're going places where you cannot take us." And I am convinced that deep down this will make Steve Bruce a happy man too.
You never learn. Man management is a fiction dreamt up by people to justify themselves. Nobody can do it as everyone is different
Good post chats, even if I dont agree and cricket, I will have you know I was one of the best man managers you could ever meet, built a career on it.
Chatsnoir I'm resigned to us having him until Christmas (or just before). My true hope is that by them the team have gelled, we are winning and everyone is happy. I will beg everyone's forgiveness if this is the case. Ha'way the lads. x
So we replace Bruce with Ferguson, Wenger, Redknapp, etc do we? All the usual negatives are there but as usual the positives are absent. Mind, I'm available, won't be any good, but I'm available.
Good post, at first I was taken in a little, well a lot realy, but yeah, p45 and loadsa bread, should do it.
Back to basics. We have improved our final league position over the last three seasons. An excellent position to be in I assure you. Time to judge Bruce at the end of the season. We 'golden oldies' have seen our beloved safc sink to level 3 on one occasion. You young whipper snappers don't know what that felt like! I would hope if we are in a strong position come chrimbo then more funds may be (justifiably) released.. Looka at the premier league managers. Who has a better CV than Bruce for a mid table (at the moment) Premier Club? Do we really want to start again with another manager? Another clearout and another this will take time.. blah blah blah... ? I do hope not.
I just don't get your logic I'm afraid. You state Bruce has done "fantastically well in recruiting the players he has". You go on to say "The team selection that Poolie put forward has got to be one of the best, if not THE best I've seen in 50-odd years supporting the team". I honestly don't think many would argue with you on either point. whether Bruce has reached his limit or not only time will tell. In my view he has earned and should be given the time to prove himself. In the past few years our squad has improved and our league position has improved thanks to Bruce. To say this won't continue is just speculation. Surly managers should be judged on what does happen. Not on what might happen.
AHMc - agree wholeheartedly with your sentiments. Having been indoctrinated during the 'Bank of England' years and the subsequent see-saw that followed - including that humiliating year in Div 3 - I admit to being totally satisfied with the current situation, going in the right direction. Football fans will always disagree, I even recall a fella who stood next to me in the Clock Stand and continually pilloried one SAFC player because he was 'a lazy bugger'. Unbelievable when you consider the player in question was 'Slim' Jim Baxter, surely one of the finest footballers ever to wear our colours. I think we should be careful what we wish for because we may just receive it!
Or should managers be judged on what has happened? These quotes are from Wikipedia. "Huddersfield were early promotion contenders in the 1999–2000 season, winning six consecutive matches to rise to third place in the First Division table by late November, but lost form and failed to reach the play-offs.[106] The team continued to struggle at the start of the 2000–01 season, gaining just six points from eleven matches, and Bruce was sacked in October 2000." "The following season began well for Birmingham, who climbed as high as fourth in the table, but the team's fortunes declined and they could only finish in tenth place at the end of the season.[Despite this disappointment, Bruce signed a new contract in June 2004 designed to keep him at St Andrew's for a further five years,[Although Bruce had the largest transfer budget in the division made available to him,[132] Birmingham made a slow start to the 2006–07 season in the Football League Championship and, after a 1–0 defeat at home to Norwich City, the team's fifth consecutive match without a win, there were calls from fans and local journalists for the manager to be sacked." Bruce managed to turn that situation round and got Brum promoted (second behind us, I think) but he left the following season. "Bruce led Wigan to an 11th-place finish in the 2008–09 season, despite the loss of midfielder Wilson Palacios to Tottenham Hotspur in the January transfer window." This is his best achievement to date (bar last season - just) but the following season he came to us. Bruce was confirmed as the new manager of Sunderland on 3 June after signing a three-year contract. In February 2011 Bruce signed an extension to his contract keeping him at Sunderland until 2014. Except for 6 years at Birmingham, Bruce is a short-term man (either of his own volition or that of his employers) whose limit is promotion from the Championship or mid-table in the Premier League. Here are his stats as a manager: Sheffield United 02.07.98 to 17.05.99 Games 55 Won 22 Drawn 15 Lost 18 Win% 40.00 Huddersfield 24.05.99 to 16.10.00 G 66 W 25 D 16 L 25 % 37.88 Wigan Athletic 04.04.01 to 29.05.01 G 8 W 3 D 2 L 3 % 37.5 Crystal Palace 31.05-01 to 02.11.01 G 18 W 11 D 2 L 5 % 61.11 Birmingham City 12.12.01 to 19.11.07 G 270 W 100 D 70 L 100 % 37.04 Wigan Athletic 26.11.07 to 03.06 09 G 68 W 23 D 25 L 28 % 33.82 Sunderland 03.06.09 G 88 W 27 D 25 L 36 % 30.68 TOTAL G 573 W 211 D 147 L 215 % 36.82 I know statistics can be translated at one's own will, but, except for that 18-game spell at Palace, his win % is going steadily down. This does not seem to me to be the man to take us on to the next level.
Moyes... agreed, a good manager Has he boken into the top 4.... no... O'neil, tured us down prior to Keane..... so not a good choice, and he feels he's bigger than his employers,,, so no,,, Bruce seems a good choice.......
