You are Judging Pardew after 11 months. If you judged Bruce after his first 11 months, you wouldn't have wanted him out either. Lets see were the skunks are this time next year, after another transfer window or 2.
I'm going to post a picture which I'd like you to take a really good look at before you disagree with me once again. Can Bruce achieve an early exit from the cup competitions? I'm sure he can as he has a good track record thus far with SAFC and I wouldn't disagree with you on that for one moment. You need to forget about boring... If you want boring go and join a chess club... SAFC fans want excitement, passion, a raucous matchday atmosphere and more importantly the belief that we are more than just another premier league club. Bruce, with his recent quote directed towards the fans 'we are Sunderland so lower your expectations' has single handedly destroyed the whole reason for why Quinn decided to take on the challenge of rebuilding SAFC... Take a look at this picture.... please log in to view this image
selective quoting is nice way to suit your argument...... That was for the next couple of seasons, not what I want long term. you also misunderstood what i meant by "boring" - i meant top ten finish, no relegations risk etc. I did not mean a boring style of football, or a boring matchday atmosphere.
When under Bruce did we go 11 games (14 including last season) game unbeaten, go 2nd in the league and after 11 games sit in the Champiosn Legue places very confortably? We went 14 games without a win in his forst season and lost 9 out of 12 on the bounce last season. Bruce is no better than McCarthy, Buxton, Crosby or Butcher imo and his results/stats bear that up. The only difference is Bruce is costing 10 times more to keep. I'm judging Bruce very fairly mate and he still wants more time, the team to gel and another 4 or 5 players in January blah! blah! blah! - this is after 2.5 years and the football we are watching is total boring ****e. After 2.5 years we have a loan player who will be off in the Summer, an 8m kid who he has been reluctant to play and a totally unknown Korean as our forward line? If none of this is his fault then why bother employing him in the first place? If the manager isnt to blame for a poor squad then then we may as well let the groundsman pick the team and buy the players and save ourselves a fortune. Pathetic doesnt cover it.
I selectively quoted you as I was trying to show you how much joy an attempt at winning a cup would bring to SAFC... A repeat of 1973 would mean everything to us. The mags would hope to have exactly the same aswell...they would love a trophy win too.... Your passion appears to have been eroded to such an extent that your no longer bothered if we are eliminated from the cup by a club like Brighton or Notts County... aslong as we stay in the premier league. Well... here we are 1 point above relegation after 2.5 years of Bruce... it doesn't look boring to me in terms of league position... but the football sure as hell has been boring and thats one of the reasons why there are 35,000 at the SOL instead of 45,000.
basically what i was going to say to dan in bold re his comfortbale tenth placed finishes i think it's worrying crowds are down so much under Bruce but that's due to his awful home statistics this year and how boring the football can be there sometimes i think stoke flattered us. they even flattered bolton!
The Bruce Out calls began last April or so, four or five months before we played Newcastle and Norwich. They began because of an appalling Spring record (for the second season running) and now we're into November with four home wins to our credit in ten months. This season, we've a better quality squad, but are still averaging less than a point a game.
I am not denying that a cup run would be good, i'd ****ing love to win something. However, I dont see that as being as basic requirement over the next 2 seasons. I dont mind losing against the small teams in the cups btw (lots of big clubs fall to "giant killers") but i do care about the manner we lose them. My ambition for the next 2 (or 2 and a half) seasons is for us to finish in the top ten, not get a relegation fight and play good football. Bruce can acheive this imo, based on the fact that we were playing good football under Bruce in the 1st half of last season - if he did it once he can do it again. We also played good football against Stoke, and we have seen glimmers of it against other teams this season imo. So far this season hasnt matched my ambitions - displays against Norwich and Brighton were appalling, and our results in the league havent been good enough so far - which is why i also see the next 4 games as critical to Bruce's future. Edit: I also know the last half of last season was crap, but I am "ignoring" that, as I blame injuries and Bent leaving (and not giving a toss in 2 or 3 weeks leading up to him leaving) for that loss in form more than I blame Bruce. The main difference in opinion between the BoBs and the other (fence sitters or Bibs), stems from this imo.
we started last season brilliantly, and, though not 2nd, were 5th and were looking very good (palying good attacking footie), then the injuries hit and Bent left - this is also the point were the BoBs and BiBs opinion started to differ. The BiBs see the form of the last half of last season and blame injuries and bent leaving, the BoBs blame Bruce (and i dont understand why you do, and we will never agree on this imo). Gyan leaving after the transfer window was the final fence post in the fence seperating BoBs and BiBs, as it left us without the strike force we needed. again, BoBs blame Bruce and say we should have kept him even if he would have been unhappy and unmotivated to play for us, the BiBs blame the greedy twat and think Bruce/Quinn made the right decision in getting rid. if bruce can recapture that form from the 1st half of last season, and get us playing, consistently, that kind fo football then I will be happy and I think he can do it - but it all hangs on the next 4 games.
i would be praying that Short has a replacement lined up, and hope he brings the replacement in as soon as possible. 7 or 8 points minimum are needed from the next 4 games, but we should be aiming for 12.
newtonlee2 I've never fallen out with any one on here even after been savaged by Cest a couple of times and try to take all opinions into account even if I don't agree with them (that's the beauty of this forum) but you are a brown nosing **** if you had your tounge any further up Pie dodgers arse you'd be tickling his tonsils have an original thought for **** sake. As for Cest, Pie Dodger and cuteybuns I can understand your frustration, but IMHO if Bruce can get 8 out of 12 points from the next 4 games (totally do-able) then our season will have turned the corner and Bruce will have steadied the ship...............................But if we get 6 or less then I've already stated what I think. Can Bruce take us to a European place I honestly don't know. But live in Hope. There used to be a Fanzine which summed up Sunderland fans perfectly (IMO) called "It's the Hope I Can't Stand" maybe some of us have lost that hope...
I agree with peoples opinions on here but I try to make up my own mind about things, and don't kiss butt like you do with pie dodger for ****sake even he commented on it.
The longer Bruce stays, the longer time is ticking on your cocksure predictions that Sunderland would finish above Newcastle this year
Sorry but you've only been a member for a couple of months so how's that ages.................... As I've said about you in previous posts you are a negative **** who should **** off and leave the discussion to peole who actually love SAFC and can think for themselves and want the best for this club (even if we don't agree about how to go about it).
Thing is, at the start of last season you said : top 10 this year, top 8 the year after, Europe the year after. With Bruce you are just continually extending the time limits, and in 2 seasons time would still be saying "next 2 years we need solid top 10" IMO. You're a pretty pig-headed and ignorant football fan, Pardew has already come through 2 transfer windows, losing arguably 4 of our top 6 players in the process, and we have proved that we have the team spirit, scouting and management quality to bounce back from it and push on. To continually say that "when we sell our best players we will start to drop" is ludicrous as we have already proven that that isn't the case.
In terms of the bigger picture I think you need to remember that Mike Ashley is in charge. I can sense another relegation for your club before Mike is content with his work.
Yeah that makes perfect sense... Mike Ashley is a bellend, he's graffitied all over our stadium and made some huge mistakes in he past. However, credit where credit is due, the sales of Carroll, Nolan and Barton were all very wise business and footballing decisions. I think the majority will agree now that they look back in hindsight. Just not too sure what we can do that will cause us to fall drastically at the moment, everything seems to be settled and secure. Only way we could go down is if we sold Saylor, Colla, Cheik and Yohann without getting any replacements IMO.
