Not going to read anyone else' posts until I jot down my feelings. I have tried to post as little as I can on the possible in's and out's to our great club. (Helped greatly by some horrendous lag on here. ) I do think Bendtner could be a very good signing, I just wish we had a buying clause in place. If he has a brilliant season for us what's to stop other teams going in with silly money? Arsenal have never played to his strengths, their trying to pass the ball into the net was never going to be his style. He is more like an old fashioned striker. Personally I'm very pleased Gyan is still here, as I think he is a touch of class. Who is being handled totally wrong by our manager. It would have been interesting if he had put in a transfer request after some of the comments on here calling him fat, lazy and not interested. Quite a lot of that slanging off, coming from the more vocal pro Bruce guys. Odd how they can have a go at Gyan but we aren't allowed to have concerns about Bruce's lack of tactical nous! But of course they are right and anyone who doesn't agree is wrong! Well Mr Bruce you're our manager for the foreseeable future, as long as you're there you get my support. Not unconditional support, as going by the previous seasons you need to step up one hell of a lot, tactics wise. I know some of our fans will be disappointed with players in and out and the window closed. I'm pretty sure bringing in someone to help you with the football side can be done any time over the season. Your personal supporters will continue to paper over any cracks, just the same as those of us who think you are tactically inept will point out any glaring faults. Prove me wrong and shut up the rest of the fans that don't rate you.
MR - your right about him being the manager for the forseeable future but the fact that he ahsnt been finacially supported other than the Henderson and Anton money and the wages saved, tells me that the owner hasnt bought into project Bruce any further though. If he had, I dare bet we would have the real Bent replacement in our colours next week and not a lad (canny though he is) who was nothing more than a very late after thought by the manager. I hope your right as well about him proving the likes of me wrong but lets say he has failed at the first hurdle in not bringing in the goal scorer we so desperately needed. Lets hope he can start to pick players for the job in hand and not bit part players in the wrong postions from now on and use the strengths we have instead of highlighting the weaknesses we still obvioulsy have. Its got to be Bendtner and Gyan as a front two from here on in; Richardson taken out of the defence altogether; Sess utilised as a left sided midfielder; Gardenerr (who he bought to help with goals) actually played for a first and especially not the timid weak miserable tactics seen in the derby game, the cup game and the Swansea game. Attack is a great option Mr Bruce. I know its a new concept for you but try it sometime. You might even get to like it.
Yesterdays onslaught on Gyan was unnaceptable to me, whoever it was from and worse it showed, IMO, the stupididty of some. A rumour grew and without foundation it was jumped on and Gyan torn apart for doing something he had not done. By all means call Gyan for not looking fit if you think it, call Bruce for not being a good manager, if you think it but why the fat clown and fat Gyan, aimed at those calling people MR not at you When it comes to Bruce in or out its time it stopped because Bruce is in until Quinn, Short or both say he is out. If over the coming weeks we lose then by all means have a go, at one point last night I wanted Bruce and Quinn out.
Gentlemen (and ladies). Regardless of our opinions he is our manager and this is our team. Lets see what it can do. I will not say Bruce out again - until I think it is deserved. Ha'way the lads. x
I don't know what you are talking about when you say that posters are not allowed to have an anti-Bruce opinion...The site has been bloody over-run with them for weeks, and I havn't noticed one of them being moderated....
Sunderland fans always speak as they find - I said he looked disinterested but then said I hope it was simply his fitness (he picked up a knock against Liverpool and hasn't looked fully fit since) - he has put on a little weight in the wrong places since last season. Lazy I have never said but I have seen and disagreed with - you can't argue that he hasn't looked the same player we signed but he hasn't played properly for quite some time due to injuries. Hopefully next weekend against Chelsea we see the best of him. Cest he has been financially supported - simply because he has been given the Henderson and Ferdinand money - Bent money is coming over a few seasons and if/when he hits clauses so money isn't always as easy - Short is running Sunderland very well and trying to make sure it's done right.
I am a Bruce fan and believe we are progressing, i do however believe the lack of transfer activity in the last few days is down to our owner trying to keep the wage bill low and not prepared to spend too big. I also think the £8m spent on whickham as well as the £10m we were supposed to be going to spend on Crouch yesterday could have been put to better use on a £15 to £20m top class striker. We are not a club at the moment who can afford to spend on youth hoping they come good for the future we need players with experience now. I am however pleased with Bentdner who we apparently have a review to buy for £8m at the end of the season, if he comes good we have a very good young player with a sellable value if we do buy(something Crouch does not have). As for Gyan i love the guy however i can see where people are coming from as far as his attitude is, i may be wrong as i have been on vacation and missed the last two games but i was at Liverpool and he just did not look interested. We can now drop Gyan if he does not improve which i hope he does. There are also doubts in my mind whether he will be here in Jan as the rumours about him have been going around for a while i hope im wrong. I am pleased the Bloody window is shut and it should be reshceduled to finish before the season starts as it is ludicrus to be 3 games into the season and players and fans waiting to see what their final squad is. Lets hope we settle down and push on from here come on Bruce and the players get us excited you have failed in one cup and one derby game you need to improve. Cest i agree with everything you have said
Nice to see some reasoned responses, like I say we can agree to disagree on the manager, players tactics etc. Just lets keep the personal attacks down we are all Sunderland. MrRaw the point I was making about certain members of the pro Bruce lobby, is they seem to prefer getting their point over by berating or even abusing anyone who questions anything to do with Bruce. Or post threads having a go at anyone who dare question him. They actually go looking for confrontation not a discussion. I have seen very little of this from the don't rate Bruce posters. People were saying the things about Gyan right after our last match, I disagreed then and still do now, but didn't feel the need to call them names.OR suggest they know nothing about football. Like I say we are Sunderland, lets fight along side each other, not against each other.
Mitch, IIRC our wages were 80% of turnover or something at the last count so given the number of players brought in recently, we are probably spending nearly 100% of turnover on wages now. This is not a great situation as it means signing Zog for example is not possible. While I would have loved to have seen Zog at the SOL, I think the wages are high enough. Not having a go by the way, it's just we needed a bigger squad and we don't have enough income to pay them crazy high wages IMO
Quinn? Why? I wasn't really happy when Bendnter was mentioned but then after thinking about it he's better than nothing and considering that we bid 10 million for Crouch, I felt quite good about the Bendnter deal. I think maybe a run of games is what he needs and he might start to score loads of goals, problem is if he has a good season Arsenal might not want to sell him and if they do his price will have went up considerably, maybe we have an option to buy? If we dont have that option I think we should be looking to sign a striker in Jan, we did have 10 million to spend, maybe more?
Back of the Echo says the Bendtner deal was done with minutes to go to the window close. It also mentions Bendtners high wage at Arsenal. (possible sticking point?) We have spent £8 mill on Wickham, so presumably he must be on low wages compared to more seasoned PL players? I would certainly hope so, as that amount of money as a gamble on a prospect seems a lot. When we could have got Bendtner for the same price and he should have sell on value. Personally, I think we have a pretty good squad, yes we've still got a couple of square pegs, Bardo and Sess on the left. But they are very good square pegs. Hopefully Bruce will be more attack minded and play two up front. We are all expecting him to do so, but he has previous of playing one up top and lumping the ball in that direction. I will be disappointed if we suddenly have either Bendtner or Gyan as a lone front man, especially against the lower half teams. Haway Brucey have a go bonny lad, the stick will be a lot less, if the fans see we are at least trying to win games.
I've said this before mate, the only way to increase gates and income is to give the fans something to watch and cheer on, on the pitch.
Fair point MR, hopefully we can have a bit more of a go now we have Gyan, Bendtner, Sess and Larsson and can see some attacking football. Even if it does nothing for turnover, it'd make me happier!
Look lads,we are not as badly off as the league-table says,and as some of the posters on here say....if Gyan had passed twice,instead of being greedy,we'd have won easily at Swansea !!Our squad is well-decent,and a whole lot better that it would have been if we'd spent 12 million on Crouch!!
