Absolutely mate. Looked good first 2, lost his way a little, looked a bit scared of the ball, but really growing into the league. Bangs into tackles now, whereas a few weeks back he was shirking, head always up, first touch has improved dramatically. I think after a pre-season, we may just be struggling to keep the lad come Christmas.
For me, its not even close. At least we had a couple of half decent seasons under Bruce, we had the Darren Bent days. Bruce was massively better in the transfer market then MON, I think in his full reign he barely spent anything considering the incomes and outgoings on players transfers. MON spunked about 30m? We also played better football under Bruce, until his final days. His final days were on par for how we played for the majority under MON.
It'll always be a problem for us as a club, hanging onto our best. We need to prove to them that this is a place worth sticking with. Hard to do that when we're in this position.
We were worse under MON than under Bruce, no question. Bruce really did TRY and win games, and we did, on occasion, bust out some 'football'. What we played under MON, even in the false dawn good run, was horse ****, lost us a lot of neutrals as well, many, many want us to go down instead of Wigan, whereas previous years we'd have the old 'good club' support. I f I was forced to take one back, it would be Bruce without a blink.
they both bought 3 top existing players for us who would continue to make up a good first team Bruce: Mig, Sess, JOS MON: NDiaye, Fletch, AJ. they also both bought donkeys, but MON shades it for me on transfer business due to the sheer volume of ****e Bruce left us with on the way back from Harrods. in terms of management, a similar trajectory over a slightly different time period, but i saw far better games/footie under Bruce e.g. Chelsea away. all in all about even....but nowhere near as bad as Wilko. time to move on and focus efforts around the good players we have left, adding quality where needed and hopefully bringing the youth through.
I conceed we had a real purple patch under bruce but he royaly ****ed it up through his management or lack of, there is a hell of a lot to being an all round good manager
Bruce/MON = a bad case of splitting hairs. At least we are ****e in the top flight. In over forty years of following the lads we've been crappier in the second tier much of the time. Crossa, mackemenemy, Buxton, Butcher, etc. And if it wasn't for Marco Goalo first, then Sir Don Goodman, we'd have been ****e in the third tier for a long time 'n all!
After the collapse under Bruce I always thought he was a great recruitment consultant but an average manager (tactics, subs etc). I thought MON would come in and be the opposite - average in the transfer market but good at using what he's got. Unfortunately it didn't work out, and I'd say he was average in the market but poor at using them in his second season (mainly due to the negative tactics employed). I still don't think he was awful in the market - that £30m is Fletch, AJ and N'Diaye, all of whom are key first 11 players. I don't think we can judge either MON or Bruce on our 'average to poor' players - such as those players we got from relegated teams. They both get a lot of stick for it, but it's worth remembering that we were paper-thin and screaming out for players... we still are. If you look at the ones we are suggesting that we should move on this summer, Vaughan and Larsson were free, Bramble was £1m, Bardsley was £2m (and has given us 5 years solid service). For exactly the same reasons - that we are still thin on numbers - I'd keep this season's poorer players as backup. At least until we have an extra 5 bodies in. Overall I'd pick Bruce over MON, because at least he had us playing some decent stuff at times (and had us top half!). Our worst in recent times is undoubtedly Wilko. I'd say that Sbragia and Keane (in the PL) were worse than both Bruce and MON. Those 15 and 19 point seasons weren't that long ago and however bad this season has been... it doesn't even come close.
We always seem to lack a coherent strategy. We increase the squad, then slim it down. We bring in some good players, but surround them with average and wonder why we struggle when they're out. Maybe we don't have the funds, maybe we get the knock back from our targets? I'd like to know what goes on behind the scenes
You simply cannot put Muntari on that list when Johnson is on the original list. Muntari was ****e for us. Came with pedigree but showed **** all. Johnson came with a similar pedigree but he showed only glimpses. I think, if we stay up, Johnson will be excellent next season
Bruce had the best Sunderland team for ages and we were ****e, that for me speaks volumes. He was the worst, imo. Out of MoN's siginings I'm happy with N'Dayie, Johnson and Fletcher. The price paid for the latter two are certainly questionable but all 3 are good additions to our squad. Really unhappy with Graham couldn't understand the sigining but supported his decision, now I can no longer do that
I think many forget the tools at the disposal of different managers. As you say, Bruce definitely had the pick, and hence the footie was better, but he still fooked it right up.
I was a MON fan however I live in Scotland and everyone up here told me he had only one way to play and that was boring boring. All the evidence is they were right. MON was a great disappointment and we were down down down without the influence of PDC. Hope he gets a bit a team work and fighting spirit back in our team for next season...it cant be any worse really! If bruce had kept Bent away from his wee lassy maybe there wouldn't have been the collapse of team but he definitely lost his way.
