That's not what he's saying.
You wouldn't be in this position if he'd gone to you in the first place.
Yeah this.
Quotes like OLM kinda backup the point:
If it is the play-off's for us, we should have Fryatt back (Pearson), probably Hobbs (Pearson) and possibly Aluko, so if anything, we'd be considerably stronger than we are now(though obviously that's dependant on not losing anyone else significant on the way).
Your core squad was built in the Pearson days, without his framework, Bruce may have had to spend more time and money looking to stablise the team before buying flamboyant and creative players like Aloko Elmo and Quinn.
If he hadn't gone to you we may still have Hobbs and Fryatt (im not his biggest fan though, was glad he left) plus probably Chester, Brady and Koren.
This also works the other way too, we probably would not have the Sven signings Nugent, Schmichael or Konchesky (nice bloke Konch, but such a liability), possibly not even big Wes Morgan if we had Hobbs and Chester playing regularly.