It's a bit rich for Steve Bruce to complain about players' loyalty. And with the funds the Sunderland board have given to him, the Black Cats boss needs to start producing some results, says Richard Aikman. Another interview with Steve Bruce, another round of excuses. Last season the Sunderland manager blamed his club's freefall during the second half of the season on injuries. This week he focused on the sudden departure of Asamoah Gyan to United Arab Emirates side Al-Ain. "I didn't know until 9:15am on Saturday morning," said Bruce after Sunderland's 2-1 defeat by Chelsea. "I had a conversation with Gyan 48 hours ago, with his agent too - I shook him by the hand, he wanted to play here, stay here because the nonsense had gone on too long. He shook me by the hand. Draw your own conclusions, he left the Premier League to go to the United Arab Emirates." It can't be easy to lose such a key player ten days after the closure of the transfer window, especially considering that Darren Bent left in similar circumstances in January, deciding to move to a "bigger club" in Aston Villa. Bruce is in no position to replace the £13m signing from Rennes, whom he claims had his head turned after excelling for Ghana against England at Wembley last March. "Since that game at Wembley, all the parasites, as I call them, hover around," he said. "People are in his ear constantly trying to engineer a deal for him. Certainly since the England game." It is the likes of Gyan who give footballers a bad name and it is certainly unfortunate that Black Cats fans have had to suffer the ill-will of two archetypal football mercenaries in the space of eight months. The work of the city's Tourist Board can't be getting any easier. It is not quite easy to find sympathy with the Sunderland manager, however, particularly when it comes to club loyalty. This, after all, is the same man who walked out on Wigan after two months in charge to go to Crystal Palace - the club he subsequently abandoned four months into his first season to move to Birmingham City. Furthermore, the free hand in the transfer market Bruce has enjoyed since taking over at the Stadium of Light two summers ago must be the envy of someone like David Moyes and more than compensates for the ill-will of bad eggs such as Gyan. In his two season in charge Bruce has spent just under £90m of Ellis Short's money, which is a total more than either Villa or Tottenham, both of whom have fared better than the Wearside outfit on his two seasons in charge. Indeed that sum is more than double what Fulham and Everton have spent put together. In return Bruce's win percentage currently stands at 32.1% - and just four matches into the campaign his side has mustered just two points from matches against Liverpool, Swansea, Newcastle and Chelsea. They have even lost to Brighton in the League Cup. Yesterday's defeat was an eighth Premier League reverse out of nine and it is little wonder the long-suffering Black Cats fans were leaving in their droves before the end of yesterday's defeat. If Gyan and Bent have left Sunderland high and dry at the first opportunity, the patience Short and Niall Quinn have shown Bruce throughout a disheartening 2011 has been commendable - but you have to wonder how long such loyalty will last. Bruce, whose side are fifth from bottom and 6.4 to suffer relegation, will argue he needs time for his new signings to bed in but have you seen Phil Jones, Javier Hernandez or Ashley Young struggle to settle in at Manchester United? It is perhaps crass to compare apples and oranges - United's limitless transfer budget and superior pulling power can only be fairly measured to that of, say, Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool - but the focus on young, hungry players even at this early stage, appears to have already transformed the Red Devils from an often workmanlike last season - particularly away from home -into an exciting, attacking force. If the fireworks have been lighting up both halves of Manchester, there has been no sparks to speak of in Sunderland, where Bruce needs to somehow ignite his side's season. Forthcoming matches against Stoke, Norwich, West Brom and Arsenal will be crucial indicators of whether Sunderland have it within them to turn a corner - they are 11.5 to finish in the top six - or whether Gyan and Bent were right to disappear around one. PROBLEM I HAVE, is , if Steve Bruce is the manager, how come he was not part of the negotiations, or are we being fed a pack of lies, because up till now, the only information we are getting is from media sourses, the after the fact comments from Bruce, no information as it happens, but ages afterwards, and only when the media have let the cat out of the bag.
