I can't possibly imagine how much our senior supporters are hurting right now. Decades of shattered dreams and broken promises, and now, with the decline of Liverpool under Hogson and Villa without O'Neill and the poor start by Everton, we are presented with an opportunity to establish ourselves as a respectable Premier League outfit. And what happens? Perhaps our "blip" last season was a warning sign of the limitations of our current manager. I was fully behind Bruce during the bleak winter months of last season, but with the same unfortunate events unfolding yet again, I'm starting to ask questions. These are HIS players, it's HIS set up, it's HIS decisions, such as not replacing Bent, that have us where we are.
Bruce has spent a lot of money, I don't care about his net spend either way he has spent around ã60 million. What's he got to show for it? Two disappointing seasons. Most managers with our squad would be comfortably top ten!
We are in the "clarts" due to all of Bruce's decisions.He MUST go now,and,if Martin O'Neill is available,we must bring him in to save our club.Bruce has lost the dressing-room and the majority of fans.
I'm just dumbfounded with what happened in the past couple of months. We have a brilliant team; Gyan, Cattermole, Welbeck, Bramble, Bardsley, Hendo (when on form), Elmo, two amazing goalkeepers, WHY CAN'T WE WIN A ****ING GAME!!!??? Last week, I was saying that it would be stupid to get rid of Bruce, but if we had a good replacement waiting, I don't think a departure from him would be so bad. He's seemed the nicest, most down-to-earth manager who actually knows what he's talking about in terms of football, and seemed to give a **** about the club, and the North-East as a whole. We need a response. We are owned by a Texan oil billionaire, we have a Messiah as our chairman. Why do we keep ****ing these things up.
I totally agree with Cest. Lets stop this rot once and for all, jesus keep getting me head ripped off for defending SB. But there is only so many times he can keep on saying 'we just weren'rt good enough'. Arggh
like I said on another thread, managers like Pulis, McLeish and Coyle make a mockery of what we've been doing. God knows how much we've spent rebuilding the squad twice, first under Keane then under Bruce. Yet the likes of Pulis "splash out" a "record" sum of ã8m (we paid that for Ferdinand, ã2m less for McCartney / Richardson) on someone like Jones, and keep out - performing us. I'm simply puzzled.
Great post Cest;I've been a great supporter of Bruce but I feel that if we don't make a change we're in big trouble.I respect what Martin O'Neill has achieved but am not 100% certain that he is the answer to our problems.Van Gael would be my first choice but whether he would come is another matter. Perhaps SB is too soft and we need a manager that isn't afraid of big egos in the dressing room.
Good article mate as I feel you portray many safc fan's views here. I too support Bruce and I feel if we can conjour up some kind of unbeaten run from now until the end of the season I would be happy to give him another season to show his metal. The thing that worried me was that he had been calling for a "response" all week after the Man City game and it did not materialise, however Bardo and Steed were top class on the day and knew what that game was all about. If that was our "response" then I am worried. We were all exstatic when we signed Muntari and Sessegnon in January but with hindsight we should have signed some hardened Premiership players who know what its all about and can impact the side immediately but poor management lead us to sign Sulley & Sess who dont get me wrong are good players but we needed players to carry on our momentum and push for a top ten finish. Top ten is still very much on and if we do I hope Bruce and Niall dont forget about this end of season slump, which we have become acustom too.
Knackered Knees Great thread but i think it's too late in the season now to change management Great thread yes but too late no. I'm sorry to say Bruce seems to have lost the plot totally and we would have nothing to loose bringing O'Neil in tomorrow.
I am not sure whether you should get rid of Bruce or not, but Quinn should make a decision now to either back him in the summer with another decent transfer pot (you have a lot of players on loan and still ned to replace bent) or he should get rid of him now and give the new manager time to assess his squad and make plans for who he wants to buy in the summer. He mustn't dither.
Cest five from me, as I recall Martin O N, was a Sunderland supporter as a lad, dont think he will get a bigger offer in the near future, a comment raised, give the new manager the chance to assess his squad, and strenghten, as he sees it, dont give SB any more dosh,
Welcome back Cest. Damn fine read, I am split 50/50 on agreeing and disagreeing with you though. So I will only comment on the Bruce situation. I was one of the ones not sure about bringing Bruce to our club, like a lot of other supporters! Any mention of Bruce not cutting it was met with a lot of unnecessary venom form fellow fans. (I have complained about this before when we attack fellow supporters, for not toeing the line, having a different opinion does not automatically mean one party is right and the other is wrong!) I managed to question his managing ability without too many trying to rip me a new arsehole last year, others posting similar thoughts were savaged. I have often questioned his tactical nous this season, because lets be fair apart from Chelsea we have won games where we were lucky to do so. Or scraped draws. When people were already thinking of Europe I was sitting reading and thinking do they not know this is Sunderland? Bruce seems like a thoroughly decent man. He came up the hard way through football till Fergie took him to Utd, he was a strong tough defender who's face is testament to that. I get the feeling his management style is arm round the shoulder, when actually it should be tea throwing and boot kicking that is needed. And to be totally blunt tactically he is clearly ****e! Games where we had teams on the rack and backed off, instead of going for the jugular! I lost faith completely after losing to the Mags if he can't gee up a Mackem to up his game against them I don't think he could with the foreigners. I have said this before too we go out and it looks like the lads haven't played together before. There's no cohesion at all, our set plays are dire they look like a Sunday league team al hit and rush. I deliberately set out to respond with out naming players, as we all have our favourites who we will defend against attack. Whatever your thoughts on individuals on the whole we have a damn fine squad right now, that should have consolidated us top ten already this season. The reason they haven't is very evident WE DON'T PLAY LIKE A TEAM! We rely on individual bits of skill or hard graft. When I see players walk off the pitch without a bead of sweat on their brow quite frankly it angers me! I suggested a couple of weeks ago maybe Bruce should bring in a Coach to help him out. But what does that say about Bruce, if he needs help on the coaching side quite frankly he needs replacing. Now? I don't really know. Who with? No idea.
Sorry I haven't been around for a while. % stars from me. Sick of relegation fights and the false euphoria promotion brings. Everyone on here has made sensev - I would prefer O'Neill to Van Gaal, but the common denominator seems to be a change is needed and needed now. x
i hate this thread, i really do. even after that **** we were served on sat, i still said we should stick with bruce, or at least till the end of season, then cest writes this, and i watch an interview with bruce looking down and beat and talking about lack of confidence, and im kinda in limbo now. cest makes to much sense, why should we stick with him? as he quotes "he's a dead man walking" reckon a defeat at the weekend, and he will be proved right, and bruce won't see the end of the season. shame really, he was given all the tools to make a good job of it.
Whether most fans want him out or not he has certainly lost the players and when that happens, we all know that it's time to move on.
I honestly can not see us winning another game all season, just a few skin of the teeth draws will keep us up then hopefully well get rid of Bruce coz hes totally clueless!
