No I don't think SB is having a good time of it at the moment, a bit like SAF after a couple of years at ManU. I do think he has done well to move on most of our sh7t players and replaced them with better. I do think he was unlucky with injuries (and Bent) last season otherwise we were certs for top eight. Patience is a virtue, and I think some BoBs need to have a reality check. After the bad start, I have maintained the time to challenge where SB had taken us comes after the the Blackburn game. Anything less than 7 points from our next 4 games (and yes 7 will be disappointimg) and SB will be gone anyway - cannot see the point in getting on his and the teams back in the meantime, unless we lose today and fail to beat Wigan comfortably. Bart
To draw comparisons between Sir Alex Ferguson and Steve Bruce is embarassing.... Sir Alex Ferguson won the European Cup Winners Cup and the European Super Cup in 1983 with Aberdeen before he went on to manage Manchester United. He also won the Scottish league title three times in seven years during his time at Aberdeen, something Aberdeen have failed to achieve again since he departed for Manchester United. The only notable achievement of Steve Bruce is to have relegated Birmingham and I need a reality check? As I have said many a time before... If your intention is to appoint a manager for the long-term then you ought to appoint a man with a proven CV. Sir Niall for all his brilliance made a poor choice with Bruce. I know of another manager who has won trophy's with a team that hasn't achieved anything since his departure too... Martin O'Neill at Leicester, the same man who broke the decade long dominance of Rangers over Celtic.
If you think that football will return to the pre wage cap days(where most clubs in the top flight paid the same to the players...officially and most clubs were on a simular level) cest im afraid you are in for a shock........the top clubs will eventually demand a lions share of the tv money and will probably form a league of their own(eventuallly)..its the nature of thes beast..the financial fair play rules only apply to those in european competition (unless they have changed)...........Martin Oneil wont come to sunderland unless he has some dough because of the pressure of the safc job and the fans unrealistic aims...he does not need the hassle......He is not obviously in a hurry to get a job( probably because of his wife)....so he can pick and choose...and all i am trying to get across to you is that the safc job comes with extra stress and pressure and especially if you are working on a shoestring so why would you take the job if there are better options which given his reputation there would be. I have no idea what a bib or a bob is....it appears bloody childish if you ask me..any way we have a reasonable man in bruce....he is a mid range manager..managing a mid range team playing for a great club..we have a chairman with mid range ambitions and until that changes i cannot see anything changing..i would also like to say that bruce is not a fool..and he is not clueless its very easy to manage from your computer keyboard..bruce is well respected within the game and im sure he will go on to be a mid range manager for the rest of his career......i wonder if you wil get your wish and MON takes over i wonder if it will be minutes,hours ,days ,weeks ,months or years before the MON out capaign starts........sometimes people do get what they wish for.can we agree to watch this space......... By the way if you have not already noticed im a bruce in man.....only because he is a perfect fit for our diminishing ambitions..mid table rocks.....
BiB = Bruce in Brigade BoB = Bruce out Brigade Atleast that is how I understand it. Until I cracked what the last letter stood for I quite simply used to think of Bo as Bruce out. Then it dawned on me that Bo is also an acronym for Body Odour. There sure as hell is something very smelly about the crap that is being churned up at our club at the moment.
did you go to the match yesterday or anyday this season... we in the crowd sawthings 10-20 mins before bruce did anything about it He took off colback for ji who look a lightweight but he left on elmo who had a nightmare He brought on nobel with 4 mins to go what was the point He played 4-5-1 at home telling bentner to go out wide so half the time there was no one is box for crosses He brought on 3 strikers and told his team to push back and hold on for a draw (i saw that from where i was sitting) What is your problem we are fed up with the same crap every game he has a great team but his tactics are crap Also why cant he hold on to players if we lose sess as reported and bentner looked like he was going to say **** this out there today will you admit we might need someon new because he is breaking the squad
The simple fact is that, unless you are London based, or have loadsamoney, like Man U, or Man City, it's always going to be difficult to hang on to players. Nothing to do with your manager.
It's not the case of going to bigger clubs. Villa were prepared to pay the money for Bent, and the same goes for Gyan with his current employer. Players are not judging the size of the club when they leave - just the size their wallets will be after the move
So what are you arguing then mate it isnt bruces fault that he these players leave but we whould be arguing about this if bruce got someone else in
Yeah, I don't think it's Bruce's fault that these players have left - he's constrained by the finances, as dictated by Ellis Short. I think a lot of out predicament ,with regard to finances, was brought about by Keane. He signed quite a few players on ridiculously long contracts, and extended contracts for players that were ok, but no more than that. I think Short has looked at this & asked Bruce to first, and foremost, try & balance the books. It is frustrating, for all of us, but I think the Keane method was very dangerous: we could have saddled ourselves with a huge debt & been relegated. That would have spelled disaster for the club, having the mediocre players still at the club, drawing comparatively high salaries, & receiving much reduced payments from the Premier league & sponsors.
Why do you think Bendtner looked great against Bolton and Man U but not so good against Fulham? Did you not notice that Bendtner's body language appeared to suggest he was furrowing a lost cause upfront on his own during yesterdays game? Could Bruces tactics and formations be the reason why the strikers of our club become disillusioned, lose form and then get moved on? Bruce 'clearing out the bad apples'? Are you blaming Short for Bent's very poor performances for 3 months before he left? Are you blaming Short for Gyans very poor start to the season before he left? These players were playing awful before they left and that has got nothing at all to do with Short. I'd suggest the reason is that they are being poorly managed and this in turn results in a loss of their form which we have seen with both Bent and Gyan before they left/loaned out.
It's not a question of BIB or BOB - I think that approach oversimplifies the situation. It seems that the received wisdom, at the moment, on this board seems to be Bruce out & all will be well. I'm not so sure. Who will we get in next? I'm not blaming Short for anything. As I said, the previous Drumaville approach was dangerous. I think Short is right to take care of the finances. However, this meant funds were not available for Bent, or Gyan. These players lack of motivation was not brought about by Bruce's managerial prowess, or lack of it. It was simply that they knew extra money would not be available, to them, so they engineered moves away from the club. I think you could have the best manager in the world but if players think they're worth a pay rise, and it's not available, the end result is obvious.
With all due respect I completely disagree. Is Tevez Looking for a pay rise to leave Man City? Did Modric ask to leave Spurs for a pay rise or to be part of a squad that he felt would improve his chances of regular champions league football? Bent engineered the move away? Are you saying that Bent deliberately played very poorly because we couldn't offer him a pay rise? Did Gyan deliberately engineer a move away from our club too? It's amazing that Bruce manages to bring all these players who are conspiring to engineer moves away from the club within 12-24 months isn't it? The club placed some wonderful spin on the Bent transfer and many of the fans fell for it... I'd suggest that a truer picture would be that Bruce realised that he had lost Bent's respect, Bent wasn't happy under Bruce thus explaining why he played awful for a full 3 months and then Bruce chose to cash in on Bent. (Bent wanted to remain the main man and Bruce was favouring Gyan). However it would appear asthough you would prefer or actually believe that Bent deliberately played awful for a full 3 months whilst secretly engineering a move away from the club... If Bent was deliberately and secretly engineering a move away from the club, how did he know that we would authorise his sale?
But Bent was considering a move before the season started - rumours of a move to Turkey in the summer. And it's a fact that he received a pay increase when he moved to Villa. Also, Gyan has admitted that he loves money. Both were at the club this time last season when we were doing well. Surely, they could see progress was being made. Tevez is a law unto himself, so I don't think his situation bears scrutiny. And, strangely, Tottenham have offered Modric an improved contract. Fergie could not persuade Ronaldo to stay at Man U. So, to extrapolate the argument, this must mean he has a lack of motivational skills & isn't a very good manager.
