Typical Sunderland....

Alex Bruce, son of former Sunderland boss Steve, has launched a scathing attack on the club's fans following their 1-0 defeat to Manchester United on Sunday.

Bruce Jnr took to Twitter to point out that the result had condemned the Black Cats, who replaced his father with Martin O'Neill earlier this season, to a 14th place finish in the Premier League, four places lower than 12 months ago.

"Sunderland finished 14th....... Funny old game!! Last year they were 10th," wrote Bruce, in a thinly veiled attack against the club.

His tweet evoked a furious response from one Black Cat fan, @ryanyids, who responded: "What's that supposed to mean Steve would of relegated them the way he was going!"

Minutes later Bruce Jnr, recently released by Leeds United, hit back: "Bollox!! He got sacked after 12 games you's have done worse the last 13 games than he ever did!!

But the defender wasn't finished there and he soon aimed both barrels at Sunderland's support for their reaction to Manchester City's late winner at the Etihad Stadium which ended the title hopes of Steve Bruce's former club, United.

"Hearing Sunderland fans cheer when City score sums them lot up!! Worry about your own team you were beaten today!!," he wrote.


So it would seem that perhaps Sunderland really do just have a team of **** players and maybe it wasn't all down to Bruce being tactically inept, they really are an average, average side with one star player, if they lose him they could be utterly ****ed next season instead of just mostly ****ed like they are now.

Also the last line that I've highlighted is just typical Sunderland for me, small club mentality. Your club is losing at home after a distinctly mediocre season and your cheering the fact that the team your playing missed out on the title by goal difference. Madness.

I bet they had a ****ing party when we didn't get champions league.

 

The perils of twatter. One reason why I'd ban all players from it if I were in charge of a club, having only an official club one. Far too many emotional responses from players to fans either on the wind up or touching on subjects close to a players heart. It'll end in tears and we're a stones throw away of it getting out of hand.

Personally I think they were right to sack Bruce as he is completely inept. Its very easy to sit and say "we finished here last year, and now look". They were going down under Bruce. He's just a very poor manager as his record shows. And I'm sure it wasn't their whole support celebrating Man Citys goal. There'll always be one or two who behave in such a way.

 

Ah, but under Bruce it was a case of

"Our team is absolutely class, much better than the mags blah blah, but we have Bruce in charge and that's why we're ****"

now O'neill has come in, and they have done poorly after the initial honeymoon period its:

"O'neill is a cracking manager but the team is absolutely ****e, wait till MoN brings better players in, the summer.... next season... next season, the mags better watch out"

Which was it then?

 

They're a bit of a split in my experience. Half were delusional about their squad/Bruces signings, half were more scathing. They're not actually that far away from having a half decent squad. The problem they have is they lack a touch of class in their ranks. They have Sessgnon but not much else. Their strikeline is sub standard for the league. I fully expect them to have a better season next year. However its which O'Neill turns up transfer wise. He has a very patchy record as far as spending money goes. His time at Villa best sums it up with a net spend of 83m!

Some really good players bought but some shockers too which Sunderland will be hoping they avoid!

http://astonvillacentral.com/transfers/

He was there between 2006-2010.

Petrov - 6.5m - done well for them.
A Young - Did well and made big profit.
J Milner - Again big profit.

On the flipside:

Reo Coker - 8.5m!
Marlon Harewood - 4m!
Sold Steven Davis and Aaron Hughes who could have done a good job for them. Picked up only 5m for the two.
Sold Gary Cahill for 5m
Curtis Davies - 8m!!
Steve Sidwell - 5m!

That's just picking out one or two areas of concern.

Not that its O'Neill's fault for the overspends as he only gives the list of players. Same as Dalglish at Liverpool. But he has bought some ropey players amongst that lot when the target was CL! Overall though O'Neill has done well there so far and if he gets the transfers right then they should progress under him. He has had the current players performing a lot better than Bruce.

 

O'Neill is not all that, very few trophies apart from Celtic and a win ratio that is massively boosted by Celtic. To give an example of how easy it is to win and score points with Celtic look at how well Rangers have done this season, 2nd with all their turmoil. Compare that to Portsmouth, straight out of the PL when they were in similar bother.

As for Villa, we just did better than he ever did there, in one season, not four, with a spend of about £25mil rather than £85, in a league with more stronger teams than then ...

he's good enough, but is not the 'messiah' they think he is ...

 

I noticed the win ratios the other day. 70% Celtic, around 40% everywhere else.

 

Having said that though, 40% win ratio is still extremely good.