Topic: Steve Bruce. He's got a big sacked head

[rafathegaffa83]

The genius of Steve Bruce will be felt long after he's gone, considering the contracts of John O'Shea (age 30) and Wes Brown (age 32) both expire in 2015. I think it will take whoever replaces him at least a season or two to shift some of the players Bruce has signed.

[1021]

All ye needed to say mate, we get the picture   

You're enjoying today, aren't you?

[1021]

The genius of Steve Bruce will be felt long after he's gone, considering the contracts of John O'Shea (age 30) and Wes Brown (age 32) both expire in 2015. I think it will take whoever replaces him at least a season or two to shift some of the players Bruce has signed.

Those contracts cannot be serious.

[rafathegaffa83]

Those contracts cannot be serious.

Oh but they are...

Black Cats boss Steve Bruce has completed a double raid on champions Manchester United and brought John O'Shea to Sunderland.
Both O’Shea and Brown, who is 31, have signed four-year contracts with the Black Cats, keeping them at the club until 2015.
http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/sunderland-afc/safc-news/2011/07/08/john-o-shea-relishing-fresh-sunderland-start-72703-29017828/#ixzz1fEAbRGSF

[Wembley 78]

I wish Ian Dowie for them.

[Dr Manhattan]

Saw someone talking about the job on Sky earlier. He said, and I quote, "Martin O'Neill is one of the favourites, and he's certainly the best and most experienced manager out there currently without a job".

[1021]

Oh but they are...

What an unbelievably shite manager.

BTW: I wasn't questioning you, just for a brief second I thought there was a brain in that mass Bruce calls a head.

[LiverLuke]

rafa is too good for the job but his reputation atm is low and he would massively over-achieve at sunderland, also he wouldnt give mancs free 6 points.

[Crimson_Tank]

Saw someone talking about the job on Sky earlier. He said, and I quote, "Martin O'Neill is one of the favourites, and he's certainly the best and most experienced manager out there currently without a job"

I for one hope that they do go for O'Neill, I would be a bit upset if Rafa went to Sunderland, as it is doubtful that the fans would give him any respect.

[rafathegaffa83]

BTW: I wasn't questioning you, just for a brief second I thought there was a brain in that mass Bruce calls a head.

Oh I know. I just like re-affirming how overrated and shite a manager Bruce is.

[1021]

Oh I know. I just like re-affirming how overrated and shite a manager Bruce is.

And he'll walk into a job in the PL or Championship within a year.
Something wrong with this league.

[Billy1561]

The day just keeps getting better. See ya fat head.

[berrno3333]

Get back to Easter Island ,yer fat headed twat.

[rafathegaffa83]

And he'll walk into a job in the PL or Championship within a year.
Something wrong with this league.

I actually don't think he will join a PL club anytime soon, although his relationship with Ferguson will ensure he will get one soon enough. I think his decision making and experience at Sunderland and lack of loyalty elsewhere has been more under the microscope lately. A similar thing happened to O'Neill after he left Villa.  If someone in the press actually starts to take a look at his transfer record over the last 5-6 years, he shouldn't be going anywhere in the next 12 months.

[BigAl24]

Good. The fucking moomin.

[007.lankyguy]

Oh, I thought RAWK liked Steve Bruce

[Vinay]

I see Rafa's name being taken in vain with respect to this job. Sunderland is beneath him.

[Crackerjack Sam]

Thought Fat Head was doing a good job myself. Probably asked for more money with January looming. They said no! He said" I'm off"  that's it!

[Lush is the best medicine...]

I actually don't think he will join a PL club anytime soon, although his relationship with Ferguson will ensure he will get one soon enough. I think his decision making and experience at Sunderland and lack of loyalty elsewhere has been more under the microscope lately.

and things like this wont help him:

The manager boasted about his inability to send an email. While Bruce – who did finally learn how to log on last summer when the club issued him with an iPad – may well argue this lack of computer literacy was hardly relevant, many of his peers spend countless hours checking out the latest sports science innovations, researching transfer targets and analysing Prozone statistics on their increasingly indispensable laptops.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2011/nov/30/steve-bruce-sunderland-sacked

[Hymer Red]

I reckon MON to Sunderland and Fat 'Ead to Blackburn within a few weeks (maybe days) to be a bit nearer whiskey nose.  Isnt Hughes in for the Welsh gig?

[exiledintheUSA]

I see Rafa's name being taken in vain with respect to this job. Sunderland is beneath him.

Think he needs this type of job to get his stock back up, he would have them in the top 6 in two years.

[NOTBORNIN1982]

I see Rafa's name being taken in vain with respect to this job. Sunderland is beneath him.

That's bollox pal.

[Samee]

Was just looking at a thread about Rafa on a Sunderland forum from back in August and some of the shit on there is hilarious. So many of them are so ill-informed you just have to laugh really. What's even funnier is that there dead certain they're right as well, proper cocky about it. My stance on the media softened a bit with how nicely Rafa's played with them since being sacked but that just reminded me exactly what the media did to Rafa. Bunch of c*nts. And the people that ate up the shit served by them are even bigger c*nts.

[Ray K]

I hope Mark Hughes gets the job, because I really miss seeing Kia Joorabchian defending his clients' various ludicrous activities/salaries on Sky Sports News every other fucking day.
And Carlos Tevez will probably be persuaded that Sunderland is closer to Buenos Aires than Manchester, so everyone will be a winner.

Well, apart from Sunderland fans.

[-Q-]

He will be missed.

"You've got a head like a beach ball" 

[rafathegaffa83]

Louise Taylor, the Guardian's North East football reporter, has an excellent article about Bruce's departure

Steve Bruce was a manager who refused to move with the times

The former Sunderland No1 paid little attention to modern coaching methods, technology or tactics – and now he looks like man whose era has passed

        Louise Taylor
        guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 30 November 2011 21.08 GMT
       

Shortly after taking charge at Sunderland Steve Bruce was asked if he had considered experimenting with a Christmas Tree formation. "I'm not really into tactics," he replied. At the time that response was easy to interpret as a deliberately flippant or, perhaps, a self-deprecating means of avoiding answering the question. As the seasons passed, though, the suspicion grew that the former Manchester United captain had simply been honest.

Arguably one of the principal reasons Bruce is no longer in charge at the Stadium of Light concerns his apparent inability to tweak formations or tactics during matches. Whenever a rival manager re-configured his system mid-game, Bruce invariably failed to come up with a countermeasure.

In recent months Alan Pardew, Mark Hughes, Roy Hodgson and, most recently, Roberto Martínez have all seemingly out-thought him as Sunderland dropped points against supposedly weaker sidesthey really should have beaten.

If he failed to cut it as a tactician, the 50-year-old did not seem much of a strategist either. Including loans, 30 players were signed – several of whom have subsequently been moved on – during Bruce's two-and-a-half years on Wearside. That represents an unsettling "churn" factor and hardly proved conducive to developing either a clear playing philosophy or strong team spirit.

Always rather amorphous, if not downright scrappy, Sunderland's high-tempo style lacked creativity, not to mention control, in central midfield. Unable to dictate play, the team frequently failed to press home early advantages.

In many ways Bruce's decision to make the hot-headed, yellow card-prone Lee Cattermole his captain proved emblematic of a rather gung-ho reign during which players such as David Meyler were rushed back from serious injuries only to suffer further complications, the idea of hiring a sports psychologist was dismissed and the manager boasted about his inability to send an email. While Bruce – who did finally learn how to log on last summer when the club issued him with an iPad – may well argue this lack of computer literacy was hardly relevant, many of his peers spend countless hours checking out the latest sports science innovations, researching transfer targets and analysing Prozone statistics on their increasingly indispensable laptops.

Unashamedly old school, Bruce believed that motivation was the key to management but the influx of overseas coaches has raised the Premier League's technical bar and despite his relative youth, he has begun to look suspiciously like a man whose era has passed.

Unlike many modern managers he did not coach the team himself, delegating that job to his assistant, Eric Black. While Bruce's undoubtedly engaging, humour-suffused, personality had a broad appeal, he fell out with quite a few players, most notably Kenwyne Jones, now at Stoke, and Anton Ferdinand, now at QPR and who had by common consensus finally emerged as Sunderland's outstanding defender when he was sold in August.

Shortly afterwards Sunderland's manager was badly let down by Titus Bramble, who faces a crown court trial on sexual assault charges in January. Other bad buys included Matthew Kilgallon, Christian Riveros, Marcos Angeleri and Paulo Da Silva. Meanwhile Craig Gardner, bought from Birmingham for £6m, has barely figured in the first team.

There were some good purchases along the way, too, such as Lorik Cana, Asamoah Gyan and, above all, Darren Bent . Unfortunately Bent had become desperate to leave Sunderland six months before his eventual move to Aston Villa in January. Cana headed to Turkey after just a year while Gyan has newly gone to United Arab Emirates on loan. Money evidently played a big part in all these deals, but it does not represent the entire behind-the-scenes story.

Something was clearly wrong because, as last season's promising beginning subsided into a post-new year collapse, managerial excuses increasingly became a recurring, if self-destructive, theme.

It certainly did not play well with Sunderland fans when the crowd were blamed for harbouring overly "great expectations" or that Bruce constantly bemoaned the difficulty of attracting players to the north-east. More recently, his loudest lament has been that locals would not accept him purely because he had been born north of the Tyne and grew up supporting Newcastle United.

Granted, a minority shamefully hurled chants of "You fat Geordie bastard – get out of our club" after Saturday's defeat to Wigan, but the overwhelming majority of supporters did not care about his roots. Moreover their "expectations" were mostly pretty modest.

Two home wins since New Year's Day have tried Wearsiders' patience but, contrary to Bruce's theories, many would have taken the odd defeat to Newcastle in their stride had there been signs of progress or a discernible playing pattern emerging. Maybe the core problem was that Bruce never accepted that, sometimes, the devil really is in the detail. Soon after Ahmed Elmohamady arrived from Egypt, Sunderland's manager was asked if the winger would be observing Ramadan and if so, how the daylight fasting might affect his game.

The question was met with a blank look. "Is Elmohamady a Coptic Christian rather than a Muslim then?" the questioner persisted. It was an important distinction and the answer should have tripped off Bruce's tongue, but he clearly did not have a clue.
Counted out

2: Points clear of the relegation zone, in 16th, having won only two of 13 league games this season

10: Sunderland's position last season. The club finished 13th in Steve Bruce's first full season in charge

28: Bruce's win percentage, less than Premier League figure with Wigan Athletic and Birmingham City

30: Number of players Bruce signed since joining in March 2009, several of whom have left

15: Red cards received during Bruce's reign, more than any other Premier League club in the same period

2: His second sacking. Bruce resigned at Sheffield Utd, Wigan (twice), Crystal Palace and Birmingham
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2011/nov/30/steve-bruce-sunderland-sacked

[BlackandWhitePaul]

Think he needs this type of job to get his stock back up, he would have them in the top 6 in two years.

Ohh no he wouldn't.

[CHOPPER]

I'll miss the sight of that cheeky little nose of his. Nan-night and god-bless.

[tommy LFC]

Sunderland as a club has so much potential. Big stadium that can be filled, youth academy that is producing and an owner that will spend (not massively but will invest). If Rafa is told he has 3 years to get them challenging top 6 then he should take it, simple as.

[rafathegaffa83]

Sunderland as a club has so much potential. Big stadium that can be filled, youth academy that is producing and an owner that will spend (not massively but will invest). If Rafa is told he has 3 years to get them challenging top 6 then he should take it, simple as.

I think he would, because once he's sorted out the initial mess, it would give him a project to rebuild a team from the ground-up in his image. The problem is he more than likely won't be given the opportunity.

[BlackandWhitePaul]

Will you good people please refrain from saying Rafa should be installed at the SOL.  I deffo don't want him there, why would I, I don't want the Mackems doing well.  Get Monkeyheed back   

[kavah]

Just seen an old woman struggling with her shopping.

A said to her, "Can you manage pet"

She replied, "Fuck off, i wouldn't be seen dead in Sunderland never mind manage the bastards.

ha ha

[1021]

Will you good people please refrain from saying Rafa should be installed at the SOL.  I deffo don't want him there, why would I, I don't want the Mackems doing well.  Get Monkeyheed back   

Iain Dowie is out of work, will that do you?

[tommy LFC]

I think he would, because once he's sorted out the initial mess, it would give him a project to rebuild a team from the ground-up in his image. The problem is he more than likely won't be given the opportunity.

I think he'd be given time. Bruce had what, 2 and a half years? Bought a huge amount of players, spent a decent amount.... basically was backed very well and given time. But he deserved the sack. Thats all Rafa will want, let him try, back him and he'll live or die by the results. I would genuinely love to see him back in management, even if it is two steps back and all that.

[BlackandWhitePaul]

Iain Dowie is out of work, will that do you?

Yeah, for sure.  A couple of seasons ago he was here as Shearers right hand man and down we went.  I am sure he could manage that with Sunderland all on his own haha.   The posh talking twat!

[1021]

Yeah, for sure.  A couple of seasons ago he was here as Shearers right hand man and down we went.  I am sure he could manage that with Sunderland all on his own haha.   The posh talking twat!

I forgot about that
Do you thinnk your neighbours could tempt Chris Coleman back from Greece?

[El Campeador]

Yeah, for sure.  A couple of seasons ago he was here as Shearers right hand man and down we went.  I am sure he could manage that with Sunderland all on his own haha.   The posh talking twat!

[hesbighesred]

bob bradley is now being linked. he's been give special permission to commute from washington every day, fully an hour away.

[hesbighesred]

Louise Taylor, the Guardian's North East football reporter, has an excellent article about Bruce's departure

Top article, Louise Taylor's quality. The female sports writers on that paper (her and Hyde mainly) rip the piss out of most of the men, bar David Conn. Anyway, the bit about his win rate being worse at Sunderland was very interesting, given the vastly improved resources he had to work with. Another one like Hodgson who has skills which can be useful at a lower level - IE sticking to one tactical plan and some decent motivation skills perhaps - but who is horribly lacking in, as she says, all those other things that a modern manager either needs to know himself or be able to delegate well.

You'll rarely see a more deserved sacking, a decent manager with a long term plan could do really well there. Martinez would be an interesting shout, apart from the others already mentioned.

[Matt8Pie]

Iain Dowie would be brilliant!

You just know that Martin O'Neill, the media darling, will get it.