Steve Bruce

[Lee]

From the Guardian's Fiver...

A familiar list of candidates has already emerged, with the media claiming that the club would like to chat to Ailsa from Home and Away, Martin O'Neill, Alan Curbishley and Dvd O'Lry, while readers of the Sunderland Echo also quite fancy a move for David Moyes or Guus Hiddink, though apparently only 3% think that Big Cup winner Rafa Benitez would be good enough for their club.

The hatchet job that the British media have done on Rafa is quite incredible. He's far too good for that shower.

[Ben_Itez]

Good article:

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

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


By Louise Taylor, 30/11/11

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 ******* – 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

--------------

You know it's time to go when the bit in bold happens

Amazing how such managers get jobs in the first place - has he done a good job anywhere?

[Ben_Itez]

From the Guardian's Fiver...

A familiar list of candidates has already emerged, with the media claiming that the club would like to chat to Ailsa from Home and Away, Martin O'Neill, Alan Curbishley and Dvd O'Lry, while readers of the Sunderland Echo also quite fancy a move for David Moyes or Guus Hiddink, though apparently only 3% think that Big Cup winner Rafa Benitez would be good enough for their club.

Someone suggested Rafa in the discussion below a similar article on the beeb to much general derision

This was one guys class response:

Rafa Benitez for Sunderland??!!

What is this? Comedy Central?!

Why would a top quality manager of his indubitable expertise - who has won the three biggest trophies in European club football - slum it at a pub team like Sunderland?! :rollseyes:

[Shaggy]

So Martin O'Neill's back then.

[Alex]

I know it seems Bruce spent alot of money. But over his Tenure there he spent something like £8m net. Signed 25 players, and sold 31.(Excluding Loans)

He also lost Bent, Gyan, Welbeck and Henderson in 12 months. Thats going to have an effect on any manager.


Edit: Out of Interest, is it 'affect' or 'effect'?

[Roboklopp]

http://www.future-perfect.co.uk/grammartips/grammar-tip-effect-affect.asp

[destinydude]

I know it seems Bruce spent alot of money. But over his Tenure there he spent something like £8m net. Signed 25 players, and sold 31.(Excluding Loans)

He also lost Bent, Gyan, Welbeck and Henderson in 12 months. Thats going to have an effect on any manager.


Edit: Out of Interest, is it 'affect' or 'effect'?

effect I presume

Don't think it was because of his transfers et.al that he was sacked. Their results have been **** and he hasnt 'built' them which is what they were looking for

[destinydude]

I know it seems Bruce spent alot of money. But over his Tenure there he spent something like £8m net. Signed 25 players, and sold 31.(Excluding Loans)

He also lost Bent, Gyan, Welbeck and Henderson in 12 months. Thats going to have an effect on any manager.


Edit: Out of Interest, is it 'affect' or 'effect'?

It's going to affect any manager or it's going to have an effect on any manager

[Alex]

http://www.future-perfect.co.uk/gram...ect-affect.asp

So you affect something, to produce an effect?

Effect = Is the Outcome
Affect = Is the Influence

Edit:

It should be "These things will have an affect on any manager" then?

[dom9]

So you affect something, to produce an effect?

Effect = Is the Outcome
Affect = Is the Influence

Edit:

It should be "These things will have an affect on any manager" then?

You were right first time. Google it.

[Neil Young]

Effectively Bruce has been ineffective. Tactically he had zero effect and that was affecting the players. Sunderland need a manager to effect a few changes.

[dom9]

Effectively Bruce has been ineffective. Tactically he had zero effect and that was affecting the players. Sunderland need a manager to effect a few changes.

[Roboklopp]

Special effects not special needs.

[Neil Young]

Every time I saw his head on MOTD I thought of that beachball.

[dww]

I know it seems Bruce spent alot of money. But over his Tenure there he spent something like £8m net. Signed 25 players, and sold 31.(Excluding Loans)

He also lost Bent, Gyan, Welbeck and Henderson in 12 months. Thats going to have an effect on any manager.


Edit: Out of Interest, is it 'affect' or 'effect'?

I think there is something in that line of reasoning. However at that level of club it is not just net spend but how well you have been able to shape the squad if you have time and money to make a decent number of transfers. He's never really seemed to have a philosophy or to be progressing a project, but then I guess being blocked when going for key targets like Nzogbia might explain that to some degree.

While I think he is an effective manager I think it is a shame that managers/coaches in the style of O'Neill are getting PL jobs. His style is pretty direct and he rarely seems to really develop young players.