We are quite sure Steve Bruce is thoroughly fed up with having to send, or have someone send, the weekly e-mail lauding a good performance but more often explaining a bad one. Salut! Sunderland shares his ennui. But we’ve started, so we’ll finish. How often have we had to preface his remarks by negative thoughts? How often has he seemed to be offering the same excuse as last time? And yet after all that, we get the top 10 finish – just, but it counts – that we wanted. It may make some of the end-of-season verdicts look a little different …
Dear Colin,
We got there and I’m delighted for everyone. It’s our third-best finish in 55 years and that was our aim at the start.
Let’s all enjoy the next week or so but after that it’s back to work and the question is – can we improve again?
That’s what we’ve got to try and achieve – getting the squad bigger and better.
I’m delighted for everyone, especially the travelling fans who came in their thousands despite it being £46 a ticket.
Fair play to them. I’m delighted they’ve seen their team put in an excellent performance and finish the season in 10th.
Bolo came up with a great goal and Stephane has been in really good form.
We have to patient and give him time to settle and he’ll be a big hit for us next year, I’m convinced of that.
Now we need to sit down, bang a few heads together and see how we’re going to go forward because we have to keep improving.
Four years in at the top level, we’ve made steady progress but the next step is always the hardest.
We need to bring new players in, strengthen the squad and build on what we’ve achieved.
I want to sign off by saying thank you to all our supporters for your magnificent support this season.
You have been truly fantastic and everyone at the club is grateful for that.
All the best,
Steve Bruce
What pathetic comments – we finished 10th in the hardest league in the world – we played Chelsea and Man Utd off the park – and i now have to put up with crap like this from so called supporters – go support Newcastle – that’s exactly the sooundbites their supporters give
This may also sound gloomy but the worst thing this ‘top 10 finish’ could do is paper over the cracks we all know are there. The basis for progress is there but it can still go either way. There must be no let up next season, no assumptions, and tons of realism.
I think SB must be as shellshocked as the rest of us. I want to celebrate a top 10 finish, but I’m too exhausted to raise a smile.
As we stand, I feel we are probably one of the early favourites for relegation in 2012, so clearly something radical must be done. Serious injuries to the spine of the team, namely Gordon, Turner, Bramble, Cattermole, Meyler and Campbell could leave us without all of those players in the pre-season and start of the next campaign. Add to that the loss of Welbeck (probably), Onuoha, Mensah, Muntari, Zenden, Riveros and Angeleri, and our situation comes into sharp focus.
We can’t afford to spurn opportunities to pick up solid squad players such as Larsson and Vaughan, but if we are to improve as SB says, then there will need to be a serious investment in 2 strikers, one central midfield player, one winger, 2 centre-backs and a fullback. For this we would need £70 – £90 million in my view (assuming we could attract the required quality), and since I can not see such funds being available, I fervently hope for unexpected good news on the recovery of the injured players.
This may sound gloomy, but I think it is a fair reflection of where we currently stand and I for one am concerned about the 2011-12 season.
Just a little… but the sentiment will remain the same.