Steve Bruce - SAFC Blog

Steve Bruce gets major boost: absolutely no vote of confidence

September 13, 2011 by Colin Randall

This is to do with the dishonesty, humbug and spin of everyday corporate life, whether the corporation makes biscuits, produces oil or runs a football club.

It has nothing specifically to do with Sunderland AFC, or whether we/they should stick with Steve Bruce in the belief that for all the unpromising signs, things are still more or less on the right course.

That is a related but different argument which is endlessly debated here and at many other places (I remain in the Bruce In camp, but only just and also because I have come to the conclusion, rightly or wrongly, that his hand has been forced in one or two key decisions that have adversely affected performance and prospects).

Asamoah Gyan: the truth?

September 11, 2011 by Colin Randall

Gary Al-Smith is a respected commentator on African football.

At supersport.com, he has given a detailed and quite depressing account of the events leading to yesterday’s bombshell announcement that a player signed as a world-class striker for £13m little more than a year ago was on his way to play his football in the fabulously rich but, in terms of football quality, lowly environment of the UAE.

Velkommen to Sunderland, Nicklas Bendtner, whatever Abbey Clancy thinks of it

September 1, 2011 by Colin Randall

Nicklas Bendtner Image: Wonker

While idly surfing for a way of extending velkommen to the Danish equivalent of “welcome to the madhouse”, I came across a comment that “Swedish is a language, Danish a throat infection”. it didn’t help much, but at least it made me chuckle.

Nicklas Bendtner, brought in on loan from Arsenal for a year, is a confident young man and if he has, in the eyes of some, an excess of that confidence, we have no need to worry about his mental state (or, so far as can be told, his throat).

Bruce In: keeping the faith should also mean keeping perspective

August 28, 2011 by Colin Randall

Image: Mrs Logic

Liverpool 1 SAFC 1; SAFC 0 Newcastle Utd 1; Brighton & HA 1 SAFC 0; Swansea 0 SAFC 0

No one is going to pretend that Sunderland have got off to a flying start. Even Steve Bruce’s sternest critics here would accept that he has not tried to do so.

But it is still necessary to apply some kind of proportion to the opening results.

Bruce’s Banter: at least he didn’t sign Barton

August 27, 2011 by Colin Randall

Having given my qualified support to Steve Bruce, if only because sacking him three games into a season would be spectacularly bad timing, I now look forward to him issuing writs against those responsible for grossly libellous reports that he tried to sign Joey Barton. As for tonight’s e-mail, the D word – disappointing, not despise – gets another outing but it’s really just a routine response to a routine draw …

Dear Colin,

To put it into context, to come away from home in the Barclays Premier League and pick up something is always decent.

The disappointing thing is that we had enough chances to win two football matches.

Steve Bruce, hysteria and the case for his defence

August 26, 2011 by Colin Randall

Has Steve Bruce every right to go on the offensive in his response to the fierce criticism he has endured since losing at home to Newcastle and then away at Brighton in the Carling Cup? Well, yes and no: the calls for his head may be over the top, for now at any rate, but supporters have a right to voice their opinions on what went wrong in two games, crucial to them and the club.

I am on record as stating here my belief that sacking him this early in the season, after what was then one bad result and is now two, would be absurd. As you can see from the comments that have appeared at Salut! Sunderland all week, that is hardly a universal view.

It hasn’t changed and it won’t change even if we lose tomorrow; three or four games in just doesn’t seem the right time to be contemplating such a dramatic move and change.

Steve Bruce, hysteria and the case for his defence

August 26, 2011 by Colin Randall

It hasn’t changed and it won’t change even if we lose tomorrow; three or four games in just doesn’t seem the right time to be contemplating such a dramatic move and change.

Steve Bruce: would winning at Swansea still not restore faith?

August 24, 2011 by Colin Randall

Why is it we get busier when times are bad? Three games into a new season seems incredibly early to be screaming for the boss’s head but M Salut was taken to task here after saying a managerial change so soon would be “absurd”. Are we all so fickle that a 3-0 romp at Swansea would have supporters singing his praises, or is that too laughable a forecast to be taken seriously?

Birflatt Boy throws his weight behind the revolution and joins the mob surrounding the heavily fortified managerial compound …

I haven’t taken the time to study the odds at the bookies to see just how likely the cognoscenti think it will be for Steve Bruce to be the first PL manager to win the sack race.

But I do have a question for all Sunderland fans: is it too early to sack him, or is it too late?

Bruce’s Banter from Brighton: ‘I took Carling Cup seriously’

August 24, 2011 by Colin Randall

Needing to make an impression for once in the Carling Cup, the manager of an ambitious Premier club names three strikers, with transfer fees that could rise to £27m, in his squad to visit a newly promoted Championship side.

So far, so good. Trouble is they’re all on the bench when the game starts. Not until the 52rd minute is one of them sent on, to be joined with only minutes left of normal time by a second and, believe it or not, deep into extra time by the third and and most costly. No smirking, please, at the first sentence of Steve Bruce‘s e-mail …

Dear Colin,

My overriding emotion is one of disappointment because I’ve said all along we take cup competitions extremely seriously and we put out a team that mirrored that.

The Newcastle Soapbox: bad news comes in threes

August 21, 2011 by Colin Randall

The morning after. As we bid farewell to the thousands of gloating Mags who headed here yesterday, (and we’d have been smug, too, if we’d won), Pete Sixsmith has plenty to get off his chest and does so with customary eloquence, warning Steve Bruce that the rumblings in the stands are gathering force …

Three times in Steve Bruce’s time as manager have we played our Tyneside neighbours and three times we have played in a manner that can, at best, be called disappointing.

Of the three, this was the worst. Last October was a one off, January was a game in which both sides were so awful that it can quickly be consigned to the far recesses of memory. But this one was different.