After two years under Steve Bruce – during which the promise of better times had been tantalisingly dangled only to disappear upon second glance – the cracks in Bruce’s hastily built foundations were beginning
to show.
After selling Jordan Henderson and loaning out Asamoah Gyan – and making a raft of uninspiring signings – an early season derby defeat had meant the mood wasn’t fantastic at the Stadium of Light. However, it wasn’t actually too bad – and it was certainly lifted by a 4-0 home win over Stoke, in our fifth league fixture of the season.
A 2-1 away defeat to Norwich hadn’t helped things though, and when West Brom went two up within five minutes at the Stadium of Light, things looked like they may boil over.
Two goals in three minutes half way through the first half – from Bendtner and Elmohamady – restored parity and the game ended 2-2. The team was booed off at the end of a poor display, and Bruce had been subjected to ‘you’ll be getting sacked in the morning’ chants from the West Brom supporters – followed by a section of the Stadium of Light crowd chanting ‘Bruce Out’.
And after the match Bruce came out – rather predictably – in full defensive mode, blaming the fans for Sunderland’s indifferent start to the season, and having a right go at us for… well, wanting to see the team play well and win a few games?!
I was genuinely looking at a few faces to see if they could respond and they did. The vast majority of them, the two lads from Birmingham for instance, found out just how difficult it is to play for Sunderland.
There’s a huge expectation, bigger than it ever should be really in my opinion, but that’s what it is. They’ve certainly learned that. They know what it’s going to be like now.
The intensity even shocks Wes Brown and John O’Shea. They are saying ‘why, what’s the problem? OK we’ve had a bad start but why is it like it is at the moment, the frenzy?’.
We had a bad run last year but we finished tenth, so we must have had some parts of the season OK. We finished tenth, but there’s this frenzy which engulfs the North-East.
Even those players who have played in front of 70,000 crowds 400 times can see how difficult it can be. There’s the expectation here of a huge, huge, big club.
It resembles a club which has won the Champions League or the Premier League or the FA Cup, like an Arsenal, a Man United, a Chelsea, a Liverpool.
We’ve got a similar expectation here. Where it comes from is just one thing: the area and the size of the crowds we get repeatedly.
In reality, Sunderland’s start to the season had been poor – and the raft of new signings showed little ability to significantly improve a squad that, while finishing 10th, had endured spells of awful results.
Defensively, Sunderland looked fragile, while across the team players looked disjointed and devoid of ideas.
As it turned out, the temperature was about to rise and rise. Bruce had just three home games left as manager of Sunderland.
But, you know, it was never his fault.
The mood around the Stadium of Light hadn’t been helped by Niall Quinn’s seeming imminent exit from the club. After the club had been purchased by Ellis Short, the Texan had replaced Quinn as chairman – with Quinn taking over a short lived role as Head of Internaitonal Development.
Of course, Quinny was positive about the whole thing, but his imminent departure from day-to-day operations added to the sense of unease around the Stadium of Light.
Quinn said:
He’ll be a fantastic chairman and taking this role on speaks volumes about his ambition for the club.
Short believed it was a smart move, particularly in light of the financial fair play rules about to come in.
I can assure our fans that it’s the same group of people continuing to lead the club.
With financial fair play rules coming into effect it is essential for the long-term success of the club that we develop interests on a global scale and there’s no-one better than Niall to sell the ethos of Sunderland to an international audience.
Short didn’t have much time to get his feet under the table before pulling the trigger for the first time… something he became all-too accustomed to doing during his ill-fated spell in charge.
