I’ve had just over twenty-four hours to digest the news that the club have decided to part ways with Chief Business Officer David Bruce, and despite trying my best to convince myself that the club have taken this decision for the right reasons, I have to admit that I’m struggling to find the logic in it.
Of course, I think it’s wise to start by acknowledging that the current majority shareholder, Kyril Louis-Dreyfus, has done a magnificent job, and we are incredibly indebted to him for the position
that we now find ourselves in. With the people who surround him, I believe they have made some huge, bold choices in recent years when it comes to the running of the club that have ultimately paid off. It hasn’t all been plain sailing — lessons have been learned following the ‘Black Cats Bar’ debacle and Michael Beale appointment, for instance — but, in the main, they have built up significant credit in the bank over their tenure, and deserve our full faith and support when it comes to making massive decisions that will affect the trajectory that our football club takes.
This isn’t the first time that they’ve made a tough, unexpected decision, though. Clearly, there’s an incredibly ruthless streak when it comes to this board of Directors, and they aren’t scared to wield the axe if they think it’s the right call to make at that time.
It’s very likely that the real reasoning behind the decision they’ve taken — and I’d hazard a guess that, publicly at least, we’ll never actually find out exactly why that was — was not visible at surface-level. We, as fans, only ever see the tip of the iceberg of what happens both on and off the pitch at a football club, so I understand that what I’m saying here is said without the full knowledge of the situation.
Most of the time, I’m fully behind their bold choices and support the direction they’ve gone in. Despite recognising that Kristjaan Speakman and Stuart Harvey did very well in their respective roles early on in Kyril’s roadmap for Sunderland, I could see the logic in moving them on, as the club was progressing faster than any of us probably expected. They were hired when the club was playing in League One, but it takes a whole different skillset to successfully operate in those roles in the world’s greatest football division, and being ruthless and decisive was entirely necessary, despite probably being difficult decisions to make.
Yet with David Bruce, right now, I just can’t seem to come to the same understanding. Not that it’s an absolute requirement for the man who basically runs the club day-to-day to be a Sunderland supporter, but there can be no doubting that being a born and bred Wearsider enhanced the skillset that Bruce brought with him when he arrived, rather unexpectedly, from a similar role in the United States’ Major League Soccer.
He’s unquestionably performed impeccably in his various roles over the last three years — the evidence of his body of work is there for all to see. You feel it every single time you walk through the turnstiles at the Stadium of Light, and you see it when you look all around at people decked out head to toe in hummel gear as they mill around the newly-refurbished concourses and head to their seats. Whichever way you slice it, a lot of the good things that have gone on off the pitch in recent seasons have David Bruce’s fingerprints all over them.
It might not mean much from a corporate perspective, but having an executive that mixes with fans and is seen as approachable, who understands that little touches (like handing out pink slices in the queue to fans queuing to buy new strips that are genuinely worth buying and feature motifs of places in the city, or having genuine pride in seeing the brilliant Granit Xhaka “Haway The Lads” video play before the teams head out to the pitch before a game, or seeing the delight in Jimmy Montgomery’s face as he was shown the lettering on the newly-renamed West Stand) has been really important to the feeling that the club has returned back to the supporters.
It feels like this is our club now, and these things — initiatives led mainly by Bruce — have been pivotal to having a positive experience as Sunderland fans, particularly in the last two years.
Without Bruce there working night and day behind the scenes, I find it hard to see how any incoming Chief Executive Officer who doesn’t have a lifetime of knowledge built up from being a diehard Sunderland supporter could be able to continue that job on in the same manner. This club is undoubtedly worse off without David Bruce having one hand on the wheel and steering us in the right direction.
Whilst, again, I’m fully aware that the club’s current ownership has earned our faith and time to get these decisions right, I’m actually pretty concerned and unnerved right now that in the fullness of time this might end up being viewed as a bad move from those concerned.
For me, Bruce was a one-off hire, the kind we simply will not be able to make again. Bright, successful football executives from Sunderland don’t grow on trees, and there will not be another chance to make this sort of appointment.
There’s now big pressure on Kyril Louis-Dreyfus and the rest of Sunderland’s board to get this next move right.
As I said earlier, the club is moving faster than we could have ever envisaged and it may well be that they see a ‘next-level’, elite level Chief Executive as the next natural step in making Sunderland a proper elite global force on the footballing landscape, and it may have been viewed internally that David Bruce simply didn’t have what it takes to be that man.
From what I understand, the new CEO role has been discussed internally for a while now, and Bruce himself likely felt he was the logical and natural choice when it comes to appointing someone to that role, especially given he’s largely done that job since Steve Davidson left the club, and has a long list of successes racked up against his name. I’m sure he’s really disappointed and gutted that it has come to this, because it honestly felt like, for once, Sunderland had brought someone in at executive level who truly understands the assignment.
Time will tell if my gut instinct is right here, and I really hope that I’m wrong. Sunderland AFC will carry on with or without David Bruce at the helm, and as much as I wish he was still part of the team behind the scenes and leading the way on making this club a global brand, that’s not going to be the case, and we just have to be understanding, patient, and see what happens next.
Regardless of that, I hope that once the dust has settled, David can return to the Stadium of Light, look around at the place, feel proud and think “yep, I played my part here, I had a hand in this.”
He deserves an immense amount of gratitude and respect for what he’s done, and I can only hope that the club’s board of directors aren’t made to rue their decision.
