Zenden: Black Cats just felt positive

Oct 17 2009 by Mark Douglas, The Journal

Zenden admits that he had grown disillusioned with French football and yearned for a return to a country where he served Middlesbrough and Liverpool with distinction. “I played in the Champions League and the Uefa cup but you do get the feeling that you want to be involved with everything which is going on in the Premier League.

“I like the way the fans look at the game, how the media look at the game, the fact that the stadiums are full, there are no fences, there is a positive feeling around the whole football kind of thing.

“There is very rarely any trouble.

“A few things happened in France, we had some stones thrown at our coach but not by the Marseille fans. I know about when fans went to the PSG training ground and stormed in so those kind of things do happen.” Bruce is insistent that Zenden (far right) has not joined the Black Cats to make up the numbers but the 33-year-old has been told that he may have to wait his turn to break up the effective partnership of Lorik Cana and Lee Cattermole.

However, the Sunderland boss feels that chance may come sooner rather than later because of the amount of bookings that tough-tackling pair will rack up during this campaign.

“I am delighted with those two you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know there will be suspensions because of the way they play.

“That is in my mind – they have both got three yellow cards and below that I have not got much cover there with Dean Whitehead and Grant Leadbitter going out.”

Meanwhile, the Sunderland boss is set for an interesting round of post-match Press duties this afternoon after he branded TalkSport pundit Stan Collymore an “idiot” in the wake of his decision to hand David Beckham the England man of the match honours on Wednesday.

Bruce was incredulous at the amount of discussion there had been about his decision and was particularly scathing of Collymore – who will be at the Stadium of Light this afternoon for the Liverpool clash on behalf of the station.