Steve Bruce is manager - even if relegated says Quinn
Mar 12 2010 by Luke Edwards, The Journal
Bruce has endured a horrendous three months waiting for a league win, but the comprehensive victory over Bolton has lifted the storm clouds. Quinn is convinced his manager has made vast
improvements in his first season in charge, despite the alarming slump which saw the Black Cats break a Premier League record for games without a win.
This, though, is just the first stage of Bruce’s mission to establish Sunderland as a top-ten club and, eventually, trophy contenders.
Quinn explained: “As good as his signings were in the summer, and as well as he prepared to bring players into the club, he’ll look for something different this summer: he’ll look for character. He’ll tell you that himself.
“You need to be a big strong character to play at Sunderland because the chips can be down at times. It’s easy to play well when you’re 3-0 up, but when you’re a goal down and the pressure’s on it’s different. That’ll come further up the list of requirements.
“For that reason alone I think his appointment has gone really well, he sees what needs to be done here and people believe in him. He’s got a great staff around him. We hit this awful blip, there were excuses and without covering them all, he stayed with it.
“We’re not out of the woods by any imagination, but what I was most pleased with from the other night was not defending a 1-0 lead in injury time by hitting the ball off the line.
“We set a new standard for ourselves and we knew that Steve would bring us that when he got a settled back four, when he got the confidence and the players back.”
Quinn continued: “A couple of draws helped. It was tough, but Steve played a blinder in that period. The players know they have to keep to that standard and that was one of the messages Ellis Short gave them yesterday. He said: “I’m delighted with how you played the other night but I’m not here to pat you on the back about it, I’m here to tell you everyone expects it in the next ten games’. The players agreed with that.”
Quinn (pictured above) believes the positive impact of Bruce’s appointment will become steadily more apparent as he admitted the 49-year-old had initially struggled to adapt to the pressure that comes with such a big job.
He said: “If you trace back to when Steve came here, he knew he was coming to a big club, he felt it was a step up in his career, he felt he’d done his apprenticeship, worked his ticket elsewhere and made good success stories.
“He knew the pressure was probably a little greater here, but there’s been nothing like feeling it and living it for the six or eight months since then. He knows an awful lot more now.”
