SUNDERLAND insist Niall Quinn’s departure as chairman will have no bearing on Steve Bruce’s future but the experienced manager knows results will. Stuart Rayner reports.
BUSINESS as usual was the message Sunderland tried to hammer home at yesterday’s pre-match Press conference. In essence, they insist, nothing has changed at the Stadium of Light these past two weeks.
Therein lies the problem. The last time the Black Cats played, their manager Steve Bruce was under pressure from an increasingly restless fanbase, their team looking for only its second win this season. Nothing has changed.
The party line is that shunting Niall Quinn from the chairman’s seat into an “international development” role has had absolutely no effect on Bruce’s job security. Fine, were it cast-iron in the first place.
Sunderland say new chairman, Ellis Short, is as patient as his fiercely-loyal predecessor was towards Bruce. With no evidence to the contrary from the tight-lipped Texan, there is no reason to doubt that.
But Bruce knows losing football managers always live on borrowed time. Nothing has changed. If he doubts it, he only needs glance at the home dugout tomorrow.
“He (Short) rang me last Monday to say ignore what’s in the papers,” he revealed. “He reassured me everything’s okay. Listen, I need a few results, it’s as simple as that.
“As I’ve said repeatedly, I won’t take that (patience) for granted. I’m judged on one thing, which is winning a match and at the moment we’re not winning enough. I’m open to criticism but certainly in the way the club is run, nothing has changed that much.”
Having been allowed to break Sunderland’s record transfer fee in two of his three summers in charge, Bruce can have no complaints about Short’s backing.
“One of the beauties about him since he came in here, he lets you manage,” he said. “The football domain is mine and that’s not going to change. I don’t think anything will change.
“Certainly he’s going to take a bit more of a hands-on approach, which is good. My relationship with him for two years has been great.
“As a person, he’s fine, he’s perfectly okay. He’s been a role model of the way owners should be. You don’t see him hogging the headlines, you don’t see him on TV, he’s come in and very quietly turned Sunderland around.
“He wants a club that’s going to be trying to be competing at the top end of the table. That means to get up around 10th. It’s been very difficult to break into in the past but that’s all he’s ever wanted since the first day I met him. We’ve always had a decent relationship from the day I met him, so in that respect I don’t think anything’s going to change.”
