Steve Bruce is under pressure whether you like it or not

Another week, another set of Steve Bruce on the brink reports. No matter how many times senior club figures and media handlers deny their validity, this is a story that simply refuses to go away.

More stubborn than a red wine stain on a pristine white carpet, the pressure on Bruce is not going to vanish quickly.

For what it is worth, my information remains consistent. Bruce’s position is not under any immediate threat.

While his chief ally Niall Quinn is no longer chairman – concentrating instead on overseas development and international business links – owner Ellis Short has personally assured his manager he retains his full backing.

With just one win in eight games in all competitions this season, results have been disappointing, but at this stage, far from disastrous.

After seven games, the Black Cats are one point worse off in the table than Arsenal and Everton.

After seven games, it is hard to justify any manager’s position being under threat unless their team is bottom of the table, pointless, the fans are protesting and the players are clearly playing with the intention of earning him a P45.

In Sunderland’s last game before the international break, they were two goals down at home to West Bromwich Albion and disgruntlement was turning into open hostility towards Bruce.

By half-time the Black Cats were level and by the end of an entertaining game, they probably should have taken all three points.

The players are clearly still playing for the manager – half and perhaps the most important part of the battle – and there is a genuine desire at boardroom level to maintain stability rather than push the managerial ejector seat.

Bruce has spent a large chunk of the international break with Short in Korea, pushing the Sunderland brand in a potentially lucrative overseas market. Hardly the behaviour of a condemned man.

Yet, others continue to fuel the uncertainty. The latest reports over the weekend have even claimed Martin O’Neill – still out of work after walking out on Aston Villa at the start of last season – has already been lined up to replace Bruce when the bullet comes.

Bruce must feel like he is drinking in the last chance saloon with a selection of rather large knives sticking out of his back. It is unhelpful, distracting and unsettling, but it is unlikely to go away anytime soon.

It might be subdued if Sunderland win – or even secure a point at Arsenal on Sunday – but it remains in the background, simmering away and ready to boil over again as soon as a bad result emerges.

Like it or not, Bruce is fighting for his job even as those around him offer him protection. He cannot stop people speculating about his future, he cannot stop the rumours, all he can do is try to win football matches.

Two from the next four would be great given the opposition, but two and a couple of draws would be the sort of exceeding of expectations he needs to silence the doubters in his current predicament.

After the trip to the Emirates this weekend, Sunderland travel to bottom of the table Bolton before entertaining Darren Bent and Aston Villa at the Stadium of Light.

Should all three pass without success, the prospect of a visit to Old Trafford to take on champions Manchester United will hardly instil confidence a corner is about to be turned. Crunch time, therefore, could come at home to Fulham on November 19th.

Football is and always will be a results business. Bruce will live and die by them. He probably does not deserve to be under-pressure given the progress made over the last two years, but he is.

Regardless of the support he has at boardroom level and the understanding he has been shown, only a good run of results, not the odd one here and there, is going to change things for the better.

Sunderland are still paying the price for failing to pay Darren Bent what he wanted

To lose one top class striker is careless, to lose two unfortunate, to lose three a concern, to lose four downright worrying.

Steve Bruce has had Kenwyne Jones, Darren Bent, Asamoah Gyan and Danny Welbeck leading the line since he became Sunderland manager in May 2009, but all four are now playing elsewhere.

It is not necessarily the manager’s fault, he has been forced to let some leave, as well as forced others out, but Sunderland’s inability to hold on to their goal getters is the failing that undermines them most.

Jones’ lethargy could infuriate a saint renowned for his patience, so Bruce sacrificed him to bring in Gyan, who in turn thanked him by agitating to leave as soon as his agent – or agents – told him he to.

The Ghana international scored 13 goals in his first season in England, had been tipped by Bruce to break the 20 barrier in pre-season, only to pack his bags at the weekend for the footballing, erm, Mecca of Al-Ain and Abu Dhabi.

An error in character assessment may well have been Bruce’s only crime there, while Welbeck did so well on loan at Sunderland last season he has returned to Manchester United and kept both Dimitar Berbatov and Michael Owen out of the side. Bruce cannot be blamed for the failure to persuade Sir Alex Ferguson to let him return for another year.

The manager deserves to be given the benefit of the doubt on two others. Jones continues to infuriate at Stoke, a team with a style of play which should fit him perfectly, while Gyan, at 25, has either been badly advised, or blinded by cash, to swap the Premier League for the United Arab Emirates.

Bent, though, is another matter. Sunderland’s problems effectively began the moment he decided he’d had enough on Wearside and it is difficult to escape from the feeling more should have been done to keep him, no matter the financial cost.

In January, before Bent handed in his transfer request and left for Aston Villa, Sunderland were sixth in the Premier League and pushing for a European place.

Fast forward to September and the Black Cats have won just one game at the Stadium of Light since New Year’s Day and have scored just twice in five games this season.

Bent, meanwhile, has banged in ten for Villa in just 21 appearances and forced his way, not just back into the England squad, but until injury forced him to miss the European Championship qualifiers against Bulgaria and Wales, Fabio Capello’s starting line-up.

Like Gyan, at the route of Bent’s grievance with Sunderland was money. After one excellent season at the Stadium of Light, he wanted to renegotiate his contract, which was worth around £40,000-a-week and asked for £60,000.

He used interest from Turkish club Fenerbache to put pressure on Bruce and the board, threatened to leave, and didn’t.

With a huge proportion of turnover already spent on wages, Sunderland refused to bend to Bent’s demands and bad feeling festered.

Quinn argued the striker had only signed a deal 12 months earlier and been happy with the terms on offer then. He feared, with good reason, that should Bent get a big pay rise after one good season at the start of a four year deal, others would expect the same.

The bad feeling was fuelled further by the striker’s decision to pursue a personal relationship with the manager’s daughter, Amy, but Bent, Sunderland’s talisman and symbol of ambition, lost his way and Sunderland lost the player that made a good side a potentially excellent one.

Transfer requests were handed in and rejected. Bent wanted, to coin a phrase from the Hip-Hop music he loves, “get paid” and knew he would if he left to join another club looking for a 20 goal a season centre forward.

Bent had the game’s most valuable commodity, goals, and wanted to earn his market value. There was little thought of loyalty or gratitude for Sunderland rebuilding his career after two confidence-draining seasons at Tottenham, but he is not alone there in a game where money does not just talk, it shouts and screams and stamps its foot for attention.

The question is, should Sunderland have agreed to his demands?

From a pure footballing perspective, of course they should, but Sunderland would never dream of playing in black and white and neither is this issue.

Keep Bent happy and they kept one of the best centre-forwards in the division, but risked upsetting others, not least owner Ellis Short who has covered the club’s losses for the last three years.

Bent wanted too much too soon as far as Sunderland were concerned. Unfortunately, for them, Villa were prepared to pay him what he wanted and Bent’s goals for them ensured they stayed clear of relegation last term.

Sunderland are a poorer side without Bent, that is obvious, but Bruce will build again. The signing of Nicklas Bendtner from Arsenal could prove an inspired one. Young, hungry and with a point to prove, the Dane needs Sunderland almost as much as they need him over the next nine months.

Bruce needs goals, from somewhere, anywhere. With Gyan gone, Sunderland will have to lean far more heavily on South Korean Ji Dong-Wong and the 18-year-old Connor Wickham than they ever intended and that is a risk.

With Fraizer Campbell still to return from a second serious knee injury in the space of two years in the spring and with money to spend in January on Gyan’s replacement, Sunderland have room for improvement, but Bruce has to get them to that window first.

Goals win games and Sunderland desperately need one of those to ensure a disappointing start to the season does not turn into a terrible one. Bent is sorely missed.

Sunderland lost to Newcastle but must not lose sight of a bigger picture

The thought of a manager being under pressure after just two games of a new season is, quite frankly, farcical. The thought of Steve Bruce being that manager after two years of steady improvement at Sunderland is, quite simply, ludicrous.

Then again, who would have thought the mighty Arsene Wenger would be starting a new campaign swatting away questions about his future at Arsenal while a slither of the club’s support begin to call for his removal.

Football is a ruthless, ridiculous business and football managers are normally its biggest and most frequent victims.

Bruce’s crime amounts to little more than a derby defeat to Newcastle, a one off game which can turn even the most level-headed into raging madmen; a game Sunderland were widely tipped to win given the two club’s contrasting fortunes over the summer months.

Newcastle’s recruitment strategy has been widely criticised and questioned, Sunderland’s was seen as bold and ambitious. Newcastle were thought to have got weaker because of the loss of key players and the relative unknown quantity of their replacements.

Sunderland, it was thought, were stronger because Bruce was allowed to reinvest in the team, not merely balance the books.

Thrashed 5-1 at St James’ Park last season and fortunate to escape with a draw in a game the Magpies dominated at the Stadium of Light, last weekend’s clash between the North-East’s ever warring neighbours was perceived by Sunderland’s supporters and players as an ideal opportunity to put the record straight.

Instead, Newcastle survived a difficult first half, scored from a Ryan Taylor set-piece in the second and made the short journey back to Tyneside with another derby win to celebrate. It was a crushing experience for those in red and white.

Bruce’s new look side looked worryingly familiar to the one which tended to run out of ideas towards the back end of last season and the knives, if not exactly out, are at least being reached for.

It is dangerous and short-sighted. So Sunderland lost to their bitter rivals on home soil. It was painful and embarrassing, but it is ultimately just one game in a very long season.

Under Bruce, Sunderland have progressed and improved. The calibre of player signed this summer would have been unthinkable when the former Manchester United skipper arrived just over two years ago.

This must not be forgotten, particularly when Sunderland started the season with a 1-1 draw against Liverpool at Anfield, who beat Arsenal at the Emirates at the same time as the Black Cats were losing to Newcastle.

The problem with derbies as intense and as hostile as the North East one is they mean everything at the time, but little in the grand scheme of things.

Sunderland’s record in these regional battles for supremacy is abysmal. One win in 14, one win at home in 30 odd years. Yet, they have finished above Newcastle three years running.

There is a section of the Sunderland supporters who will simply never accept Bruce because he was raised a Newcastle fan. They will always look to pounce on any failing.

Sadly, it is that bunch which will be heard loudest at the moment, metaphorically shouting on internet message boards, ranting on Twitter, bending the ear of radio pundits, whipping the media into a frenzy, turning a solitary defeat into a disaster. It’s the same at every club.

Had Newcastle lost to Sunderland, the mood would have turned ugly on Tyneside. A frustrating summer in the transfer market would have been replaced by anger and animosity at the thought of a troubled season ahead.

But they won and manager Alan Pardew has some breathing space as he looks to sign the two players, a left-back and a striker, everyone knows he needs before the close of the window. It was a great result for him, a terrible one for Bruce.

Sunderland must pick themselves up and dust themselves down. They responded to the 5-1 defeat last season by beating Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. A victory over Brighton in the Carling Cup on Tuesday night would be a start this time. Two early cup exits last season were arguably far more damaging and disappointing for Bruce and Sunderland’s board than those derby results.

Bruce has tried to do a lot this summer and has perhaps done a little too much in terms of the number brought in. With ten new players, the team needs time to gel, time the derby defeat has taken away to a certain extent.

The squad has more depth, but it seems to lack a goalscoring threat at the moment, while the lack of pace out wide is a concern.

Sunderland fans will be tetchy and emotional after the defeat to Newcastle, calm and a sense of collective purpose needs to be restored. The derby blow was a devastating one and it has undoubtedly wounded Bruce again, but it was not a mortal strike.

It has made the next few weeks tough for manager and players, but there is no sense in panic or attacking Bruce. He has damage to repair and the sooner the better, but a sense of perspective must be maintained even while their old enemy gloats, goads and grins.