Stephen Robert Bruce in the next 4 games.

[Barney 0]

 

punch drunk

[@yourservice 67]

[@yourservice 67]

[Monkeys Fist 38585]

 

Is that Raoul getting a fright there?

[Sonatine 9944]

[TicTacWoe 0]

sacked apparently

[Happy Face 29]

Good work double O pisshead.

[McFaul 35]

Steve Bruce believes the "absolute hatred" surrounding North East football cost him his job with Sunderland.

 

 

GettyImages

Steve Bruce has spoken out about the "absolute hatred" that surrounds the Tyne-Wear derby

• FA issues fines after Tyne-Wear derby

 

Bruce, a childhood Newcastle United fan, was appointed Sunderland manager in the summer of 2009, but was dismissed in November last year with the team lying 16th in the Premier League despite significant investment in the squad.

 

Sunderland's form improved significantly with the appointment of Martin O'Neill and they are now just one point behind eighth-placed Liverpool, but Bruce feels he should have been given the chance to turn it around.

 

"We weren't staring at relegation," Bruce told Newcastle's Evening Chronicle newspaper. "What I needed was time, time for new players to bed in, get used to new surroundings, and new tactics, but I wasn't given that which disappoints me.

 

"I just think the owner saw the hatred that was directed towards me from the terraces and thought I would never recover from it. Even if I had won the next six games some people would never have forgiven me for being a Geordie."

 

He added: "The hatred I suffered was unbelievable. It was brutal, it really was. In fairness it was a minority of Sunderland fans who abused me but it was way over the top and very hurtful.

 

"I can't change my upbringing. I am who I am and proud of it, but I paid a big price.

 

"As a manager who has spent a lifetime in football I was prepared to take whatever come my way but for my closest relatives it was very different. Both my family and my wife's family are from Newcastle and they were deeply hurt and affected by what happened.

 

"I had to batten down the hatches and lie low. I didn't go out to my local pub. I didn't want to invite abuse.

 

"The media up there is something else as well. There is a mass scramble for news, a demand to write hundreds upon hundreds of words every day on Sunderland and Newcastle, and while I tried to accommodate everybody in the end the criticism even locally was relentless because the fans had to be fed.

 

"The funny thing is that people in the rest of the country wouldn't understand. They would think it was all excuses. They don't know how North East football works, the intensity of it."

 

Bruce, whose Sunderland side were beaten 5-1 at Newcastle in October 2010, said the derby has become particularly hate-fuelled.

 

"Honestly, I have to say that the Tyne-Wear derby is no longer a nice one," he said. "My biggest disappointment above all else is the absolute hatred I witnessed between the fans of Newcastle and Sunderland.

 

"Fierce rivalry is one thing but hatred is quite another. This is not like the people of the North East who are warm, funny and, yes, passionate but in a good way.

 

"Liverpool and Everton have a fierce rivalry but they have a respect for each other living in the same city. I played in many big derbies with Manchester United, be it against City or Liverpool, and for Norwich against Ipswich, which us Geordies might not see as a big game but which most certainly is in East Anglia, yet not one of them generated what the Tyne-Wear game now does.

 

"The only one like it is Rangers v Celtic in Glasgow, which has an obvious element of hatred as well."

Nowt to do with the fact you were shite and spent a fortune then? Deluded arsehole. As for the hatred, he was stupid for taking it. Let's be honest, as someone born in Newcastle maybe it is the type of thing a knuckledragger (Gemmill 2006TM) says, but I would find it very, very difficult to accept a born and bred Sunderland supporter from Pennywell, who isn't that great a manager, leading us. Maybe I'm alone in that but I would.

[Sonatine 9944]

"I had to batten down the hatches and lie low. I didn't go out to my local pub. I didn't want to invite abuse.

 

I find that hard to believe, he's a fucking alky

[McFaul 35]

"I had to batten down the hatches and lie low. I didn't go out to my local pub. I didn't want to invite abuse.

 

I find that hard to believe, he's a fucking alky

I heard loads of tales of him mortal drunk in The Diamond. By the sounds of it his wider family got a lot of shit in the toon for his position like, it's not their fault is it. Not like they were in flood of tears when "Vauxies" closed.

[Howay 12447]

Nowt to do with the fact you were shite and spent a fortune then? Deluded arsehole. As for the hatred, he was stupid for taking it. Let's be honest, as someone born in Newcastle maybe it is the type of thing a knuckledragger (Gemmill 2006TM) says, but I would find it very, very difficult to accept a born and bred Sunderland supporter from Pennywell, who isn't that great a manager, leading us. Maybe I'm alone in that but I would.

Would I fuck accept a Mackem manager that's the level of Bruce, he's got some nerve still calling himself a Geordie mind he's turned his back on us enough times now from supporting Man Utd at Cups to actually turning the NUFC job down (thank fuck). He now expects us to feel bad for him? He took the job and invited the waves of mongs to abuse his family, as a (I'm assuming) multi millionaire it's not like he couldn't have just turned the job down and waited for a less controversial one (as far as his family are concerned).

 

He himself tried to ignite more hatred with his antics like saying he had a song lined up for 'when' they beat us, he knew what it was like if he's such a proud Geordie. What a nob the bloke is but I wish they had kept him as I'm in no doubt they'd be scrapping with Wigan and QPR for 17th place now.

[McFaul 35]

Nowt to do with the fact you were shite and spent a fortune then? Deluded arsehole. As for the hatred, he was stupid for taking it. Let's be honest, as someone born in Newcastle maybe it is the type of thing a knuckledragger (Gemmill 2006TM) says, but I would find it very, very difficult to accept a born and bred Sunderland supporter from Pennywell, who isn't that great a manager, leading us. Maybe I'm alone in that but I would.

Would I fuck accept a Mackem manager that's the level of Bruce, he's got some nerve still calling himself a Geordie mind he's turned his back on us enough times now from supporting Man Utd at Cups to actually turning the NUFC job down (thank fuck). He now expects us to feel bad for him? He took the job and invited the waves of mongs to abuse his family, as a (I'm assuming) multi millionaire it's not like he couldn't have just turned the job down and waited for a less controversial one (as far as his family are concerned).

 

He himself tried to ignite more hatred with his antics like saying he had a song lined up for 'when' they beat us, he knew what it was like if he's such a proud Geordie. What a nob the bloke is but I wish they had kept him as I'm in no doubt they'd be scrapping with Wigan and QPR for 17th place now.

Aye it would have to be some sort of mackem Mourinho for me to accept them, and even then I'd be shouting conspiracies if he didn't win his first 6 games. He'd also have to win us the CL, and start pronouncing h's, then and only then would I stop looking at him as a mackem.

 

I still to this day grimace that a mackem (Kevin Dillon) was our captain. A shit one at that.

[Gene_Clark 12]

I know people who went to Benfield School with him & still speak warmly of the lad who went to Gillingham & then Norwich, though few if any of them have a good word to say about the man he turned in to.

[Howay 12447]

Aye it would have to be some sort of mackem Mourinho for me to accept them, and even then I'd be shouting conspiracies if he didn't win his first 6 games. He'd also have to win us the CL, and start pronouncing h's, then and only then would I stop looking at him as a mackem.

 

I still to this day grimace that a mackem (Kevin Dillon) was our captain. A shit one at that.

Aye he'd have to take himself to some elocution lessons so I could bear listening to press conferences and interviews. I don't blame the mackems for giving him grief for being from Newcastle when it all went to shit it just was hilarious because of their "Brucey is one of us FTM" campaign to try and rub our faces in the fact that a really sub-standard manager that had long since turned his back on his roots had took over for them.

 

Lucky for us Mackem land doesn't seem to really be producing any good players never mind managers.

[McFaul 35]

He's always seemed a nice bloke to me to be honest. You can't say he's one of the biggest cunts in football, people will do everything to make the job they've done seem better while being littered with excuses at their failure.

[McFaul 35]

Aye it would have to be some sort of mackem Mourinho for me to accept them, and even then I'd be shouting conspiracies if he didn't win his first 6 games. He'd also have to win us the CL, and start pronouncing h's, then and only then would I stop looking at him as a mackem.

 

I still to this day grimace that a mackem (Kevin Dillon) was our captain. A shit one at that.

Aye he'd have to take himself to some elocution lessons so I could bear listening to press conferences and interviews. I don't blame the mackems for giving him grief for being from Newcastle when it all went to shit it just was hilarious because of their "Brucey is one of us FTM" campaign to try and rub our faces in the fact that a really sub-standard manager that had long since turned his back on his roots had took over for them.

 

Lucky for us Mackem land doesn't seem to really be producing any good players never mind managers.

Ah aye he was the new Bob Stokoe when they beat Chelsea 0-3 at the Bridge, hypocrites.

[Chronic the Drug Wasp 6]

I remember Bruce as a player showing nowt but contempt when it came to us. Then when Bobby's stint as manager was coming to an end, I remember him trying to talk himself into the job with references to his proud Geordie roots and that. The bloke's a fucking arsehole.

[Kitman 2188]

I don't like Bruce, never have since the days he used to brim with pride at Man Utd as a pundit. I think he's full of shit actually.

 

The bottom line is that the mackem ship was rapidly sinking with all hands on deck with him at the helm, the owner sacked him out of desperation at their league position not the abuse of a section of their support. To claim otherwise is delusional, but I'm not surprised that he blames everyone but himself for getting the sack.

 

No-one forced him to take the mackem job either. He must have known what was coming his way, it's a bit thick to expect otherwise. Unfortunately judging by the look of him towards the end I think the drink may have taken its toll and I'm wondering whether he'll work again in England as a result.