Steve Bruce is as bad as Jermain Jenas

I would like to agree with everything said about Jermain Jenas by Lesley Tinker (March 10). She made her points very eloquently in an excellent and heartfelt way.

Sunderland fans seem, inexplicably, easy prey for people in football like Jenas, upstarts who masquerade as experts telling us nothing that we do not already know about the game and more especially our club.

I have a slight variation on the same theme that has made me as angry over the years with one of our former managers as Lesley is with Jenas.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The person in my sights is Steve Bruce, who pedalled the destructive nonsense that he never gained acceptance from the Sunderland fans because he was a Geordie.

Of course his pals in football, managers, ex-players alike, plus contacts in the media, helped perpetuate this myth to the detriment of some of the most welcoming (and patient) of supporters.

Bruce unforgivably dragged our name through the mud.

He was, of course, covering up for his own inadequacies and forgot to mention that we have the statue of an ex-Newcastle United FA Cup winner outside our stadium.

In addition the list of former Sunderland players who either played for Newcastle or were born on Tyneside is endless, but of course this did not suit the narrative and the disgraceful repetitive version from Bruce against Sunderland fans has almost become an accepted fact in footballing circles.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

There are unlimited targets at Sunderland Football Club that can be associated with severe criticism, namely countless overpaid, average players, unsuccessful managers like Bruce, greedy agents and massive mistakes at the top.

The supporters, on the other hand, should be given nothing but praise for their fantastic loyalty despite countless season’s of mediocrity, which makes comments from the likes of Jenas and Bruce all the more pathetic.

Michael Dixon