Ex-Sunderland star Simon Mignolet opens up on life under Steve Bruce & Paolo Di Canio

Former Sunderland goalkeeper Simon Mignolet has opened up on what it was like to work under Steve Bruce, Martin O’Neill and Paolo Di Canio during his time on Wearside.

The Belgian stopper joined the Black Cats in 2010, and racked up 101 appearances at the Stadium of Light before leaving three years later to sign for Liverpool. During that spell, he spent time under the management of Bruce, O’Neill, and Di Canio, and has now shed some light on what it was like to work with that varied trio.

Speaking to Sunderland’s in-house media team, he said: “I learned a lot from every single one of them. My first manager Steve Bruce – and his goalkeeping coach – Nigel Spink – taught me all about English football. He demanded his goalkeeper to come and collect crosses and to be very pro-active in the box. He was someone who was straight in your face. When you did well, he told you so and when you did bad, he did so as well and you could go into an argument, as I think he had seen when he played for Sir Alex Ferguson. I think he replicated that from him, so it was a really good learning curve for me.

The Echo has launched a new WhatsApp SAFC Channel to bring the latest news, analysis and team & injury updates direct to your phone. Simply click this link to join our SAFC WhatsApp channel.

“When Martin O’Neill came, with his goalkeeping coach Seamus McDonagh, they gave me a lot of confidence because they believed in me, and I had a really great spell with them. From Seamus I learned to work hard. He was tough on me but at the same time we had a really special connection.

“Afterwards with Paolo Di Canio he was a tactical coach as you would expect. He was also really passionate and the way he was on the side-line with a lot of emotion gave a completely different perspective. With all three of them I learned a lot and under Di Canio I got transferred to Liverpool. I had a good connection with him and his goalkeeper coach Domenico Doardo. I still speak to all three of my goalkeeping coaches from Sunderland even now.”