Slipperduke
The Camden Cad
What's the saddest thing about 'Ballon-Gate'? Nope, it's not the nagging suspicion that only a handful of referees ever read their ruleback all the way to the end, nor is it the damage caused to Liverpool's title hopes by one of their own fans. It's the complete absence of credit given to Sunderland for such an exceptional result. Steve Bruce has enjoyed an exceptional start to life at the Stadium of Light, but no-one seems to have noticed. He's rebuilt a struggling, relegation-haunted squad over the course of one transfer window and all anyone wants to talk about is the influx of inflatables in the modern game.
Bruce's greatest strength is his ability to ignore public perception and follow his own judgement. It's an under-rated trait. Who else would have snapped up Titus Bramble when he was booted out of St James Park? Who else could have transformed him into a centre-back who should be on the fringes of the England squad? When Sunderland were first linked with Darren Bent, there was widespread sniggering. He's a Tottenham-reject, laughed rival fans. Palpable nonsense, of course. Bent had scored freely for Charlton before making the mistake of signing for a club with three first class strikers ahead of him in the pecking order. He didn't become a worse player while he sat on the bench.
The last time I covered Sunderland for The New Paper was at the back end of last season when they hosted Manchester United. Their defence was sound, the wingers reasonably creative and in Kenwyne Jones they had a dangerous, if woefully inconsistent, frontman. Unfortunately, in Dean Whitehead and Grant Leadbitter, they had the league's most anaemic midfield and with Djibril Cisse running into blind alleys all the time, they had little chance of making the ball stick in the final third. They only stayed up because of the incompetence of Middlesbrough and Newcastle. Bruce, arriving that summer, took one look and burst into action. In came the sparkling Lorik Cana and Lee Cattermole, who will now miss the next three months with a medial ligament injury. Those two were so strong that they easily dominated Darren Fletcher and Paul Scholes in the first half of that draw with Manchester United. Bent, with his eight league goals so far, has been the cherry on the cake.
English football used to have a very blinkered view of continental flair and style. For decades, the perceived wisdom was that creativity was no excuse for hard work and the ability to dish out a good kicking. Now, we've turned full circle. We're obsessed with foreign players, foreign managers and foreign formations. We sneer at the idea of a good old-fashioned 4-4-2 and mock those who believe in it. Bruce is as much a victim of this snobbery as the players he has signed, which could be why they perform so consistently for him. Of all of Sir Alex Ferguson's former players, he has been by far the most successful in the managerial hotseat. Will he get the United job when his old mentor leaves? Of course not. That role will be reserved for someone far more glamorous.
Whether Bruce and his team will ever get the credit they deserve is a matter for journalists far more influential than myself. Rest assured though, they didn't beat Liverpool because of a beach ball, they beat them because they were a far better side on the day and, before this season is out, they'll beat at least one of the other big teams as well.
Bruce's greatest strength is his ability to ignore public perception and follow his own judgement. It's an under-rated trait. Who else would have snapped up Titus Bramble when he was booted out of St James Park? Who else could have transformed him into a centre-back who should be on the fringes of the England squad? When Sunderland were first linked with Darren Bent, there was widespread sniggering. He's a Tottenham-reject, laughed rival fans. Palpable nonsense, of course. Bent had scored freely for Charlton before making the mistake of signing for a club with three first class strikers ahead of him in the pecking order. He didn't become a worse player while he sat on the bench.
The last time I covered Sunderland for The New Paper was at the back end of last season when they hosted Manchester United. Their defence was sound, the wingers reasonably creative and in Kenwyne Jones they had a dangerous, if woefully inconsistent, frontman. Unfortunately, in Dean Whitehead and Grant Leadbitter, they had the league's most anaemic midfield and with Djibril Cisse running into blind alleys all the time, they had little chance of making the ball stick in the final third. They only stayed up because of the incompetence of Middlesbrough and Newcastle. Bruce, arriving that summer, took one look and burst into action. In came the sparkling Lorik Cana and Lee Cattermole, who will now miss the next three months with a medial ligament injury. Those two were so strong that they easily dominated Darren Fletcher and Paul Scholes in the first half of that draw with Manchester United. Bent, with his eight league goals so far, has been the cherry on the cake.
English football used to have a very blinkered view of continental flair and style. For decades, the perceived wisdom was that creativity was no excuse for hard work and the ability to dish out a good kicking. Now, we've turned full circle. We're obsessed with foreign players, foreign managers and foreign formations. We sneer at the idea of a good old-fashioned 4-4-2 and mock those who believe in it. Bruce is as much a victim of this snobbery as the players he has signed, which could be why they perform so consistently for him. Of all of Sir Alex Ferguson's former players, he has been by far the most successful in the managerial hotseat. Will he get the United job when his old mentor leaves? Of course not. That role will be reserved for someone far more glamorous.
Whether Bruce and his team will ever get the credit they deserve is a matter for journalists far more influential than myself. Rest assured though, they didn't beat Liverpool because of a beach ball, they beat them because they were a far better side on the day and, before this season is out, they'll beat at least one of the other big teams as well.
