A former manager is set to retire, a former player has revealed he was considering retirement and Alex Neil is having a clear-out at Stoke. Not to mention our U-21s were involved in a 12 goal thriller last night...
BRUCE TO RETIRE
Reports have emerged that former Sunderland manager Steve Bruce is set to retire, having been unemployed since October 2022. In his career as a manager, Bruce has been sacked by the likes of Sunderland, Aston Villa, Newcastle and most recently West Bromwich Albion. The rumoured compensation fees he has received is eye-watering, so it is perfectly understandable that the 62-year-old would be happy to retire and spend his millions in peace after 25 years in the job.
GEADS CONSIDERED RETIREMENT
Aiden McGeady has revealed that while he was injured at Sunderland, he was considering hanging his boots up. The 36-year-old is currently at Hibs playing under Lee Johnson, but suffered recurring knee injuries which kept him out of action between July and late December.
The mercurial winger said: “I’ve not played for so long that I feel I owe the club and the fans something. I feel people might think I’ve just up come here for the last couple of years of my career. That’s not the case at all. I still love playing football and I still feel I have something to offer. The injury really set me back a lot, because it was a recurrence of the same one from last season. There’s nothing worse than being injured. The last four or five months have been some of the worst of my career. I actually contemplated just packing it in completely. I thought, ‘I’m never going to get over this’. But it’s all worth it when you have days like Sunday, when you are out there enjoying playing football again and showing you can make a difference. It was just about getting over the pain in my knee. We took it really cautiously this time. At Sunderland, I rushed back and had two or three setbacks so I was more cautious this time. There must have been people thinking, ‘He’s up here for a jolly, or to top up his pension’, whatever they want to say. I absolutely wasn’t. I still love playing football and I want to do well for this club.”
DELAP GONE
Former Sunderland player and long-throw specialist Rory Delap is set to leave his role as part of Stoke City's coaching staff, as part of Alex Neil's behind-the-scenes reshuffle. Delap has spent four-and-a-half years in the job, including a stint as caretaker manager, but those in charge at Stoke have backed Neil to make his own decisions regarding the backroom staff alongside technical director Ricky Martin.
BIZARRE YOUTH GAME
Sunderland U21 were defeated 7-5 (yes, you read that correctly) by Middlesbrough U21 last night, with both Tony Mowbray and Boro boss Michael Carrick in attendance. Boro went into half time 3-0 up thanks to goals from Matthew Hoppe, Pharrell Willis and Sonny Finch. But the second half descended into chaos, with both teams losing all sense of composure and defensive shape.
Sunderland goalscorers: Spellman (48), Kelly (70, 90+2), Moore (76), Taylor (90).
Boro goalscorers: Hoppe (5, 67), Willis (40), Finch (45, 75), Gibson (47), Stott (88).
Here was youth coach Graeme Murty's damning evaluation post-match: “Any game when you score five goals at home you would expect to come away a comfortable winner. We scored five wonderful goals, contrasted with seven goals that Middlesbrough didn’t have to work very hard for because our individual understanding and execution in defensive situations was awful at times. I will defend the guys because I see their work and see their ethic every single day, but I can’t defend some of the things they did in isolated incidents and they were too easy to play against. When that happens you get instant feedback, and I didn’t think overall it hurt the lads enough to concede. We are desperate as a coaching staff to give over responsibility for the game and organisation of the game within the game to the players,"
"They keep on talking about understanding what we are doing and how we are trying to affect the game both with and without the ball, and they can do it. There are times when our press is spot on and we put good pressure on, are connected with small spaces and are compact, win possession high. When we fall off that level we are looking for leaders on the pitch who are going to drive the standard to maintain that, and currently we’re not there. We need to be more vocal than we would like to be to help the guys out. I’m far from being a PlayStation-type coach and don’t want to be talking to the players all of the time, but some of them currently need that assistance. The sooner we can stop doing that, the better for their development because they need to own the game.”
