Bruce still going on about Cunningham

Steve Bruce has broken his silence and come out and slagged Kenny Cunningham for his comments (see here).

Now, a lot of what Bruce says I might have sympathy with, especially his suggestion that "Had he come to me and been a man about it, and said it face to face, that this was wrong, that was wrong - fine. If somebody speaks to you about anything and they have a valid point, of course you listen. And if you can take anything out of criticism, you try to, and put certain things right, if they need to be put right. I just didn't think he had so much in his locker, that there was that much apparently wrong."

Yes, I'd have sympathy with that, but Cunningham says he did speak to you about it, Bruce. You then go on to say, "Things weren't wrong the year before. We were OK. Things weren't wrong the year before that, and before that. He never said anything along those lines, until now." The problem is, Bruce, things were NOT alright the season before. We finished with 45 points, which flattered a large portion of the season - as we went to Villa Park in December of that season we'd won just two of our opening 16 games. If the teams below us hadn't been so dire - West Brom ended up staying up with 34 points (the same number we were relegated with this season) - we'd have been deeper in the muck than we were.

Furthermore, Bruce concludes by saying, "I know why it might have changed last season. I know that we couldn't do the things we really wanted to do to at the training ground, so does Kenny. That was because the prepartion was damaged due to the problems we had with individuals, individuals who couldn't train, who found it difficult to recover from games, who were carrying injuries and so on. We were tearing our hair out at times and there was nothing we could about that."

Or, in other words - Bruce and his backroom staff didn't have a system or systems that the whole club played to, regardless of who was or wasn't available. What Bruce could - and maybe should - have done, is pick his team on Tuesday from those who were available then. He might have found his big-name players lasted longer if they weren't being rushed back after being assessed less than 48 hours before we kicked off. Our injury problems were self-inflicted due to poor fitness and injury management, and that was blatantly obvious within three weeks of the season starting. Unless Bruce starts to learn from these mistakes then surely even the board will tire of this? I won't hold my breath...

[Listening to: Walk Away - Kelly Clarkson]