Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Can Bruce keep up record against Rafa?

Spat over Kenwyne Jones means Sunderland manager has no rapport with Anfield counterpart but they will share a cup of tea today

Tim Rich
Sunday 28 March 2010 02:00 BST
Comments
Sunderland beat Liverpool 1-0earlier in the season with the 'beachball' goal. 'That took the gloss offour performance and probably usedup all our luck,' says Steve Bruce
Sunderland beat Liverpool 1-0earlier in the season with the 'beachball' goal. 'That took the gloss offour performance and probably usedup all our luck,' says Steve Bruce

As someone who spent a lot of time with Sir Alex Ferguson, Steve Bruce would be used to quizzes – which is the Manchester United manager's favourite way of whiling away a pre-match evening in a hotel. Bruce is studying a list of figures, which places him below Ferguson but ahead of Arsène Wenger, without being told what they represent. Then he twigs.

"I've done OK against Liverpool," he says rather shyly. Like most football men, Bruce is superstitious about commenting on these kind of runs lest they come to an end or make him seem arrogant. "I had my darkest hour against them, though. I lost 7-0 to Liverpool in the quarter- finals of the FA Cup when I was at Birmingham. That still burns.

"I have always loved going to Anfield, as a player and manager, even though they cane me with chants of 'Steve Bruce has got a big fat head'. Possibly my connections with United might have something to do with it. They used to call me 'Elephant Man' at Manchester City."

Nevertheless, just as the great Liverpool sides forged by Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley always had trouble with Leicester, so Benitez's Liverpool have stumbled repeatedly against Birmingham and, since leaving St Andrew's, it is a pattern Bruce has maintained at Wigan and now Sunderland.

Before his first game against them as manager of Sunderland the Wearsiders had not managed so much as a goal against Liverpool in seven years. They won, 1-0, through a deflection off a beach ball that had been thrown on to the pitch. The beach ball, with its Liverpool crest, now resides in the National Football Museum in Preston.

"And let nobody tell you that we did not deserve to win," says Bruce. "But the beach ball took the gloss off our performance and probably used up all our luck. We have had none since. I have had eight players injured for eight weeks or more and we have conceded a catalogue of late goals."

And it emphasised something else about the club he is creating. Sunderland were the better team, just as they were when forcing a 2-2 draw at Old Trafford and overcoming Arsenal on Wearside. And yet this is a team who went four months without a League win and who have failed to beat Portsmouth, Stoke, West Ham and Wigan in eight attempts.

The slump coincided with a spat with Benitez over the future of Kenwyne Jones, whom Liverpool let it be known they would like to take on loan in the January transfer window. Bruce is not a man with many enemies – he has always got on well with Wenger when others have found the Arsenal manager difficult – but it is obvious that, like most Premier League managers, he finds it hard to establish a rapport with Benitez. He remarks that he would have appreciated a phone call at a time when the striker was seduced by the idea of Anfield.

"I've always had a cup of tea with him afterwards – I've never had a problem with Rafa Benitez," he said. "But he must have been told by someone that there was a possibility of getting Kenwyne on loan. And he kept it going and going and going.

"You have to protect your own club and I couldn't let the speculation go on like it was because it was damaging us. It was unsettling the boy and made it very difficult. If Rafa had put £15 million down for Kenwyne, then I would have had a decision to make. Usually, the player dictates and, if there was £15m on the table from Liverpool, I might have had to say: 'I don't want you to go, but...' In the event, his head was turned and it was all over the place. I'd only worked with him for a few months and I don't think he fully trusted me and what I was saying."

Bruce is not a man easily riled. He laughs a lot. Sunderland had arranged a cookery masterclass at the Stadium of Light with Marco Pierre White and Bruce was asked by a female radio reporter what he liked to whip up in the kitchen. With tongue presumably pressed into his cheek, Bruce replied that he didn't, as a rule, cook anything "because that's what wives are for".

He was however, incensed by the way Birmingham's then owners handled his move to Wigan, which was provoked by the uncertainty that surrounded St Andrew's during Carson Yeung's laboriously protracted takeover. And it is for this that he has sympathy for Benitez as a manager hemmed in by the shifting sands of a divided boardroom.

"When there are rumblings above you it is always difficult, because they filter through," he says. "It is paramount for any club to have stability, and stability starts at the top. Usually, over the years, Liverpool have had that and it has made them one of the great clubs. They have always been the club everybody aspired to be. They always did things right and they have a fantastic tradition and history.

"But if there is no stability at the top, it goes right through a club. When I first went to Birmingham there was stability at the top but, as soon as they wanted to sell, it filtered through to everybody." And then he leaves, off to Wallsend Social Club for a pint with his dad. He may have a drink with Benitez this evening, although since the Liverpool manager is teetotal, it might not be beer.

Bruce v Benitez: the story in figures

This table shows how many points the Liverpool manager, Rafael Benitez, has DROPPED against other Premier League managers. So, for example, when Liverpool draw, they drop two points. Those top-flight managers who have played fewer than four Premier League games against Liverpool are not included in the table.

Manager/Games/Points/Avge pts dropped

Sir Alex Ferguson 12/26/2.16

Steve Bruce 9/19/2.11

Arsène Wenger 12/23/1.91

Tony Pulis 4/6/1.50

Harry Redknapp 11/16/1.45

Roy Hodgson 4/5/1.25

Martin O'Neill 8/9/1.12

Sam Allardyce 10/10/1.00

David Moyes 12/10/0.83

Mick McCarthy 4/2/0.50

Tim Rich

Today's games

Burnley v Blackburn Rovers (12pm, Sky Sports 1)

One of those derbies where passions run far stronger than outsiders would surmise. Sam Allardyce's men, who were 3-2 winners in the corresponding fixture at Ewood Park back in October, would do well not to approach this game in a complacent manner after reaching a relatively safe haven in the middle of the table.

Sunderland v Liverpool (4pm, Sky Sports 1)

A rare full week for Rafa Benitez to prepare his troops after last Sunday's disappointing 2-1 defeat at Old Trafford. The Reds will need to watch the 21-goal Blacks Cats striker Darren Bent and try to keep the beach balls off the pitch this time.

Steve Tongue

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in