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Posts Tagged ‘bruce’

• Striker has ‘had his head turned’ by Liverpool speculation
• ‘On Saturday it looked as if it had affected him,’ says Bruce

Kenwyne Jones has been unsettled by talk of a move to Liverpool, the Sunderland manager Steve Bruce said today.

The Trinidad and Tobago striker has been linked with a loan move to Anfield which the Liverpool manager Rafael Benítez sought to play down yesterday.

Today, however, Bruce conceded that the former Southampton front man did not look himself in last weekend’s FA Cup defeat at Portsmouth.

“It certainly has unsettled him,” said Bruce. “His performance on Saturday reiterated that – and that’s my fear.

“With all the speculation and nonsense that is surrounding him, he has had his head turned by a ludicrous notion that we are going to let him out on loan.”

The player has netted just one goal in Sunderland’s last 11 matches and Bruce admitted: “On Saturday it looked as if it [the speculation] had affected him. “

Jones, who signed a four-and-a-half year deal a year ago, is a key figure as the out-of-form Wearsiders seek a first away win since the opening day of the Premier League season at Everton tomorrow night.

Bruce continued: “There’s no doubt the boy has got wonderful talent. The thing he has to do is make sure he does it repeatedly and regularly.

“Maybe over the last few weeks with all the nonsense which has been written about him, maybe his focus and his attention has not been playing on a Saturday, it’s been elsewhere.”

The Sunderland chairman Niall Quinn spoke to the Liverpool chief executive Christian Purslow at the weekend and Bruce added: “The situation, I believe, is led by agents, which I find unhealthy. We hope the whole thing is gone to bed and put away.”

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David Beckham was Steve Bruce’s man of the match for England despite only coming on in the second half. Photograph: Phil Cole/Getty Images

Steve Bruce shares Fabio Capello’s puzzlement concerning Barack Obama’s recent receipt of the Nobel peace prize but vehemently disagrees with England’s coach about David Beckham. “I was also a bit surprised BarackObama won the Nobel peace prize, especially considering he’s sending hundreds of troops to Afghanistan to go to war,” he said. “But David Beckham certainly deserved the man of the match award. For me, and anyone who was there, he enlivened a dull old game with his presence. He came on, he lit up the game, which was, let’s be honest, dire for 50 minutes,” added Bruce, who raised eyebrows on Wednesday night when, one of his duties as an ITV pundit, analysing England’s game against Belarus was to nominate the night’s outstanding individual.

Ignoring the arguably more obvious claims of Gareth Barry and Peter Crouch, Bruce declared his former Manchester United team-mate Beckham to be man of the match on the basis of a cameo appearance as a second-half substitute.

On hearing the decision a stony-faced Capello said: “To get man of the match for 30 minutes was like Obama getting the Nobel peace prize after eight months as president [of the United States].” Bruce proved unrepentant today.

“I did what I had to do. Let’s face it, Mr Capello keeps on picking him. Mr Capello wouldn’t pick him if he wasn’t doing it.”

After not only amplifying his punditry appeal to the nation’s television producers but just possibly reminding Beckham that, should his mooted return to Milan fall through, there might just be a dressing-room peg for him at Sunderland, Bruce then turned his mind to plotting the defeat of Liverpool, who have lost three times in the league already this season. “I wouldn’t say we’d kill off their title hopes with a win but it would make it very difficult for them,” said Bruce whose team were unlucky to merely draw at Manchester United a fortnight ago. “Nowadays you can’t lose four or five games and still win the league but I just hope we can perform against Liverpool. I just hope that we can rise to the big expectations of almost 50,000 of our fans.”added Bruce, who today signed Bolo Zenden, a free agent after leaving Marseille. Zenden though may struggle to oust the newly slimline and thoroughly in-form Andy Reid.

“Andy’s lost 20lb and is properly showing off his fantastic ability,” said Bruce who indicated he would be willing to help end Reid’s exile from the Ireland squad by acting as mediator in conciliation talks between the midfielder and Giovanni Trapattoni.

“There’s obviously been a fallout,” said Bruce. “Whether it’s going to repair depends on the warring parties but I do believe there’s got to be an apology.”

If Sunderland’s manager can persuade Trapattoni and Reid to shake hands the Nobel peace prize will surely beckon.