Bruce: New boss can help Cats survive

STEVE Bruce has warned Sunderland they are not too good to go down, but with Chris Coleman in charge he believes they have the right man to avoid relegation.

Bruce managed the Black Cats from the summer of 2009 to November 2011, the last person to survive more than two years in the job.

Since then they have had eight ‘permanent’ managers with the latest, Coleman, taking his bow at Bruce’s Aston Villa on Tuesday night.

A 2-1 defeat kept the Wearsiders bottom of the Championship, having been relegated the previous season.

Villa were only two points above the bottom three when Bruce took the job in October of last season, again after a top-flight relegation.

“It’s very difficult for Chris,” he said. “When I walked in here, my fear is that you are not too good to go down.

“He is the right man for it, he is ready for the challenge and to get back into (club) management and I sincerely wish him the best of luck too to pull them through.”

Swindon Town, in 1993-94, and Wolverhampton Wanderers, in 2011-12, are the only teams to suffer consecutive relegations from the Premier League to the third tier.

Coleman walked out on Wales with his personal stock high having led them to the semi-finals of the European Championships in 2016.

He had asked the Football Association of Wales to give fulltime contracts to some of his backroom staff and when they refused, he walked away despite fans at his final game, a friendly against Panama, urging him not to.

Bruce could understand why the 47-year-old was keen to return to the club scene and detected a reaction from his players.

“Maybe he has thought, ‘I have done six years (with Wales) and it is time to get back into club management.’

“I am not surprised he has got back into club management because people miss the everyday thing when you are young, unlike when you are an old bloke like me!”