The currently unemployed coach got himself in quite a pickle. Back of the Net's John Foster sprays us with his fact hose...
Former Sunderland manager Steve Bruce has proved incapable of explaining the rules of football to Andrew Gould, a six-year-old child, sources were reporting yesterday.
Bruce, who has had a virtually uninterrupted career in the game for over thirty years, apparently struggled to outline even the most basic concepts of the sport, leaving Gould bewildered and close to tears.
âÂÂYou have to score more goals, right, your team, yeah, which is you and ten other blokes, so eleven, or ladies, if youâÂÂre a lady, which youâÂÂre not, obviously, plus the substitutes, including the goalie and the substitute goalie if you have one, hang on,â he started.
âÂÂThereâÂÂs eleven of you, right, well not of you, but of your mates, or rather ten of your mates, plus you, and thereâÂÂs the manager, yeah, who stands on the side and tells you where to kick it, which is into the goal, not your goal but the other goal, and when you kick it into that goal youâÂÂve got one goal.âÂÂ
Noting Gould's confusion, an increasingly sweaty Bruce tried again.
âÂÂImagine this pencil is John Mensah, and this glass of port is Craig Gordon or sometimes Simon Mignolet. This chunk of brie, here, is offside. Would you like some brie? IâÂÂll just finish it off, then.âÂÂ
The former Manchester United defenderâÂÂs stumbling attempts to address the six-year-old continued for close to 20 minutes, and four further glasses of port, until a squirming Gould demanded to be allowed to watch Power Rangers.
BruceâÂÂs former captain at Sunderland, Lorik Cana, told FourFourTwo.com that Bruce had often struggled to communicate with his players at the Stadium of Light.
âÂÂDuring team-talks heâÂÂd shout out a lot of abstract nouns, like âÂÂpassionâÂÂ, and âÂÂdesireâÂÂ, and âÂÂsugarâÂÂ,â Cana recalled.
âÂÂOften his mouth would open and close, like a fleshy carp, with no sound coming out. Then heâÂÂd poke at a blackboard with a stick, even if nothing was written on it.
âÂÂHe spent one half-time just reciting the names of Pokemon characters, before bringing on Andy Reid for Lee Cattermole and shouting âÂÂCharmeleon, I choose you.âÂÂâÂÂ
At the time of writing, Bruce was struggling to explain the plot of Pokemon to his 78-year old mother.
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Back of the Net writer Paul Watson's book Up Pohnpei: A Quest to Reclaim the Soul of Football by Leading the World's Ultimate Underdogs to Glory is available now
