• The first stage of the forum upgrades has now been completed but they remain in a degraded state and are still being worked on.
    Please read this thread for more details.
    New user registrations are currently disabled.

David Bruce leaving SAFC

Not really happy with this or speakman leaving earlier. But many seem to say it’s all good and to be honest I have no idea what goes on behind the scenes so I’ll trust the process but it seems we’re shedding people who were instrumental in getting us where we are…. Time will tell as they say
 

GavFTM said:
In my eyes CEO and CBO are different roles. I think the role David played was a hybrid of operations and commercial, with more of a leaning towards the commercial side. CEO is more about long term strategy and direction, CBO seemed to be more day to day activities / short term impact.

If I was on the board I’d be a bit worried about continuity here and even if the long term plan was for the CEO to take the reigns completely and have his own team I’d still have David for at least a year as he understands the club well and seems to have a good reputation. I’m certainly a little bit surprised by it.

I can’t help getting a niggling feeling of heading back to the Margaret Byrne / Gary the Hair era when Short took a step back and we had self-interested people making the big decisions and we all know how that ended up. I do hope not though.
Click to expand...

I hear you but Byrne and Hutchinson just happened to be in the right place at right time. There was nothing strategic about their appointments. They were never qualified for the roles both before or after their tenure.
Rest assured that whilst the decisions being made we might not agree with, the replacements will be qualified
 
NathanL91 said:
Our entire model is built around player trading for this eventuality.

I’m sure the incoming CEO will be a professional operator who will drive revenue and the organisation forward.

But that’s a completely different mindset, and almost certainly a different relationship with the club.

Bruce was a fan who happened to be very good at the job. That combination is irreplaceable.
Click to expand...
Paragraph 2, you’ve nailed it
If you want to kick on in the pre bier league revenues created is massive
If they are upgrading the position then it can only be positive
Has anyone considered Bruce may be happy with this outcome?
 
not spavin said:
I met Bruce a few years ago who when he was at MLS - he was speaking at an event and I got chatting to him afterwards.

A great bloke, clearly very good at what he does and a proper, dyed-in-the-wool Sunderland supporter. I was delighted to see him end up at the club and I think he has done and extraordinary job. Really sad to hear this.
Click to expand...
My wife's cousin has fancy seats in the Director's Box at QPR and he invited me to the SAFC game last year (look at me!).

Two of the lads sat next to us when the bait was served had been pals with him since they were kids, so got introduced to DB. Had a good chat and was hugely impressed with him. He's done a great job. Sad to see him go. Wish him all the best in his next role. Whoever takes over his job (whether a new CEO or whatever) has a lot to live up to.
 
Worth remembering that we just heard last week about the impending arrival of a new Head of Business Insights - whose last role was largely doing marketing and digital growth for Scottish Rugby. Might have seen the connection, but hindsight’s a wonderful thing. He’ll no doubt take those elements of Bruce’s job at a below-boardroom level, while the CEO role doesn’t deal with any of that.
 
Honess10 said:
Not really happy with this or speakman leaving earlier. But many seem to say it’s all good and to be honest I have no idea what goes on behind the scenes so I’ll trust the process but it seems we’re shedding people who were instrumental in getting us where we are…. Time will tell as they say
Click to expand...

It’s similar to the playing side really, we’ve moved on lads who got us out of league one and the championship and replaced them with better.

We’re doing that off the field as well. Gotta trust the owner and those running the club
 
Mowgli said:
Ghisolfi was rumoured to have brought some people in iirc.
Click to expand...
The people who say we haven’t replaced x with y. The club is vastly different now.

When we had Mowbray you had

KLD
Davison
Speakman
Harvey

And that was it really. I’d imagine our staff count and roles are hugely different now and we’ll have better staff in position but they won’t be front and centre.

It’s comparing apples to oranges.
 
Tony Towers Fanclub said:
My wife's cousin has fancy seats in the Director's Box at QPR and he invited me to the SAFC game last year (look at me!).

Two of the lads sat next to us when the bait was served had been pals with him since they were kids, so got introduced to DB. Had a good chat and was hugely impressed with him. He's done a great job. Sad to see him go. Wish him all the best in his next role. Whoever takes over his job (whether a new CEO or whatever) has a lot to live up to.
Click to expand...
His mates are all nice lads
 
Last edited:
mikem said:
Worth remembering that we just heard last week about the impending arrival of a new Head of Business Insights - whose last role was largely doing marketing and digital growth for Scottish Rugby. Might have seen the connection, but hindsight’s a wonderful thing. He’ll no doubt take those elements of Bruce’s job at a below-boardroom level, while the CEO role doesn’t deal with any of that.
Click to expand...

No mags , thank you
 
vinegar hill said:
Can’t say I’m 100% happy with this.
He was one of us and on top of that and more importantly he was good at his job.
I just hope we get someone who understands what we’re about, we’ve had too many people who don’t.
In the last week in the hierarchy we’ve employed a Mag and lost a Mackem.
Click to expand...
A Mag?
 
vinegar hill said:
We employed a fella the other week upstairs who’s a Mag.
Click to expand...
Really? Fuck’s sake man.

You still get all of this in the media about “connection” between club and fans well, I hope they know what they’re doing.

DB did little things that fans could connect with - Hummel - I’m not a fan, personally but plenty are just being one example. The debacle with the lads and lasses over the Mags tickets isn’t a good sign so I sincerely hope that connection isn’t lost - though I have a feeling it may well be and we’ll be just another set of Premier League Customers.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top