Steve Bruce - ''At Sunderland I Don't Have To Sell My Best Players''


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Remember when Steve Bruce said one of the main reasons he joined Sunderland was because he wouldn't have to sell his best players? He also said that he was growing tired of unearthing cracking players and having them sold as soon as a bigger club became interested.

Well, it'll certainly be interesting to see what happens with Jordan Henderson and the interest in him from the bigger clubs, taking the above comments into consideration.
 
He doesn't have to sell them unless the player wants to leave. Not sure Henderson will want to go just yet.
 
He doesn't have to sell them unless the player wants to leave. Not sure Henderson will want to go just yet.

This. He won't have to sell them to balance the books and keep the chairman happy like he did at Wigan.

He will have to sell them if they become too good for us and want to leave.
 
If Bruce thinks he gets offered huge money which means he can further strengthen the team/squad by selling one individual then he'll do it but it will be his choice, don't think he'll be forced to do it. TBH, if we get offered silly money that pays for 2 or 3 quality players it would make sense to do it.
 
Seeing as we are happy to pay £13M or £16M for a player, I don't necessarily see £20M as a "too good to refuse" offer. As previous posters have said - it will ultimately be down to whether Henderson wants to go. He's a sensible lad, but an ambitious one.
 
Tbf if an offer came in over £20m we would be daft to turn it down. Obviously Id like the lad to stay, but money like that could get us 3 real quality players that will cement our place in the top 8, possibly top 6
 
no he does not have to but even man U realise when it is best to
 
Bruce has already said that if Real Madrid came in with £30m it will be difficult to keep him. Everyone has his price.

I don't see Henderson going until the summer tbh. If we have exceeded our expectations and managed to nick into Europe, We might hang onto him, but I doubt either would happen, but you never know. I didn't see us beating Chelsea either.
 
One edge that we have is a fairly large amount of English-bred players, that makes Henderson worth more to others than he is to us. So if someone over-bids (as most have said) it would be worth us taking if it was significant enough to bring in a two or three top draw players.
 
Bruce has already said that if Real Madrid came in with £30m it will be difficult to keep him. Everyone has his price.

I don't see Henderson going until the summer tbh. If we have exceeded our expectations and managed to nick into Europe, We might hang onto him, but I doubt either would happen, but you never know. I didn't see us beating Chelsea either.

I think/hope this is right. I can't see a deal that big happening in January, for starters.

Amongst other things, I think Henderson needs to be playing regular first team football at this stage of his career (so many other players have screwed up their development by moving too early) and the best place for that is at Sunderland. At both Manchester clubs, he'd, at best, be in and out of the team.

Somebody mentioned Arsenal earlier in the thread BTW. I'm presuming that's guesswork because there's no need for them to sign Henderson at all given the young midfield talent they have.
 
Somebody mentioned Arsenal earlier in the thread BTW. I'm presuming that's guesswork because there's no need for them to sign Henderson at all given the young midfield talent they have.

it was me - Chelsea have been the club Sunderland thought would be putting a bid in for a while now. it seems the others have come about after the Chelsea interest.

if Arsenal or Man Utd wanted him he would be mad to turn them down but I can understand if he didn't want to go to Chelsea or Man City.
 
it was me - Chelsea have been the club Sunderland thought would be putting a bid in for a while now. it seems the others have come about after the Chelsea interest.

if Arsenal or Man Utd wanted him he would be mad to turn them down but I can understand if he didn't want to go to Chelsea or Man City.

That's fair enough! I'm the same about both Chelsea and Man City (especially the latter given the problems there currently and the transient nature of their squad).
 
It annoys me when it is assumed that a clubs good players have to be sold to one of the 'superior' teams in the league.

If we do have aspirations to challenge we need to hold on to our young, good players and sell them the vision of us being one of the top clubs, and them being a key part in it.

We should be building our team slowly to be able to move up a level (challenging for a Europa league space), and then build on that to be able to challenge the top four.

To do this, we need to continue to do what Bruce has been doing. Selling on the players who have served us well, and are not able to take the step up with us. We should not be selling our most talented players or our best prospects, unless we are compensated with a deal that is weighted massively in our favour. We should also as a club be sure that we have a replacement player already lined up who is wiling to come to us.
For example, it would be no good selling Bent for 20 million, because who are we going to be able to get who would be better than him for that price.

I guess what I'm saying is that Bruce should be keeping hold of Henderson, as who would we get to come to us better than him who the top group of clubs wouldn't also be in for
 
Judging by all the different posts and reports, Hendo's price seems to be pegged around 16 mill. At that price I'd keep him.
If I recall, Bruce said some two weeks ago that an offer would have to be over 20mill at least..stick to your guns Brucie, at 20 mill, we could buy 2 decent midfielders, Hendo would go to a bigger club and better potential as well as a huge increase on his take-home and everyone would be comparitively happy...less than 20 mill and I'd suggest we've been had!
 
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