Bruce’s replacement will no doubt be given the full financial backing like he and his predecessor Roy Keane were given. The usual names have so far been banded about and the current bookies favourites are Irishman Martin O’Neill and former Fulham manager Mark Hughes and are no strangers to splashing the cash.

Whilst at Celtic, O’Neill took full advantage of the financial backing of chairman Dermot Desmond signing England internationalists Chris Sutton and Steve Guppy, Wales hotshot John Hartson and also had the likes of Magnus Hedman and Didier Agathe on his transfer signings. This brought nothing but success to Parkhead as he lead the Bhoys to the UEFA Cup final in Seville, being defeated by Jose Mourinho’s FC Porto. Moving onto Aston Villa, O’Neill was once again carefree signing the likes of Stilian Petrov and Martin Laursen for the Villa Park faithful before departing under rather random circumstances.

Mark Hughes himself is no stranger to splashing the cash having been at Manchester City under Thaksin Shinawatra when their first money boom occurred. He is a solid candidate for the Stadium of Light job after steadying the Fulham ship after Roy Hodgson’s departure for Liverpool last season. He also achieved a great reputation as a man manager after his first stint in club football at Blackburn Rovers. However, following the untimely passing of Gary Speed, Hughes is being touted as a potential favourite to return to Wales hot seat in the not too distant future. Saying that, he has as of today thrown his hat into the ring for the Sunderland job and wishes to be considered for the top job.

Other names doing the rounds included Rafa Benitez, Carlo Ancellotti and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, all most likely to be popular choices due to their unquestionable pedigree. Benitez and Ancellotti both winning domestic honours in England and former Champions League Winners. Solskjaer recently winning the Norwegian League with Molde and obviously has contacts and knows the English game inside out. More names being touted are Lee Clark who is achieving considerable success with Huddersfield on a limited budget but is well known as a die hard Newcastle United fan. Other lower league options include Gus Poyet at Brighton and Preston manager Phil Brown but they are generally regarded as having no chance.

One thing is for sure, whoever gets the top job at the Stadium of Light will have some hell of a job on their hands. The fans in the North are well known as having short fuses and a run of bad results will no doubt put considerable prssure on the new manager if he don’t get off to a good start.

“This is easily the best squad I’ve had since I’ve been here,” he said. “They’re a delightful bunch to work with.  We’ve got good competition for places.  We have a group which hopefully we can keep hold of and have some stability over the next two to three years, which will be vital.”

Bruce has such strength in depth that he was able to leave out Lee Cattermole on Sunday and bring in David Vaughan, and Sunderland responded with a 4-0 victory over Stoke City. “I’m paid to make big decisions and Lee Cattermole and Jack Colback can feel hard done by because they have both contributed in their own way,” said Bruce.  “Vaughany keeps us ticking over in the middle of the pitch. He keeps the ball very, very well as we saw when he was with Blackpool last year. Against Stoke I knew that would be vitally important. He had a very good debut.”

Sunderland are strongly tipped for a top eight berth despite their slow start to the campaign, somewhere the Black cats have failed to reach since the 2000-2001 season when Peter Reid was manager and Chairman Niall Quinn was still on team sheet as a player.

Where do you think Sunderland will finish this year? Do they need more time before they can group as a team or do you feel a push for European places and/or a decent run in the cup is not beyond them? We want your views and comment below.

Comolli promised fans that there will be plenty more additions over the course of the summer after obtaining the services of number one target  Henderson, who joined Liverpool this week in a deal reportedly worth up to £20 million, as the 20-year old became Kenny Daglish’s third major signing since returning in January.

Comolli has insisted Henderson will  not be the last of the new blood and that there will be more to come, agreeing with conceptions that there is now an emphasis on keeping things English at the club, after several foreign players failed to make the grade over the last few years. ”If a player is English, or British or has played in the Premier League, we’ll look at that over someone abroad,” confirmed Comolli. “We go for a player because he ticks all the boxes. It’s what we need at this time in this window, and we have seen that with Henderson.”

On the acquisition of Ex- Sunderland man Henderson, Comolli said “I’m very pleased, because Jordan was one of the big targets we had. When you get your first target it’s always a good sign because you think the others will come through as well. We know we are building for the future, a bit like with Luis and Andy in January, but we are also signing a player who is going to be effective from day one.”

Liverpool now look set to miss out on Ashley Young to Manchester United, but with promising players such as Ipswich’s Connor Wickham and Blackpool captain Charlie Adam also on their radar, it is clear they are prioritising homegrown talent.

Comolli believes the opportunity to learn and eventually replace Steven Gerrard was a key factor in Henderson making the switch to Anfield. “Stevie was very positive because obviously they have been together in the England camp. I know Jordan really appreciated the fact he was able to play next to Stevie with England. He will learn from players like Jamie Carragher or Stevie or Dirk Kuyt.”

So who’s next to join the revolution at Anfeild? Who do Liverpool now need to become real contenders for Champions League football again? We want your ideas below.

Henderson, 20, has been strongly linked with a move away from the Stadium of Light in recent weeks, with Manchester United also believed to be interested. However, it would appear Kenny Dalglish has beat Sir Alex Ferguson to Henderson’s signature.

It is reported that Liverpool striker David Ngog will make the move to Sunderland as part of the deal which will see the Black Cats receive somewhere in the region of £15 million.

Henderson, who made his England debut at the end of last year, is considered by many, including myself, as one of the hottest prospects in the Premier League.

This, in my opinion, is a magnificent deal for Liverpool. Henderson will, in time, be a regular in the England set-up and I believe he what it takes to become a real fan favourite amongst the Anfield faithful.

The deal will in all probability be completed before Henderson leaves England as part of the under-21 squad who travel to Denmark to take part in the European Championships.

Keen to hear what you have to say on this one. Comments below please.

That’s what the Daily Mail are reporting today.

Surely the 20-year old is worth a little more than £13 million.

Thoughts?

Keane, 29, left Tottenham back in January to spend the rest of this season on loan at Scottish giants side Celtic and in fairness to him, he has been scoring for fun in what has been a largely disappointing season for the Glasgow club.

With Tottenham now having 4 quality strikers on their books in the form of Jermain Defoe, Peter Crouch, Roman Pavlyuchenko and Eidur Gudjohnsen, it is thought that Keane has no future at White Hart Lane and should a bid of around £8 million come in for him, he will be sent packing.

Sunderland boss Steve Bruce is understood to be very keen on the former Wolves, Coventry, Inter Milan, Leeds and Liverpool striker. With Darren Bent currently banging in the goals for the Black Cats, I reckon the pair, who used to play together at Tottenham, could form a decent partnership at the Stadium of Light.

Martin O’Neill is also believed to be keen to bring Keane to Villa Park, however it remains to be seen whether O’Neill will still be in charge at Aston Villa come the start of next season. There has been talk that O’Neill and Villa owner, Randy Lerner, no longer see eye to eye with one another and that O’Neill’s departure may be imminent.

I’m keen to hear what you have to say on this one. Will Keane leave Tottenham this summer for new club number 9? Comments below please.

The Spanish international has now scored an incredible 18 Premier League goals this season despite the fact he has been out injured for several games.

I have to say, I preferred his first goal this afternoon but having said that I cannot deny how impressed I was with his second. I really am running out of words to describe Torres, so I want you to sum him up in just three words.

Whenever we do this feature we always seem to get a good response so I would love if we can get another flood of comments.

Tell us your three words by leaving a comment below. I’ll have a go at putting three words together : Simply world class.

Anyway, Sunderland.

Steve Bruce’s men fell to their 12th defeat of the season this afternoon at the hands of Arsenal. The North-East club are now just 3 points above the drop zone and I am sure the majority of Sunderland fans would not have envisaged that at the start of the season.

The last time Sunderland won a Premier League game was way back in November when they welcomed today’s opponents Arsenal to the Stadium of Light. That’s exactly three months ago since Sunderland tasted victory and if they don’t get their act together soon, they could find themselves in the Championship next season.

With just 12 games to go, Sunderland have some tricky fixtures between now and May with Manchester United, Liverpool, Manchester City, Aston Villa and Tottenham all still to come for the Black Cats.

The majority of bookmakers have Sunderland around 6/1 to be relegated this season and to be honest, I feel that’s actually a very generous price considering the way they are playing at the moment.

What do you think? Comments below please.