Stoke City boss Tony Pulis has sympathy for Steve Bruce as he battles to turn results around at Sunderland.
The Wearside outfit head into Sunday's Barclays Premier League clash with Stoke at the Stadium of Light with the pressure on Bruce, but Potters boss Pulis is confident his counterpart will not let Sunderland get stuck in a rut and that he and the club "will be fine".
Pulis said: "Steve Bruce is a great manager, he is at a great club and you have difficult times - that is management, it is a really difficult job.
"The aspirations of people connected with clubs now is far beyond what most people can achieve but that is the way we live our lives.
"Expectations and aspirations of fans at every club up and down the country far exceed what is reality in lots of respects, but you have to deal with it and manage it.
"Ninety per cent is managing expectations but you have to do it if you want to be in it.
"Steve and the club will be fine. He is a strong and competent person who will enjoy the challenge.
"You need a bit of time to bed in new players. He's been unlucky with John O'Shea's injury and the situation with Asamoah Gyan, but that happens.
"He won't want me trying to tell him what to do.
"Football is like life, it goes up and down. You have to take the good times and bad times and deal with them in the same way."
