Bruce: Muntari future not decided

Sunderland manager Steve Bruce has revealed he is yet to make a decision on Sulley Muntari’s future at the club.

Muntari is currently on loan from Inter Milan and he scored a last minute winner in Sunderland’s 2-1 win over Bolton to cement his side’s place in the Premier League for another season.

And Bruce says he will decide whether to make a permanent offer for Muntari at the end of the season.

“Nothing has been finalised as yet – we will make a decision at the end of the season,” he said.

“I think the problem with Sulley is that he failed to play for six months. When he came he had not played.”

“He is now at the fitness levels required for the Premier League but we all know he is a very decent footballer. We needed a bit of luck – we had a dreadful run with the injuries and the results.”

Bolo Zenden opened the scoring for Bruce’s men before Ivan Klasnic’s equaliser on 87 minutes seemed to have earned Owen Coyle’s men a point.

But Muntari’s goal secured survival for Sunderland and now Bruce wants to push on.

“We had to stop Sunderland from being a yo-yo club. We have completed four years so the first task is hand,” Bruce said.

“We have established ourselves but now the next step is the most difficult one – to get into the top 10. It’s very difficult though.

“Bolton has been a good ground to me in the past but to get the win in the manner we did was good.”

Bolton manager Owen Coyle blamed his side for being wasteful,saying his side deserved something from the game.

“We started slowly, the first 25 minutes or so but from there, we had so many chances before half time to get in front,” he said.

“We never took them and if truth be told, we were aggrieved.”

Coyle, whose side were thrashed 5-0 by Stoke in the FA Cup semi finals recently, had no complaints when Zenden opened the scoring but he was furious with his side for failing to get back into the game quick enough.

He added: “Zenden scored a good goal and we have no problem with that and all of a sudden, we were 1-0 down. But we came out second half and we had such guilt-edged chances.”

“Sunderland defended with their lives but on another day, we should have won two or three nil – we were punished. To get no points is hugely frustrating. Sunderland got the luck today.”