Steve Bruce believes Paolo di Canio was sacked by Sunderland due to his old-fashioned management style.

Di Canio, whose appointment at the Stadium of Light caused shock due to his openly fascist views, was axed on Sunday with the Mackems rooted to the bottom of the Premier League table on just one point from five games.

“You cannot manage in the Premier League these days through a fear factor,” Bruce told Talksport. “You’ve got to be able to manage individuals. Man-management has become more relevant in my experience than coaching.

“Once you get yourself in the Premier League they’re all good players and you’ve got to find a way of getting the best out of them.

“It’s never been my style to criticise anyone in public and I’m disappointed for Paolo. He’s a character. A manager’s lost his job. Management is a lonely place and he’s lost his job this morning. I feel sorry for any manager in that position. I’ve gone through it and it’s not nice.”

Former Sunderland defender Michael Gray also claimed that di Canio had done himself no favours with his public criticism of certain players.

“I think that when you come in front of the camera and you criticise individual players, it’s something you’ve got to learn from, you can’t do that in this day and age,” he said.

“Dressing rooms can be very strong if you’ve got strong characters in there and Sunderland have certainly got that in the likes of John O’Shea, who’s the captain at the club. So when you come out and criticise him publicly that filters through to the rest of the players in the dressing room and I think when you start losing the players it can make it very hard for yourself.”

Sunderland have said they will decide on di Canio’s successor in “due course,” though a replacement is not expected before Sunday’s match against Liverpool.