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Stan Collymore slaughters Mike Ashley decision to appoint Steve Bruce

5 years ago
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Stan Collymore thinks it is a joke that Mike Ashley chose Steve Bruce to follow Rafa Benitez.

Bruce appointed with just over three weeks to go until the new season kicks off.

Stan Collymore thinks Newcastle United is ‘like a rotting corpse’ under this owner and declares: ‘It’s almost like Ashley has looked at it and thought, ‘What appointment can we make to most upset our supporters?’…’

Collymore states ‘Bruce’s win-ratio is distinctly ­average at best’ but that is being kind, of the managers to takes charge of 250 or more Premier League games, only Bryan Robson (26%) has a worse win ratio than Steve Bruce (28%), the duo being the only two to win less than 30%.

The former Liverpool striker says that Steve Bruce is ‘not going to bring excitement or imagination’ to St James Park and his main criticism is that Mike Ashley has gone for an older outdated manager (Head Coach!), rather than looking at somebody younger with fresh ideas.

To be honest, I think Stan Collymore has got it right but only up to a point.

It isn’t the age of the new NUFC boss that is important.

After forcing Rafa Benitez out, to have any kind of credibility with his replacement, Mike Ashley had to appoint either a much talked about and tipped young up and coming manager OR an older more experienced one with a great track record.

Steve Bruce is an older appointment but has a shocking record in the Premier League – both in terms of win ratio (has won 110 of 392 PL games) and of points per game & goals for/against.

Somebody who would never have got a job offer at any other Premier League club this summer.

Stan Collymore writing in The Mirror – Headline and brief extracts from his article:

Steve Bruce offers management from the 1980s – his Newcastle appointment makes me angry

Steve Bruce’s appointment by Newcastle United makes me angry on behalf of every young coach out there.

He’s not going to bring excitement or imagination, and he’s not going to bring fresh, young signings to Tyneside, so what the hell is he doing there? It’s analogue football in a digital age for the Geordies under Bruce.

And I have had to wonder these past few days what Toon owner Mike Ashley thinks his new boss has done at Aston Villa and Sheffield Wednesday, however short a time he has been at Hillsborough, to warrant a crack at St James’ Park. Bruce’s win-ratio is distinctly ­average at best.

Younger managers such as Macclesfield’s Sol Campbell must be wondering what they must do to get a chance at a big club, ahead of the usual suspects like Bruce, Tony Pulis and Sam Allardyce.

The only explanation I can come up with is that Ashley is determined to keep finding ways of flicking V-signs at the Toon Army.

The football Bruce serves up is not what ­people spend their hard-earned ­money to watch.

Newcastle is like a rotting corpse and if I was a fan I’d think ‘stuff this’.

It’s almost like Ashley has looked at it and thought, ‘What appointment can we make to most upset our supporters?’

While Bruce will probably keep Newcastle up, it won’t be pretty. And for £500 or £600 a season, pretty football is the very least fans should be able to expect.’

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