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Opinion

Steve Bruce really scrapes bottom of the barrel with new Rafa Benitez dig ahead of Burnley

4 years ago
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Steve Bruce, what a man.

What a career in management over the course of 20+ years.

Do you remember sitting there in pure admiration season after season, watching his teams play brilliant football.

Do you remember that as well as entertainment and goal, goals, goals, how he brought such stellar success to Sheffield United, Hudderfield, Wigan, Palace, Birmingham, Wigan, Sunderland, Hull, Aston Villa and Sheffield Wednesday.

Do you remember thinking/dreaming I wish he was at Newcastle United?

No, me neither.

The bloke is a total chancer, just like his mate/boss.

They should be both working down the market, giving you all the patter and showing you all the quality produce they have, then you get home and find a load of rotten fruit and veg that they piled in as they distracted you.

The latest rotten ‘fruit and veg’ Steve Bruce has served up, was at his pre-Burnley press conference on Friday…

Steve Bruce as reported by Craig Hope of The Mail:

“When I walked through the door they were used to playing a certain way and I didn’t want to change that.

“It was evident they were quite comfortable in what they had done before (under Rafa Benitez).

“They’d had a degree of success in the second half of last season, if that’s what you want to call it…

“But I have said from day one, it is not the way I want to play.

“It is glaringly obvious we don’t score enough.

“So if changing is a new era, then we will try.”

He really is a piece of work, Steve Bruce that is, not Craig Hope.

This season has been full of sly digs, particularly at Rafa Benitez, but also the supporters as well.

Steve Bruce is honestly shameless: ‘It was evident they were quite comfortable in what they had done before (under Rafa Benitez). They’d had a degree of success in the second half of last season, if that’s what you want to call it…’

Honestly, Bruce isn’t fit to kiss Rafa’s feet never mind lace his boots.

The highlight of Steve Bruce’s managerial career is losing an FA Cup final (after playing only one Premier League club (Sunderland!) on the way to the final) and his European career as a manager consists of one season when in 2014 Hull went out of the Europa League in August!

Steve Bruce is typical of a person finding himself in a job that is far too much for him and which he should never have been offered (no other PL club would have considered him) and who then ends up pointing the finger of blame at everybody/anything but himself.

We have already seen him blame Rafa Benitez, the players, the fans, the fixture list, a shortened winter break (due to him not managing to beat League One Oxford at home) and so on.

Bruce’s sly comments above, especially about the improvement in the second half of last season, as Bruce puts it, the ‘success…if that’s what you want to call it…’

Mike Ashley made Rafa’s job so difficult (impossible?) in summer 2018 (a £20m+ transfer profit etc and Rondon only signed very late after no proper pre-season), ensuring the start of the season would be such a massive challenge.

Despite that, after getting the first 10 games out of the way, this is what Rafa Benitez did in his final 28 matches of the 2018/19 season:

That’s right, eighth best form in the Premier League.

Then in the final 16 games of last season:

Yes, the fifth best form in the top tier.

Of course, how would Steve Bruce even know what success looks like? It isn’t like he has ever seen any as a manager, is it?

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