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Steve Bruce knows his sacking is ‘close to inevitable’ – Mike Ashley pet journalist

4 years ago
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Steve Bruce is in the spotlight.

Everybody has an opinion on what should happen with the Newcastle United Head Coach.

Attention seeking journalists and pundits, who want to be provocative, saying Steve Bruce has to be kept on after the takeover and given a chance.

Whilst Newcastle fans want shot of Mike Ashley’s latest patsy as soon a possible, so that a credible and better quality replacement, with a track record of achievement can start to help rebuild a club ravaged by 13 years of Ashley neglect.

Now Mike Ashley’ pet journalist (always pushing Ashley’s agenda and willing to put out his PR statements), Martin Samuel of The Mail, has had his say.

He says that Steve Bruce ‘certainly deserves his chance’ once the Saudi PIF bid has succeeded.

On the other hand, Ashley’s mate says: ‘Steve Bruce sees his departure in the coming months as close on inevitable. He’s been around long enough. He knows how this works.’

Obviously we are hearing this same baseless claim from all those who have taken great pleasure in backing Mike Ashley’ unscrupulous running of Newcastle United and/or winding up fans for a reaction.

If you take this idea of those currently at the club deserving a chance after the takeover, then nothing would change. Why buy new players without giving all of the current first eleven their chance first. Or if you want to take it to really ridiculous lengths, surely then Lee Charnley deserves his chance…

Steve Bruce turns 60 this year and has never achieved anything of note in his entire managerial career. We have to aspire to something more than a manager whose highlights have been the odd promotion and not relegating clubs too often, we have had 13 years of that with Mike Ashley, a succession of the likes of JFK, McClaren, Carver, Pardew and Bruce who would never have got a job at another Premier League club when they got the Newcastle post.

Martin Samuel says that: ‘Bruce has done a good job at Newcastle, with limited resources. The club broke its transfer record last summer, paying £40million for Joelinton, but that has transpired to be a poor investment, meaning Bruce kept Newcastle clear of trouble with much the same group that struggled last season.’

The bottom line is that, as all fans know, Newcastle are only not in a relegation place because of amazing luck in a host of matches, all the stats apart from the scoreline saying that NUFC should have lost, only to pick up undeserved points from wins and draws.

Samuel says ‘the same group that struggled last season’ but that is simply not true. Mike Ashley messed around and undermined Rafa Benitez so badly in summer 2018, insisting on making a £20m+ transfer profit and even only allowing a loan for Rondon in the very final stages of the transfer window, it made the start of the season incredibly difficult.

However, once Rondon and others got properly fit and integrated, especially Rafa’s loan and bargain buys, Newcastle had the eighth best form in the Premier League over the final 28 games. Even better, once at last Rafa was allowed to add some pace up front with Almiron arriving, Newcastle had the fifth best form in the final 16 PL matches of 2018/19…

It was the same with goals, the fifth highest number of goals compared to the rest in the final 16 matches, Rafa team scoring 26 in those games.

Compare that to Steve Bruce’s paltry 25 in 29 PL games this season, nobody has scored less.

This despite Mike Ashley backing Bruce with an £80m front trio (including Almiron).

Rafa Benitez repeatedly said that whilst you could get by in other areas of the team by finding some bargains, you had to invest some proper money to get the necessary pace and quality up front. What could Rafa have achieved if able to spend £80m on the front line, to add to the disciplined defence and decent central midfielders he had helped develop on a budget, especially the budding  Sean Longstaff and Isaac Hayden partnership he put together.

The man from The Mail does though bizarrely also admit that whilst defending / pushing Steve Bruce, that the likes of Pochettino ahead of Bruce is simply common sense: ‘They are a team that need to be built, he (Pochettino) is a coach that loves building. They are desperate to win a trophy, and so is he after repeated near misses at Tottenham. It all makes sense…We understand the appeal of Pochettino and Newcastle. We know the message it sends, and why it changes the dynamic. Yet it is possible to know all that, and still feel sorry for Bruce.’

Scraping around for crumbs / scraps to back up Steve Bruce’s reputation, Samuel says: ‘He has done a good, or reasonable, job at just about every club he has managed, including Newcastle. He must know a player.’

The facts are that the last Premier League job Steve Bruce landed before Newcastle, was Sunderland back in 2009. No other PL club would have employed Bruce last summer and if he is sacked now, no other PL club would take him on.

He won the lottery when Mike Ashley gave him the job and that decision was made simply because he would do as he was told and accepted he had no power in any important matters.

Once these new Newcastle United owners take charge, we can at last look forward to a club where appointments / decisions are at last made for the right reasons. It is not a guarantee of success but at last Newcastle will have their chance of progress and dreaming of silverware.

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