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Opinion

‘Steve Bruce isn’t hell bent on trying to beat Rafa’s stats – Just get behind him for once’

4 years ago
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I was interested to read the article by Dale Thompson about Steve Bruce on Thursday morning, the one entitled: ‘Nailed on Steve Bruce could wreck Newcastle next season in mad pursuit of beating Rafa – This is where we are now’

A well-written article, with some good points raised.

I agree with the need to give some of the fringe players more time on the park in these games after the Premier League restart.

However,  I disagree with the notion that Steve Bruce is hell bent on trying to beat Rafa’s stats.

Steve Bruce is a seasoned professional, who has played and operated in the highest footballing circles. I think he’s above trying to beat Rafa.

He was no doubt a better player than most of today’s ‘top managers’ but has not enjoyed any notable managerial success to date.

I don’t think any proud Geordie can blame Steve for taking the poisoned chalice of managing a club that has always been dear to his heart. He clearly has bottle!

A club/team that has for many years tended to under-perform, a team who has buckled under the pressure from fanatical supporters, to achieve something to be proud of. A team devoid of ‘big players’ who can handle these expectations and be motivated by this pressure.
We have some ‘donkeys’ in the side; players like Joelinton, Lascelles and Manquillo (70% of the time), to name a few. The sooner we bin them, the better!

Not being involved in the running of the club, I couldn’t (neither can most of you guys that write in and complain about it) accurately comment on the spate of injuries at the club, but surely it can’t all be down to Steve Bruce

It sounds (to me anyway), that we need to change out the coaching/fitness staff, and get people in who can apply a more scientific approach to solving the regular occurrences of our prized thoroughbreds being out injured so much of the time.

I think that Rafa used these principles, and was able to have more players available!

Rafa Benitez was by no means perfect but I was delighted that we had a big name managing our club, although his sides kept their shape like a bunch of well-drilled robots, we didn’t get anywhere, and resigned ourselves to playing negative football.

As I mentioned earlier; the poisoned chalice of managing Newcastle, would test the sanity of the strongest amongst us. Attracting top players to the north-east has never been easy. We cannot compete with the bright lights of London, and our weather’s rubbish etc etc.

Just get behind Steve Bruce for once.

I’m sure if he had a bunch of world class players, and I don’t think we even have one at the moment, apart from Dubravka, we would have a better story to tell.

Who knows, if we eventually do get bought out, we might attract some top players by offering them the proverbial ‘silly money’.

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