Robbie Savage with latest Steve Bruce nonsense – Is he really so simple he actually believes this?

Robbie Savage is at it again.

The limited football player who has become an even more limited football ‘expert’ / pundit, having a go at Newcastle fans and bigging up Steve Bruce and his ‘achievements’…

Robbie Savage is just like that worst drunk at closing time, rambling on incessantly with lots of words BUT incapable of stringing them together to make any kind of sense to a normal reasonable person.

Robbie Savage a complete mess with his ramblings yet again (see some of the previous nonsense this season from Robbie Savage below) as he tries to argue black is white where Steve Bruce is concerned.

Articles such as this latest (16 April 2021) Robbie Savage one in The Mirror, are cringeworthy, here are a few highlights from it…:

‘Steve Bruce is a decent man, a decent manager and loves Newcastle United.

But one way or another, I fear his days at St James’ Park are numbered and it might be best for all concerned if they part company this summer – because the atmosphere around the club has become too toxic.

He loves Newcastle United, he cares about the club and he is a human being.

Fans who yearn for the days of swashbuckling, attacking football under Kevin Keegan and Sir Bobby Robson need to accept those days are gone.

The reality, for most of the last 12 years, is that Newcastle have operated largely in the bottom half of the Premier League and they were relegated twice. That’s not Steve Bruce’s fault.

Owner Mike Ashley is not going to throw hundreds of millions of pounds at the transfer market when he is trying to sell the club.

Bruce has been operating within limited tramlines, and if his bottom line was to keep Newcastle in the top flight, he is within sight of mission accomplished.

His critics are keen to point out that his win percentage as Newcastle (29.6%) equals the lowest of his career (at Sunderland), and it is true that he is no Pep, Klopp, Fergie or Wenger.

But when you look at the clubs he’s managed – Wigan, Hull, Birmingham, Sunderland, Newcastle – they were never going to sweep all before them and march into Europe every year.

You don’t clock up nearly 1,000 games as a manager, more than half of them in the Premier League, if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Newcastle United fans are a fantastic and loyal bunch. Deep down, I’m sure the decent majority of them know Bruce loves the club as much as they do, even if the style of football has not been great.

I’m not saying Bruce should walk away, and I hope he sticks around long enough to win over the doubters – but it might be for the best if club and manager part company.

Then, for everyone’s sake and the prevailing appetite for a fresh start, he can leave Tyneside with his head held high, because the bottom line is this: Steve Bruce is not the most iconic manager, but he knows his way around a football pitch.

And most importantly of all, he’s a decent man.

Honestly, it is simply ludicrous that Robbie Savage is given all that air time and column inches to come out with such a load of nonsense that has no basis in fact or logic.

When did being a ‘decent man’ ever become part of evaluating how a manager has performed? Surely we can only judge Steve Bruce on results and performances like every other manager, whether at Newcastle or elsewhere. For that matter, Robbie Savage needs to tell us exactly who all these ‘indecent’ men are who have managed Newcastle and other clubs.

Loving Newcastle United is not something that means you are the right person to be manager. I believe 100% that John Carver loves Newcastle and Newcastle United more than any other place / club BUT he should never have been within a million miles of the job. Neither should Steve Bruce (have been within a million miles of the job), though nobody can convince me that he loves NUFC more than Man Utd.

Robbie Savage says Steve Bruce has been financially handicapped and ‘operating within limited tramlines’…Rafa Benitez was allowed zero net spend in his time at Newcastle but finished 10th and 13th, Steve Bruce inherited a mid-table team that had the fifth best form in the Premier League in Rafa’s final 16 games and the eighth best form in the final 28 PL matches, Bruce then allowed a net spend on signings of over £100m and has Newcastle in 17th place, only seemingly set to survive because Fulham have been so terrible.

Robbie Savage says the fact Steve Bruce has had so many matches (461) as a Premier League manager is some kind of proof he is a very good manager. He doesn’t mention though that Bruce has the very worst record of any manager that has been allowed this many games in the top tier. Steve Bruce only winning 129 of those matches, meaning he has failed to win over 72% of those 461 matches. Exactly the same in the Newcastle part of his PL career, Steve Bruce failing to win 72.47% of NUFC PL games, winning only 27.53% of them.

Robbie Savage accuses Newcastle fans of still expecting Champions League football which is nonsense, nothing wrong with supporters hoping that could happen again one day (as West Ham fans are currently set to see their team do next season and the likes of Leicester fans already have in recent times), but how does that then mean 17th (or worse) is some kind of an achievement for Steve Bruce??? Bruce himself said he was aiming top half. Why wouldn’t he have done after inheriting Rafa’s team with the seventh best defence in the Premier League in both 2017/18 and 2018/19, then be allowed over £100m net spend to add to that?

Down below is some of Robbie Savage’s previous this season.

Robbie Savage speaking on BBC 5 Live’s 606 programme – Saturday 16 January 2021:

“Newcastle are playing dreadful and I have done a thing this week saying that I believe Newcastle are in a relegation battle.

“The stick that me and [Chris Sutton] get on social media is ridiculous.

“We have never said Steve Bruce is a great manager, we have never said that.

“I never said that Newcastle would get in a Champions League place…they are not playing well, it is not great to watch.

“Steve Bruce says his remit is to stay in the Premier League and edge forward and  if that’s his remit, I think he will keep you up, although it will be tough.

“It is not great to watch.

“Sheffield United – it was pretty woeful to watch, even Steve Bruce has come out and said that.

“So we’re not saying that Bruce is a great manager.

 “I would say I have watched two thirds of Newcastle’s games this season.

“They have the least possession and I know Darlow makes all the saves, I know all the stats.”

Robbie Savage talking to The Mirror – 15 November 2020:

“Steve Bruce would never send his team out to sit back – and Newcastle United will never be a boring club.”

“Newcastle United have been relegated twice in the last 11 years. Surely they would prefer Bruce’s know-how to going down again?”

“The reality is Newcastle are not going to go down under Bruce – yet teams who finish below them in the table could get more praise. It’s a strange old world.”

“Right now, Newcastle are above Leeds United in the Premier League table, yet everyone raves about Marcelo Bielsa’s team being easy on the eye. Leeds have just lost 4-1 in back-to-back games, but nobody accuses them of being boring.

If you asked me now whether Leeds or Newcastle were more likely to go down (and I don’t think either of them will be relegated), I would say Leeds.”

Maybe the very most embarrassing thing that Robbie Savage said, was surely this: ‘The stick that me and [Chris Sutton] get on social media is ridiculous.’

Week in week out when the NUFC performances were shocking but Steve Bruce was still sneaking enough points to make things on the surface look respectable, we had the two 606 presenters trolling Newcastle fans time after time.

So much so that the excellent Jake Humphrey (a Norwich fan and TV presenter) felt duty bound to call the likes of Robbie Savage and Chris Sutton out for their pathetic behaviour.

Such a rare thing, a TV presenter / pundit with integrity, on Sunday 20 December 2020, after Newcastle were totally outplayed the previous day at home by relegation favourites Fulham, Jake Humphrey had had enough…

That followed this social media trolling of Newcastle fans by Robbie Savage and Chris Sutton, the night before (Saturday 19 December 2020) via Twitter:

and this…

Whilst a week earlier as Steve Bruce and Newcastle got lucky at home with a late goal after another really poor performance against another of the three relegation favourites (West Brom), we had this…

…and this

Having this pre-planned anti-Newcastle fans agenda says everything about Robbie Savage and Chris Sutton.

Whilst articles such as this latest (16 April 2021) Robbie Savage one in The Mirror, are cringeworthy, with Savage a complete mess with his ramblings as he tries to argue black is white where Steve Bruce is concerned.